Showcasing Stanford bands in an epic battle for year-long honor, supremacy and hotness, Battle of the Bands is an annual event put on by Phi Kappa Psi. In my opinion, Battle of the Bands is way under-attended–it’s one of the few frat parties where you can see multiple rock bands, and it has vastly superior alcohol to most of the parties thrown on this campus as well (although I suppose that might change if more people attended, so perhaps I should discourage others from going). The audience judges the competition, which this year consisted of five participating bands.

Ripcord opened with a “rock-ish” sound, which apparently means that their lead singer sounds like a choir boy. It was the opening for what was a relatively homogenous concert in terms of style, unlike last year’s Battle, which had a metal band, a neo-punk all-girl ensemble and a funk band complete with several saxes. This Battle of the Bands looked a lot more like a compilation of bands playing in my mental image of coffee shops in Seattle…in other words, they were “indie.” The Offbeats, like Ripcord, were relatively mellow, but perhaps too witty for their own good. They are the kind of band you need to listen to in your room so that you can fully understand their lyrics, which seem to be far more central to their band than to the others.

The next band, Finding Jupiter, probably would have won if not for the fact that their lead singer, who records beautifully and has a good sense for song choice, has sadly failed to learn how to rock a mike. This, combined with technical issues outside of their control, pretty much kicked them out of the competition–their bassist, however, was outstanding. Finding Jupiter and the Offbeats had some of the best vocals of the night. With Finding Jupiter’s microphone issues, the Offbeats were clear winners in this category.

The Sea People is the all-frosh band that ultimately won the competition–they have several talented musicians (their guitarist is noteworthy), but the vocals are a bit lacking in depth and soul. I was actually surprised when they won because, I think, talented musicians notwithstanding, they seem a bit confused. They sound like they each wanted to play a different genre of music and it was clear to me that they were freshmen on that front. Zen Finger Painting was the one band that sounded a little more “rock” in their recording, but they are missing the kind of bass and drums required to sound like what they aim for.

Any musical flaws aside, this event should be monstrously attended. Great people, good alcohol and awesome student music are a recipe for an event that isn’t so much a battle, but rather an exhibition of some truly incredible talent.