Battle of the Bands rocks the Union

Hosted by UPAC concerts in conjunction with RPI TV and Show Techs, Battle of the Bands returned once more to the Union, setting the perfect stage for seven student bands to duke it out. With a larger roster than last year came a larger audience as well, meaning the McNeil room was packed with excited concert goers.

The first band to perform was Super Critical. Formed during a study session, the group consisted of chemical engineering students plus one of the member’s roommates who they “kidnapped” to do vocals. It was their first time performing at Battle of the Bands, so props to them for going first. They played some well-known hits such as “Sugar, we’re going down swinging” by Fall Out Boy, “Fire” by PVRIS, and “Emptiness Machine” by Linkin Park.

Next was Gamma Radiation. They started off strong with some guitar riffs that really got the crowd hooked. The band clearly enjoyed performing and had great stage presence. They played some classic rock hits that many bands covered such as “You Give Love a Bad Name” by Bon Jovi and “Rock Me Like a Hurricane” by the Scorpions. The familiarity of their setlist had the crowd singing loudly along with them, only giving pause to enjoy the guitarist’s amazing solos.

Third on the roster was last year’s third-place winner Revitalizer. Being such an experienced group that has performed at RPI stages multiple times, the band really knew how to captivate the crowd. They did a good job of engaging the audience between songs and did a great job of selecting popular songs to perform. Revitalizer covered songs like “Crazy Train” by Ozzy Osbourne and “Holiday” by Green Day, so the crowd had an easy time singing with them.

A bit unfortunately for Revitalizer, their performance was followed up by last year’s winner Guts, a well-known metal band on campus. Early into the first song, a mosh pit formed with excited students pushing each other around and head-banging to the beat of the songs. The audience was certainly very hyped and active during Guts’ performance. The vocalist also called out an audience member who was recording the show on their Nintendo 3ds.

Another new band, Entropy, went on next. Multiple friends of the band’s members were in the crowd and put on a big display of support. They ran around the McNeil room holding cardboard signs with messages like “We love the bassist of Entropy.” They also lifted up some people in chairs during the later half of the set.

The sixth group really brought the energy back into the crowd. Pseudosky, an all-freshman band, formed only two months ago, but the audience was hardly able to tell how well they meshed with each other and how polished their performance was. The main vocalist especially shocked listeners by pulling off challenging songs like “Misery Business” by Paramore and “Dog Days are Over” by Florence and the Machine.

The final band was Totally Confused. Before starting their set, they brought out their mascot Squirt, a turtle plush which was still in its halloween costume of bat wings. They performed almost exclusively originals with only one cover being a genre-bent version of “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor, ending things on a calmer, laid-back vibe.

This year’s winners of Battle of the Bands, from first to third place, were Totally Confused, Guts, and Pseudosky. All performances during the night can be viewed on RPI TV and interviews with the bands can be seen on WRPI.