The winner of this year’s Battle of the Bands was the band named Black Clover. Their creative blend of styles led them to victory in the event out of the seven bands that participated.
“They had a combination of harmonica-driven blues and a Led Zeppelin medley,” said WBMT advisor Matthew Chadwick. “Black Clover is from a bunch of different schools, including a student from Masconomet. Freshman Nick Bossi, I believe he played guitar.”
This year’s contest was filled with music, fun, and energy. WBMT strived to improve on what they had started last year, and they delivered.
“The performances were great, very impressive across the board,” said senior station manager Maya Schildkraut. “The bands were excellent last year and excellent this year.”
This year’s Battle was also longer, which allowed for more songs to be played and more time for each band to show off their talent.
“ We were able to have enough time for each band to perform one or two songs, which was a change from last year,” said Chadwick.
The competition shaped up to be a very eclectic show, with a wide range of styles and genres. Many bands even blended multiple styles into one performance.
“ I felt like everyone played their heart out and played their best,” said Chadwick. “And there was a big range of styles too. Everything from grunge revival to eighties pop to emo to some classic 1970s rock and roll.”
While this year was an improvement in many ways over last year, there is still always room for improvement, both technically and communication-wise.
“We are hoping to improve the reaction time of technical issues and coordination with the bands,” said sophomore Anders Raines.
Some changes may even be made to how the winner is selected. Usually, there is a panel of judges, including staff and Masco graduates. But next year, they are hoping to shake that system.
“ I also think it would be cool to have a people’s choice type vote as well, maybe in another category,” said Chadwick. “Kind of see how the crowd feels about every band afterwards as a way of measuring how they performed. And perhaps different categories of voting too, like most style, most technical ability.”
For the first time, the Battle of the Bands had shirts that were designed and printed by WBMT senior communications director Megan Brady. This added another level of spectacle and fun to the event.
Looking to the future, it seems that WBMT is wrapping up the school year with business as usual and the seniors on their internships. Next year is looking to be even bigger with more events and the ever-improving Battle of the Bands. There’s plenty to look forward to.