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• Language: unknown
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Arctic; Camp Bell; Detroit; Moe; New Rock; Solos’; The Old Man
• Online Access: http://cdm16921.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16921coll4/id/7693

” “Frontman Joe Gilmore, whom I presume to be Captain Hootenanny, had all the right stuff to woo the crowd. CONCORDIAN A&E JANUARY 30, 20095 the If you noticed some construction going on in Knudson this week, fear not—there’s nothing wrong with our brand spankin’ new student center. What you probably saw was all the repair work needed after last Friday’s annual Battle of the Bands shook the rafters of the newly-remodeled Centrum. After last year’s bash was temporarily moved to Me-morial Auditorium to accommodate campus center construction, the Centrum once again played host to Concordia’s own glorifi ed ga-rage band throwdown. Despite the frosty Friday night weather, the venue was brim-ming with fans from all corners of the cam-pus, braving the cold weather to see their fel-low Cobbers let their proverbial hair down. For those of you rubes who couldn’t take the windchill or believe that rock concerts are inherently for Happy Cobbers to attend (I know you’re out there…), my man Alex and I have all the dirt that’s fi t to dish right here. No need to thank us, it’s what we do. Kicking things off in grand style was Captain Hootenanny and the Miserable Stepchildren. Straight out of Livedalen, this eight-member ska band got the crowd skank-ing with covers of Catch 22 and Goldfi nger. Frontman Joe Gilmore, whom I pre-sume to be Captain Hoote-nanny, had all the right stuff to woo the crowd. I’m talking about the voice, guitar chops, and hair—the holy trin-ity of rock, if you will. The band (his step-children?) were anything but miserable, with horn players of all shapes and sizes bobbing and weaving around the stage with the unco-ordinated grace of so many other ska bands of the day—and the best part is, the crowd responded. As they rounded out their set with Reel Big Fish’s “Sellout,” even the judg-es looked like they were having a good time. Moe Skogen, judge, sound guy, and long-time rock appreciator happily referred to them as “a rare departure from the norm.” Take that to the bank and cash it. In all my years covering Battle of the Bands, never before have I seen an open-ing act that actually pumps up the audience quite like these guys did. To them, we at the Concordian A&E page give mad props for stepping up to the plate and laying down a solid lead-off set. Awesome names aside, these guys are exactly what we need at these shows. I hope, for the sake of future gen-erations, that Captain Hootenanny and the Miserable Stepchildren are here to stay. More surprises were to come, however. The daunting task of following up the young guns fell on the capable shoulders of Senior Adam Hochstatter and his MSUM buddies. The trio—known under the moniker Agent Biscuit—was comprised of veteran musi-cians, but each a Battle of the Bands virgin. The all-music major trio—consisting of drums, bass, and keyboards—defi nitely had the scholarly edge, but left many in the crowd scratching their heads instead of bang-ing them. Their unique brand of funk/fusion came as a surprise to many, most of whom didn’t know what to do without a vocalist to cheer for. But with a few zany keyboard solos, it wasn’t long before the audience was acting drunk and shaking their junk to the sweet, sweet sounds of Agent Biscuit. Hochstatter looked like a mad scientist with his oversized coat and mop of hair, turned around to let the crowd see the in-sane display of musicianship on his twin key-boards. “He’s facing backwards for a reason,” said Ian Anderson, the headliner’s frontman and guest adjudicator, “if they didn’t have girl-friends before, they will af-ter tonight.” For the record, I’m pret-ty sure he was expressing his admiration of Hochstat-ter’s mad keyboard skills, not the in-your-face view of his behind. Things mellowed out a bit when the third band took the stage. Chicken Nuggets! broke out the acoustic guitars and delighted the crowd with the evening’s fi rst taste of vocal harmo-nies. Fronted by Senior Obadiah Brown- Beach, these ballad-rockers stole the best-dressed award for the evening (drummer Dave Mold must have missed that memo). Although he looks like Dave Grohl, Obie’s smooth crooning was a nice contrast to that of an average garage-band frontman. The C-Nugs decided to give the amps a rest, and turned the Centrum into a veritable coff ee shop. All that changed, however, when they slipped into a cover of Weezer’s “Say it Ain’t So.” Finally the crowd had something to latch on to. “I understand Concordia has musical tal-ent, but wow…” said KORD judge Kent Kols-tad. Then he turned away and started belting out the chorus along with the band—never offi cially fi nishing his quote. I think we got the message, though. Nothing could have completed the expe-rience better than when senior Reed Soren-son leapt onto the stage to mimic the guitar solo with a Guitar Hero controller—which he proceeded to demolish in true arena-rock style as the band slammed out the song’s fi nal chords. Very tasteful, indeed. They closed their set with another mel-low ballad, much to the dismay of the judges, who had just begun to felt like they were at a real rock concert. Despite the excit-ing name, Chicken Nuggets! left the crowd wanting with their placid indie rock antics. Most people looked like they didn’t know whether to break out their lighters or hold their neighbor’s hand. I’m not saying this band doesn’t have chops, maybe this just wasn’t the right mix of tunes for a Battle of the Bands set. Don’t be dismayed, my processed, all-white meat friends. Who knows, maybe you can cut some kind of commercial soundtrack deal with McDonald’s. Last on the bill was the Escape Artist, a familiar-looking quartet with a familiar-looking singer. Frontman Petter Eriksmoen incited much swooning from audience mem-bers of the female persuasion as he stepped up to his electric piano to do his best Chris Martin impression. Coldplay jokes aside, these guys are veteran rockers, and com-manded the stage with a professional pres-ence. With very little ceremony, the band dove into the feel-good jam “Hear Is Not Where You Are”—which, I suppose, is tech-nically a HearNow cover. Eriksmoen was the fi rst vocalist of the night