On Thursday night at 10 p.m., as Prospect Street began to fill up with students eager to enjoy one last weekend before midterms, a new sign was visible on the Terrace Club lawn — what had read “Rave Cage” for the past few weeks now advertised the annual Battle of the Bands about to take place.
Inside, musicians mingled under low, colorful lighting with guitars slung across their shoulders. Everyone was seemingly unconcerned by the late start to performances, caused by technical difficulties that would restructure the order of the groups. This announcement was met not with groans or frustration, but with supportive cheers of thanks for the production team. The “battle” seemed to have been pushed entirely out of the way by the much more important half of the event: the bands.
“I think it’s more supposed to be a fun time, and just a way for people to play some music, and have their friends come out and watch them do what they love doing,” said bassist Sydney Tyler ’27. Tyler’s group Bletchley Park was one of the more experienced in a varied mix of older and brand new ensembles. They performed in the Battle of the Bands last year too, and Tyler noted that it was one of the more relaxed music events on campus.
“It’s not something that people get stressed about,” Tyler explained, “You kind of practice a little bit and just get a good vibe, and then go out and perform.”
The lack of preparation certainly didn’t affect the performance quality of the bands. Once the technical difficulties had been straightened out, The Distance started things off with an electrifying performance of “Animal,” by Neon Trees, which immediately got the crowd dancing. The Distance was one of the newer bands to perform, formed just before the battle took place. Cate Arbaugh ’28, The Distance’s lead singer, explained that her friend reached out to her when the group was struggling to find a vocalist.
“He was like, well, we have a problem because we don’t have a singer for the band,” she explained, “and I was like, sure, why not?”
The Distance set the mood for the evening, and it continued strong into the night with a mix of heavier rock and bouncy pop. The crowd, in part made up of supporters who had come to cheer on their friends, matched every band in energy, and appreciated each fantastic performance. Musicians didn’t seem overly concerned with winning the “battle” — but that didn’t mean they were any less jam packed with guitar licks, high-energy vocals, and thumping bass lines, from the old veterans to the newcomers.
“We’re like, not a real band, but we might be after this,” said Hannah Franklin ’28, a freshman performing with Bastion. Franklin and other members of the group met through the Princeton University Rock Ensemble (PURE), an ODUS-affiliated ensemble dedicated to playing rock music at events around campus. PURE and the general band scene at Princeton fosters an environment of exploration and multiplicity, with most musicians belonging to a number of different groups, and playing for a variety of campus events.
But there’s no need to have tons of experience playing eating clubs or lawn parties in order to battle with the best. Battle of the Bands was an opportunity for performers new and old to come together for low-pressure collaboration and creativity, as Arbaugh noted.
“It was kind of an ad hoc thing, almost like a side quest for me,” she joked, “but I love to sing and perform, and I thought it would be fun, so I wanted to do it just for the experience.”
Ultimately, the battle had no winner, only musicians like Arbaugh embarking on a quest of rock and roll.
Lily Hutcheson is a member of the Class of 2028 and a contributing writer for The Prospect and a contributing constructor for the Puzzles Section.
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