Battle of the Bands boasts an array of music

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PHOTOS BY ELIZABETH MEYERS | DAILY KENT STATER

The third night of All Campus Programming Board’s Battle of the Bands was like any other night of the event, except for one thing – a diverse mixture of genres was represented. The four bands that performed were The Jeffrey Allens, Cauchy-Riemann, Annabel and WestShoreDrive.

Some of the acts, such as Cauchy-Riemann, were newly formed, but others play regular shows.

Indie, dream-rock band Annabel, which formed two years ago, was announced the winner of the night and will progress to the final stage of the competition. Annabel, which plays in Akron and The Robin Hood in Kent, cited its influence as My Bloody Valentine, Broken Social Scene and Radiohead.

Punk-ska band The Jeffrey Allens opened the show with their poppy, energetic and sometimes metal-edged set list, which had some of the roughly 150 audience members on their feet.

Bassist Nick Brewer, 25, said although the band members are influenced by ska, the band is more of a “rock band with horns.”

“Three of us are metalheads,” said Brewer, whose band got the audience moving when they closed with a cover of The Proclaimers’ “500 Miles.”

He said the band, made up of energetic 25- to 30-year olds, tries not take themselves too seriously.

“We’re not a popular-type band,” Brewer said. “We like to have fun on stage.”

Annabel member Andy Hendricks, freshman visual communication design major, said he had been looking forward to playing but had only one regret about the night.

“I wish we had more time to play,” Hendricks said.

JORDAN NOVELLY | DAILY KENT STATER

In what seemed to be a 180-degree turn, one-man show Cauchy-Riemann performed what junior mathematics major and founder Allen Cox described as “experimental noise,” following no conventional musical structure.

“With all of these speakers, people are going to hate it,” Cox said before the show. “They should expect not to enjoy it.”

Cox said he made all the equipment he uses, and the performance was his first show.

Dave Matthews Band-inspired WestShoreDrive, who played last, formed in August and said they try to play a gig every other weekend. Junior accounting major Eric Guggenbiller described the group’s formula.

“We just try to take what we listen to and make it our own,” Guggenbiller said.

Although they play shows regularly, Ben Levy, junior technology design major, said West-

ShoreDrive’s members like to keep things in perspective.

“We try not to take ourselves too seriously,” Levy said. “It’s all about the fans.”

The fourth night of Battle of the Bands will resume after Spring Break on April 3 at 9 p.m. in the Rathskeller.

Contact on-campus entertainment reporter Joe Shearer at [email protected].