Local music showdown

By Ivan Danielewicz

Ladies and gentlemen, the stage has been set and the bands have been chosen. The war of the worlds has begun.

For the past two weeks at Quincy’s and the Sambuca Lounge, a battle of the bands has been raging on, laying claim to some great local talent pitted against each other.

“We did this so that each scene would get behind their music,” comments event organizer Jamal. “However, we didn’t want to pit bands against each other, we wanted to bring all the scenes together and get behind music in general. Nobody seems to care about anyone but the people in the same music scene as them. Even then, bands seem to be competitive toward each other.”

The first show was held two weeks ago in the basement of Quincy’s and featured local rock talent such as Honey Rocket and KGB. Despite problems with the sound, it was a great performance displaying various forms of rock music, from heavy metal to glam rock. Soul Jacker won the top price in a very close competition.

The following evening, the rap competition was held at the Sambuca Lounge, where the remaining competitions took place. Local rap talent Ominous and Chain Reaction were present in the competition. MCs and their fellow DJs battled it out, lyric for lyric and at the end of the night, Internal Affairs won out. A live band and both a male and a female MC elevated them above the rest.

The next show was held the following weekend with great success. All the bands supported each other in an interesting display of punk versus punk. All types of the genre were on display, from pop-punk to hardcore punk. The youngest of all the bands, Shades of Grey, prevailed with their pop-punk tunes.

The final evening of the battle was supposed to be Electronica. Unfortunately, it was cancelled due to an advertising error and some miscommunication between Jamal and some of the DJs. A win by no contest, Mantra won a seat in the final battle.

“The bands have been phenomenal,” remarked Jamal. “They were really supportive of each other, especially the punk bands. They were getting the crowd into the music of the band that was playing at the time and having a lot of fun. Music has turned into a sales product, with big bands selling themselves out to the attitudes of the consumer. Nobody seems to be true to their musical roots anymore. The local scene has really become scarce and I wanted to help revive it.”

The War of the Worlds finals start at 7 p.m. on Fri., Nov. 15, 2002. Tickets are $20, and are available at Feroshus and Ticketmaster.