The first MSHS Battle of the Bands was on Friday May 2 at the SILC amphitheater, and the first place winners were The Beanie Boys, Dante Alexander (11) and Benjamin Parham (11). Their band performed “Innervision” by System of a Down, “Mr. Jack” by System of a Down, “BYOB” by System of a Down, and their final song was “Disengage” by Suicide Silence.
The Battle of the Bands was organized by Riley Walker, who is a representative on the MSSD14 Arts Integration Committee and an English teacher at MSHS. The Arts Integration Committee is a teacher led group designed to create art based experiences for students with grant money. “We have grant money available to us from Kirkpatrick Bank to do art installations, art projects, hire professional artists, and overall create art experiences for students,” Walker said.
Walker organized this event with the intention of creating a space for all students. “I’m always interested in the kids who don’t necessarily fit into school and don’t think of themselves as students,” Walker said. “I like creating opportunities for those kinds of kids. And so I was thinking, my high school had a Battle of the Bands when I was there, and I know that there are a couple student bands out and about. So I was like, What the heck? I’ll just throw a Battle of Bands with my grant money,” Walker said.
John Murphy, a paraprofessional at MSHS, and his band Moon Veil headlined at the Battle of the Bands to raise excitement for the event. “I’d seen them a couple of times and I just asked, would Moon Veil like to play? And he said yes. So they got in touch, and they’re gonna run sound for us and headline the act,” Walker said.
At the event, the audience was provided with a QR code to vote on which band they would like to win. “We originally thought we might have a panel of local people and teachers to make a decision, like American Idol or something, but I couldn’t put together a group of people quickly enough,” Walker said. “So we’re just gonna have the audience vote.”
The trophies for first, second, and third place were upcycled from Wendy Harms and Meleah Perkins, and decorated by students in Erin Gocinski’s art class. Walker is excited about all of the student creativity funneled into this event. “My students made buttons, so we have a million buttons that we’re gonna get rid of,” Walker said. “Naomi Porter and Gwen Lloyd Davies made the posters. The amount of cool creativity that has been put into this event is great, and I’m pushing for the idea that all of the art should be by the students, and all of the music should be from the students.”
Parham and Alexander, the first place winners, learned about the Battle of the Bands only one month prior. “I heard about this event one month ago, and we’ve only practiced for this past month really,” Parham said. “Dante and I did play last summer, but really, it was just this past month that we came together. He’s an awesome guitar player.”
Parham was surprised by their first place victory. “I was super excited to come out here and play, and I was not expecting to win any trophy,” he said.
The second place band was The Squirrells, who had been a band before the Battle of the Bands. “We’ve been around for like a year, at least,” Hannah Rickert (9), their lead singer at the show, said. “Our one year is on the seventh. We gotta have a squirrel party.”
The third place winner was the band Equal Opportunity. Maddox Gonzalez (12) feels that their win was amazing. “We would go into Dominic’s basement and jam it out a lot to practice,” Gonzalez said. “We’d play 10 or 12 hours a week, so it was epic to win.”
