Colorado Groups Compete for Grand Prize in Battle of the Bands

Over the next few weekends, Colorado bands will compete for a $5,000 prize in the Battle of the Bands, an annual tradition held by Bandwagon since 2011, when it was founded by Moxi Theater owner Ely Corliss. The competition kicked off with preliminary rounds on November 10 at the Moxi in Greeley, where math-rock band Underseer won, and November 11 at the Black Buzzard in Denver, where blues-rock group the Stephen Lear Band moved on to the final round.

Those two acts will be joined at the final battle by whichever bands win the next preliminary rounds on Friday, November 17, at LuLu's Downstairs in Manitou Springs, and on Friday, November 24, at the Mercury Cafe in Denver. LuLu's will host Hickabee, Cami Maree, Mindless Vitality and Shanghai Metro Temple, while Bailey Elora, Citizen Tempest, the White Moms and Pool Sharks will take the stage at the Merc.

The final four bands will compete in the championship round at the Moxi Theater on Friday, December 15.

Each band is allotted a 45-minute set, and then audience members vote for their favorites on tickets provided at the door. But it isn't all up to the crowd: Bandwagon brings in seasoned music-scene veterans and musicians to be judges. This year, they included Andy Rock of Flobots at the Black Buzzard show, while Tony Mason, Bandwagon's head talent buyer, is at every show. At the end of the night, the crowd's votes are tallied and taken into consideration along with judges' scoring, and the winner is announced on stage.
More than ninety bands applied to enter this year's competition after Bandwagon put out the call in October, according to Landon Ungerman, marketing specialist for the event. "We listen to everyone's submissions and we choose sixteen bands, which we split into four groups of four that play at four different venues," he explains, adding that the winner will also appear on the cover of Bandwagon magazine.

And although genre isn't limited, the Battle of the Bands is for, well, bands. "It's usually just different interpretations of rock," Ungerman says. "The one thing we ask is that it really is a band, where there's different roles." When considering the applications, the Bandwagon team also looks at "the creative combinations of instruments," he adds, "and when that is the guiding principle, you hear all sorts of different genres, a lot of them infused. Especially in a city like Denver, where there's not a dominant genre or a genre to fit a local mold. But you just see creative interpolations of rock, and in the past, heavy metal has been successful at Battle of the Bands."

While Bandwagon, which operates out of the Moxi, produces up to twenty local shows every week, "the competition allows us to truly impact the trajectory of one band's career or local presence," Ungerman says. Utilizing venues in different cities is also part of the event's appeal, he notes, as another Battle of the Bands goal is to expand fan bases and engage new audiences.

Past winners include the Burroughs, Slow Cave and Graham Good & the Painters. Last year's winner was Colorado Springs metal band Ovira, with which Bandwagon booked a run of shows.

This year's lineup will make for fierce competition, according to Ungerman. The members of Underseer "are very, very seasoned performers," he says. "And I'm very excited to see what they do in the final round. And the Stephen Lear Band played an incredible blues-jazz-rock fusion set. ... They're going up in the final round against a very different array of genres and a very different palette of sound. But they're incredible. During their set, the whole room would just look at each other and just validate how strong their set was."

And one last thing: This isn't a battle of the bands you'd see in some cheesy 2000s movie. "It's very seasoned and artistic music that's being platformed in this competition," Ungerman concludes.

Battle of the Bands preliminary rounds continue at 7:30 p.m. Friday, November 17, at Lulu's Downstairs, 107 Manitou Avenue, Manitou Springs (tickets are $10-$80), and 7 p.m. Friday, November 24, at the Mercury Cafe, 2199 California Street (tickets are $10-$20). The final round is 7:30 p.m. Friday, December 15, at Moxi Theater, 802 9th Street, Greeley (tickets are $10-$120).