By Michael Luce
It’s interesting how a crowd can make or break a night of BotB. There’s a world of a difference between crowds that are responsive, selectively responsive, and those that are downright unresponsive.
I think the best word to describe last night’s crowd was ‘disengaged.’ There was very little dancing, bopping, or jumping for most of the night, despite the groups bringing some great energy. There was also a lot of chatter throughout the night, prompting multiple instances of the infamous Velour ShushTM. Fortunately, the bands were up to the task and put on a great show despite the unique circumstances.
Spirit Machines
Opening the night is an unenviable task, especially when the audience literally needs to defrost from the cold December air, but Spirit Machines showed they were game. Their sound borrows from a lot of the classic hard rock greats like Guns & Roses but has just a touch of soul in there too. The other Utah group I could compare them to is SoulFang, though I guess doing so would probably be silly because I’m pretty sure the groups literally share members.
Their set was tight, showcasing some neat songwriting and polished chops, all mixed together with a borderline theatrical stage presence. While I do wish there had been greater dynamic variety, their deep rumbling bass and the infectiously positive vibes from singer Pepper Rose were a delicious way to start the evening. Seriously, Rose is one of the most charismatically charming performers I’ve seen in a while.
I think the next step for Spirit Machines is really honing in on what makes them stand out from other bands with a similar sound. They’re incredible as is (they wouldn’t have been featured on a Cyberpunk 2077 compilation if they weren’t); they’re just one step away from finding that ‘it’ factor that’s really going to make them pop.
CAYSN
All four bands were well-polished in their performances, and CAYSN was no exception. The band kicked off their set with a riff that seemed to answer Spirit Machines’ harder rock edge before slipping into their more typical Provocore-adjacent sound. Their set bounced around different styles, offering a nice variety while still maintaining a strong core sound. They also had some great onstage antics, especially the lead guitarist. Half the time he was spinning in place or (literally) butting heads with the other members, and it was rather entertaining. Occasionally these antics weren’t fully coordinated between the band members, leading to a couple of laughs.
Their final song, “Killing Me Slowly,” was a truly special moment last night. Lead singer Caysen Wright stepped off the stage into the crowd while drummer Gabe Montesino took guitar duties. The song was beautifully arranged and allowed for some great moments with the audience. It was a wonderfully emotional stopping point in a strong but otherwise typical indie set. Like Spirit Machines, I think CAYSN is almost there, and this song showed they’re close to that ‘it’ factor I mentioned before. If they can learn how to lean into that without forcing it, they’ll be unstoppable.
OrcaMind
OrcaMind has joined the list of local groups like Lindenfield, MMEND, DลngSoo, Beta Mail, and Welcome Home Sundance who I love for so unabashedly just doing their own thing without worrying about what sounds are trending or not. They fall somewhere in the space of synth-pop meets folk, but sometimes their songs are prog-epics and sometimes they’re shanties. Or both. They were definitely milder than the previous two groups but proved you don’t need the highest energy to put on an excellent performance.
When singer Michelle Heafy introduced “Good Enough” as a song about overthinking, I was expecting a tender, emotional ballad but instead got slapped across the face with a pounding, driving riff, which I realized is a lot more accurate to what constant overthinking actually feels like. The track carries an almost Tears for Fears quality to it (which is great because I love Tears for Fears) and is probably my favorite of the whole night. The other standout track from OrcaMind’s set was an as-of-yet still unrecorded sprawling, proggy space epic. I also love prog rock, so this tracks.
While OrcaMind’s performance didn’t suffer from the lower energy of their sound, their stage presence was a bit underwhelming. Movement is hard when you have four members, two of which are playing stationary instruments and the other two have microphones anchoring them, but with songs so fantastical and whimsical, I’d love to see some of that whimsy translate into the visual side of the show too.
Madfish
Madfish took the stage to rapturous applause and chanting, then immediately fired back one of the most impressive sets I’ve seen from a band that’s only been together for nine months. While they’re firmly in the indie-rock space, their opener dashed in some bluesier elements, a bit of U2, and maybe some Trent Renzor vocal inflections. I truly have no idea how to describe the genre of the first few tracks from Madfish (neither did my fellow judges), but I love it. I’ve never heard anything quite like it, and something that unique deserves celebration. Their set slowly evolved song by song into more standard hard indie-rock territory, and I have to give kudos to Madfish for organizing the setlist in such an order that it flowed from one edge of their style to the other so smoothly.
The group put on a great show, using slick arrangements and silly moments like synchronized hip shakes or borrowing a fan’s phone to keep the audience engaged throughout. Plus, introducing members as they jumped in on the intro of a track was a neat variation on what’s often a slow spot in the set. There were a few moments where the cohesion unraveled a bit, but the group always pulled it back together. Like I said, this was an impressive set for any band, let alone one so new to playing together; I’ve seen bands with multiple years under their belt together fail to reach this height.
Results
After the judges handed their scores, the audience waited in anticipation for the reveal… and waited… and waited some more. Then the judges were called back for another round of voting. Turns out, after the judges’ scores, audience vote, and all other factors were considered, it was a dead tie between two groups. After this second round of judge votes, it was another several minutes before MC/sound-wizard Fern took the stage, announcing that after everything had be counted, recounted, and recounted again, a winning band had managed to secure the slimmest of edges โ one (1) vote. And so, moving onto finals to play with Sage Lane, Wilbere, Sabrina Fair, and tomorrow’s finalist is… CAYSN.
Tonight is the final night of preliminaries for Velour’s Winter 2024 Battle of the Bands! You can catch performances from Crewless, Just Khakis, PRKR, and Garden Drive! Doors open at 7:30 PM. Go follow Night 4 winners CAYSN on Instagram!