By Elliot Boswell
In a night of folk-country crossover and metal meets melodrama, perhaps the most unlikely band prevailed.
The Electric Opera Guitarmy, an operatic cover group, was voted winner in KDUP's Second Annual Battle of the Bands last Thursday, triumphing over three other contenders in front of a crowd of between 60 and 80 students and faculty.
Sam Wegman, a UP freshman, came in second place, and Guyve, a local fusion duo, came in third on a night that, despite some minor glitches, was an all-around success.
Wegman had both the blessing and the curse of being the first artist to perform: On one hand, no expectations have been set, but on the other, the audience has yet to be galvanized.
Wegman played about a half hour of the best kind of coffee shop folk, sounding at times like a stripped-down Beirut and at others, like a country take on Portland legend Elliott Smith.
Wegman, who lists Smith, Fionn Regan and Glen Hansard as some of his influences, said that he's been playing guitar for five or six years and performing for two years, but only consistently in the past six months.
"I play only my own stuff," he said. "I can't do covers - I can't remember how they go."
Wegman sings in a gentle but slightly nasal tenor, accompanied only by an acoustic guitar, although his lyrics were often obscured by the less-than-desirable acoustics of the building.
The lines I could hear, however, were simple, tender and sometimes self-effacing accounts of adolescence, of loved ones, of dreams and doubts; in short, it sounds like someone is undertaking the ever-admirable task of writing about what he knows.
Wegman confirmed this.
"I can't really make things up out of nowhere," he said. "So everything I write is based on a real-life experience."
Wegman is currently recording a full-length album at a local studio.
According to KDUP Program Director Aaron Davis, none of the bands were screened beforehand, for fear of accidentally discriminating against groups who hadn't yet had the opportunity to record.
An admirable policy, but its flaws came roaring through when the second act, Guyve, assumed Wegman's place on stage.
Guyve's MySpace page identifies the two-man band as "Experimental/Psychedelic/Metal," and to be fair, that's a pretty accurate description.
The group's problem, more than anything, was one of context: Sandwiched between two singer-songwriters in a room full of relatively docile college students, they never really had much of a chance.
The music was alternately stark and textured, often played in a stop-start style (numerous false endings), but its abrasiveness wore old in a hurry, and more than one person stepped outside for some respite.
"I didn't really know what to expect but I basically liked everyone except the second band (Guyve)," junior Kelly Mitchell said. "They were just too loud."
Senior Bobby Ray, however, a member of The Electric Opera Guitarmy, enjoyed the set.
"I loved the two-piece metal band," he said. "They kind of floored me."
As for me, well, they were not to my personal tastes. Perhaps with the help of earplugs and some acid, I might have been able to enjoy Guyve as well, but alas, neither was readily available.
Happily, after Guyve prompted a mass exodus from St. Mary's, the crowd reconvened for the third act, Hawkins and John, a duo from St. Johns who were a late addition to the lineup.
There were originally five groups scheduled to play, said Leanne Paredes, KDUP promotions director, but two canceled the day of.
About half an hour before the show was scheduled to begin, however, she found Hawkins and John, who agreed to fill in at the last minute.
"I was freaking out," Paredes said. "It wasn't much of a competition when we only had three bands competing for three prizes. They (Hawkins and John) literally saved our butts."
The pair played a very, very acoustic set - just a bass, guitar and vocals.
Not only was the audience a little too riled after the previous act, but again, the poor sound quality of St. Mary's Lounge was far from conducive to an intimate show, and Hawkins and John found themselves mostly buried beneath the crowd's chatter.
It was too bad, really, because they were alright: A folk sound with slight gospel inflections - in fact, strains of "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" may have even cropped up. The worst that could be said of the band is that they were inoffensive, but that may also be a dead-on description.
But it took the closing band, The Electric Opera Guitarmy, before anything really got moving.
True to its name, the Guitarmy incorporated a bass, a drumkit, both a synth and keyboard, and somewhere between eight and 10 axe-wielders in their pursuit of an appropriately epic rendition of two segments of Rossini's "The Barber of Seville."
Led by Ray on guitar and vocals, the room exploded in a hilariously entertaining mix of sonic pyrotechnics and, to seemingly everyone's delight, Italian melodrama.
"It went better than I had ever expected," Ray said. "Everybody played well, the audience response was great - I'm just really happy with it."
Under the sure conducting hand of junior Paul Senz, the Guitarmy featured a mix of both music majors and the simply enthusiastic, but perhaps the biggest surprise of the night was seeing University piano instructor, Tracy Edson, manning a keyboard.
"Even though it was a little shaky at first, it ended up going really well," Davis said. "Everyone seemed to appreciate it more this year."
Davis, however, is already looking forward to next spring.
"We want more events, want to get the DJs more involved," he said. "And we want more people there."
