This weekend, the stakes will be raised as local bands go head to head at the annual Battle of the Bands (BOTB) for the three coveted spots at this year's Movin' On festival.
After sorting through about 30 demos, Jared Newman (sophomore-public relations), coordinator for BOTB, and the Movin' On core committee selected 12 bands to perform.
Though this is his first year involved with Movin' On and BOTB, Newman said he has organized lots of shows in the past, but never a competition.
"I've been to hundreds of shows in my life and believe that I am capable of distinguishing between a good live band and a bad one, even if I am not a huge fan of their style of music," Newman said.
With a diverse mix of bands playing, Newman said there's something for everyone.
Each band has to have at least one Penn State student in it, and each group will be judged on its stage performance, song quality, band tightness, crowd reaction and how many people it draws to its set.
The panel of judges will include three members from the Movin' On committee, Abbey Rhode, president of the Association of Residence Hall Students (ARHS), which is sponsoring the show, and a radio personality from 105.9 the Buzz.
Movin' On director Michelle Ricketts (senior-psychology) said winners will get a great opportunity not only to play for a large crowd, but also lots of free promotion, including radio announcements and their names on festival merchandise.
"We're hoping to get at least 8,000 [people] throughout the day," Ricketts said. "We just want a good quality show for those who come out."
In past shows, winners of the BOTB got their music featured on Napster and had a number of songs available for download, Ricketts said.
As for this year, it's still up in the air as to whether the winning artists will get that same opportunity.
Returning to the battle again this year, blues-rock band Jimi Jive is excited to showcase its new material with a brand new sound, said guitarist Paul Zielinski (junior-management information systems).
"Before we were kind of a '60s rock, surf band, and now we're still bluesy but more alternative," Zielinski said. "We've grown up as a band, and we're hoping the people who saw us last year think we're better."
A lot of the times, he will record some music and then e-mail it to the other members, and when it comes time to perform, things don't always go as planned, Zielinksi said.
"Plan B is what we usually do, and sometimes Plan C," he said. "We play each show by the seat of our pants, and we even have a back-up drummer."
Taking advantage of spring break, members of Albert React congregated in Kentucky to record their new studio album entitled Sonos Aeterno, which roughly translates to "make the sound immortal" in Latin, said Andrew Alburn (senior-political science).
The album will be released on CI Records, whose past alum includes acts such as the Julianna Theory.
While taking time off school to tour and record the album, Alburn said he and the rest of the band lived together in Lancaster for two years.
"It was one of the best experiences of my life," Alburn said.
After missing last year's BOTB due to scheduling conflicts, the band will be playing in its first competitive concert and hopes the crowd will be able to sustain itself until the last time slot at 12:40 a.m.
Alburn said the band considers the mood its music will evoke when choosing what to play for a concert.
With an atmospheric sound reminiscent of Pink Floyd and influence from Sigur Ros, its music remains structured, but never crosses into the classic rock category.
While a lot of bands have played BOTB before, veterans like Audio Imagery (AI) have already won two years in a row.
Performing regularly in State College, AI has been keeping busy building a record label and performing outside of the area, in New York and at an upcoming show at Grape Street Pub in Philadelphia, said emcee Jason Browne (senior-mechanical en-gineering).
"I feel like we've accomplished so much that we're way beyond a student band," Browne said. "There's a lot of good bands out there with quality music and some of our stuff may sound similar, but we present it in a whole new way."
After performing at Movin' On last year, the group was able to get some of its songs available on Napster and hopes to add some new tunes to the site in the future.
As for Battle of the Bands, Browne said the members put a lot into their live performances, and they always pull something out of their sleeves to surprise the crowd.
"I'd say 50 percent of it is sound, the rest is presentation, originality and how we incorporate the crowd that's most important," he said.