to truly project his voice. His strains reverberated off the acoustically retuned Centrum walls, compli-menting the individual performances by each of his bandmates. Dan Miller’s fi ne fretwork shone through as it usual-ly does in each of his gui-tar solos. It all lay nicely upon a bed of silky smooth beats provided by the rhythm section. The band’s talent shone through perhaps the strongest on their cover of MGMT’s “Kids,” with a crowd-pleasing bass groove that set up another fi ne guitar solo (it was so good even Miller himself had to crack a smile). They rounded out their set with a mixed-metered tune called “From Above” which will be featured on this year’s Concor-dia’s Beat. The crowd ate up every bit of the eargas-mic energy in the room. To my professional-ly- trained eye, I can conclude that an Escape Artists performance has the power to make people do many strange things. Besides dancing, Alex and I saw physical responses ranging from tears, screams, fainting, and slight inebriation. The band isn’t always en-tirely responsible for that last one. Bottom line, the Escape Artists can jam with the best of the best, and acted like Battle of the Bands royalty. Maybe Coldplay should emulate these guys from now on, in-stead of vice versa. As the votes were tallied, remaining au-dience members were treated to the sounds of One for the Team, a Minneapolis-based power pop quartet. Their blend of indie vo-cals with synth keyboards may have sounded like elevator music to most, but God bless them for braving “Day After Tomorrow”-like weather to try and warm us up. They wound up their short set with no objection from the crowd, who was mostly still hanging around just to hear the results— and more importantly, the promise of an early CEC announcement of the Cornstock headliner. But when the dust settled, it was the Escape Artists who emerged victorious. Al-though the crowd was clearly in agreement, I will say without hesitation that there are really no losers at the Battle of the Bands (ex-cept for the people who don’t come…rubes), and each band should be mighty proud. The variety of talent on display that night defi - nitely broke the mold for what our Battle of the Bands can be. A truer display of original student talent was never so greatly appreci-ated. But the night belonged to the Escape artists, who have the distinct privilege of opening the festivities at this year’s Corn-stock. They should prob-ably work up a cover of Queen’s “We Are The Champions” for their set, for good measure. The only question that remained: who would they have the honor of opening for? CEC reps announced with much enthusi-asm that this year’s headliner would be none other than West Coast techno-boppers Hel-loGoodbye. Yes, you heard it here second. Count on more reaction to that announce-ment as well as in-depth coverage of every-one’s favorite event in the weeks to come, and in the meantime, block off April 25 on your calendars. The day-long music festival is only three months away. Well, that about wraps up another report of epic proportions by your very own A&E crew. For Alex Morstad, this is Andy Camp-bell saying, “be proud and play it loud—see you next week.” Battle of the Bands crowns new rock royalty BY ANDY CAMPBELL & ALEX MORSTAD A&E Writers “ ” MAYBE Coldplay should emulate these guys from now on, in-stead of vice versa. January thawed for one eve-ning, Sunday Jan. 16, as the spirit of Bob Marley fi lled Fargo’s Hub Entertainment Complex. No, not the drift of smoke from a ganja spliff —although it would be any-thing but surprising if some in the building that night were hiding be-hind a skunky green curtain—but the roots reggae, wicka-wicka of Marley’s former band, The Wailers. The world renowned reggae outfi t brought a bit of Jamaica to warm Fargo’s arctic-like atmosphere, as they headlined the roots and brew get-together, Old Man Winter Fes-tival at the Hub. The strong audience turn-out may speak to the universality of the genre and The Wailers in particu-lar— who have sold an excess of 250 million records and performed for an estimated 24 million souls across the globe. Or maybe the packed house was more interested in the bluegrass styling of many of the other bands that played throughout the afternoon and early evening. Joining The Wailers were regional folk, bluegrass and reggae bands of note, Trampled By Turtles, White Iron Band, Public Property, Charlie Parr, Hobo Nephews and The John-son Family Band. Or maybe every-one fi led in to the 21+ event to fi ll up on the seasonal grub and Blue Moon beer. For whatever reason, there was no shortage of beards, banjos, brews or handbags made of hemp that night at the Hub. Performances took place simul-taneously on two separate stages as the 12 acts slated to appear picked and grinned through nearly ten hours of roots music. One highlight of the event included the curiously infectious dusty folk blues of a rela-tively unknown band of brothers, Hobo Nephews from Minneapolis. The group incorporated a grab-bag of stringed instruments, dry har-monica and, oh yes, fl annel. Any-one with any partiality towards folk or blues needs to know about this band. Another band that got the in-creasingly intoxicated crowd foot stomping and hand clapping was Duluth bluegrass standbys, Tram-pled By Turtles. Trampled’s raw live energy has earned them a promising area reputation and a spot at next summer’s 10,000 Lakes Festival in Detroit Lakes (also showing up July 22-25 to play the 10K festival is a little band you may have heard of, The Dave Matthews Band). For over an hour, Trampled brewed up their familiar style of sticky, sweaty, speed-picking bluegrass and the crowd guzzled it up. By around 11:30 p.m. the crowd had drunk and danced its way into a friendly frenzy—just the sort of frenzy The Wailers were prepared to simmer. The reggae outfi t re-ceived a great deal of love from the entranced Fargo crowd as they fl oated and bounced through Mar-ley’s unmistakably mellow catalog. After all, what a rare treat for the great white north to experience a mid-winter piece of the Caribbean. The Wailers touched on a handful of Marley hits, including “Jammin,” “Exodus,” “No Woman, No Cry” and “One Love.” Regardless of what drew people to the Hub for the Old Man Winter Festival—the music, the booze, the camaraderie, the warmth—positive vibes wafted throughout. Jammin’ in January at the Old Man Winter Festival BY ALEX MORSTAD A&E Writer