2000 AHS Battle o' the Bands

First, a little background:

The members of Punky Bluester are no strangers to Band Battles. In fact, they competed in one last year and lost...by two votes. The Battle of the Bands in question was the 1999 Ashbrook High School Battle of the Bands, and they were competing against Rampage and Lucid for the big title of the kings of the music scene. When voting time came, it was a mad hullaballoo. An inefficient voting system and crooked voters in favor of all three groups tossed the odds back and forth. As it turns out, Rampage had the most cheaters.

Needless to say, PB was a bit bitter. They made a vow that day to return the next year to bust the roof off of that cafeteria. They dilligently practiced, they worked together a setlist, they worked both separately and together to hone their skills in preparation for the big return.

...But first, there was a little practice. At the Junior Talent Show, only a month before the B.O.B., PB consented to play to try to get a little boost in ticket sales for the prom-charity. Against a panel of "grown-up pageant girl" judges, PB had little to no chance of winning, so they turned their back on the critics and played their heart and soul out for the audience. They didn't win, but they gained a number of fans that night.

Back at the Boom Boom Room, things were getting tense. Numerous folks sat in on practices, so PB could gauge their reactions with those of their overall peer group. Special thanks go out to Trey Benfield, Matt Habicht, Josh Herrimann, Lee Scarborough, Carson Hall, Clint Pilkey and a bunch of other members of the BBR-Crew (especially Emily, don't think I forgot her) for helping the band out by not leaving with plugged ears during this period. Slowly but surely, they got their stuff together, people were nodding and saying, "Hey, that's not bad." Even Todd and Omar, members of the competing band Censorshi* gave their approval. Soon, a stage show was put together, featuring the talents of Lee, Muraco Wright, and Matt Smith (who wound up not showing, but was still there in spirit), as well as others who would later step up to the revolving guest-mike.

Post-production on PB's promotional video for "She Says" went into development on Tuesday. The resulting pause-record-pause-record editting by Eric and Sean McC left a bunch of computer screens in between otherwise humorous panels, but all-in-all it was a hit to everyone but the two of them.

Friday, the 14th had come. The video had been shown, and everyone was pretty hyped by everything except for the exceptionally dreary day. Everybody packed their stuff into the cafeteria, and waited for the crowds to show. There was an opening by the F-View group Alias, then the first competitors, Stimulus stepped onto the stage. Their selection of musical palate, Korn, Green Day, Blink-182, Lit and Godsmack among them, left a little to be desired, but there was no doubt that there was talent behind the playing. Censorshi* came next and Todd and Omar blew the crowd away with their "punk-as-fuck" attitude, Omar's crazy chicken dancing, and their ever-popular closer (thanks for the shout out, Omar), "I'm a Fucking Reject." The stage was set...Punky Bluester had a lot to live up to. Could they pull it off?

The following review of PB's show comes from Trey "Metal Is For Losers" Benfield:

First off, I want to give the history of my "Metal is for Losers" t-shirt. I was taking a nap at about 4:30 on the afternoon of the Battle O' The Bands. When I was interrupted by one Ben Spencer on the telephone. He wanted to make a side trip to Essics to create some funky phresh Punky Bluester oriented t-shirts for the big night. Eric, Josh Keltz and I owe our less than phenomenol Pre-Cal averages to the designing of t-shirts and the creation of vulgar skits, so I had the Metal is For Losers design in the back of my head. ONe and a half hour later, BEn and I left Essics with my Orange PB "MIFL" shirt, a lame drinking shirt, and a hearty distaste for sporting goods. Needless to say, my affection for Punky B. was greeted with aggression from Anonymous Purple Haired Boy, and Scary Unnatractive Nine Inch Nails Girl. Now on to the show.

I was pretty damned tired by the time Punky Bluester started their set, as I had wasted my energy making fun of the Walter kid from Empire Records pour his heart out while singing Korn covers, and slam dancing to the punker than a beeyutch set of Censorshit, Censorship, Censorshasterix, whatever presented by Omar "Camel Rida" Albayati and his crew. I was in the front of the crowd with the rest of the PB hardcore fans when Davo and the other lads broke into a series of PB originals including She says, Moonlight serenade, Goth Girl, and my personal favorite Kudzu. I particularly liked the medley of Windshield/Broken down, for no particular reason other than it kicked ass.I couldn't keep up with the some of the more energetic young uns like the saucy, Columbian Love Goddess known as Libby Amaya and Ali "Devil Girl" Kelkenburg, so I was pleased when I got to chill to the instrumental, vaguely relaxing, G-TownRagaskafunkpunk. Another highlight was when to the joy of the teeny boppers, the fellows started playing "Dammit" by those lovable sellouts Blink-182( Surprisingly, I even saw Cameron "Punker than thou, I hate Oasis and anyone who says otherwise sucks" Smith cheering like a Iranian whose just witnessed a US embassy explode) To the joyous school girls dismay, PB pulled an Elvis Costello on SNL and broke into Radio Radio. I was thoroughly satisfied. Other highlights include a pimp-esque Muraco "I'm Funk Incarnate" Wright singing Shaft, and Eric busting out the coolest bass solo that Flea's never done while covering "Got the Time" by Joe Jackon (The one with shoes.) Oh yes, and Lee "I like Fishing and Crack" Scarborough sang back up while Eric soothed the Ladies with the Backstreet Boys "I want it that way." I was told earlier in the night that Cameron, Anna, and I were going to sing female backup for a cover of RBF's "She has a girlfriend now" And that I was going to need to wear a dress. So near the end of the set, I go over to put the dress on and Matt "I'm a Fascist" Adams informs Punky Bluester that they have time for only one song. They DIdn't choose She has a Girlfriend now. I'm in a dress for no apparent reason, And I think the NIN bitch started scoffing at me. Eric told me to come on stage, and I danced around through a surf song which sounded suspiciously like the Ventures "Walk Don't Run". Ralphy "I'm a Cuban Chicken theif" Diaz violated my body at this point. THe HIghlight of the entire evening came next, when in the middle of the surf song, the guys broke into the forbidden RBF cover known as "Beer" risking suspicion. All of the cool kids skanked and sang, and I was still in a dress, but everything was alright. In the end, Punky Bluester won and everyone had a helluva time, except the purple haired kid, whose was found three days later passed out in a ditch outside of Kansas city with a strung out Kool-Aid man by his side.

Pictures:

Owais, from the top, over the top
Ali K. and Libby gettin' crazy
David in a poncho
Eric in that punk-rawk bass pose
Ben with tha' fro
Eric, David's dad videos
Ben fros again
David croons...
Ben rides...
David stretches a chord
Eric bashes a note
Ben, framed by the cymbals
Me, I mean...Eric
Josh C., for once
C Is For Cookie
Taste the Frejoles!
Josh C., for twice
This is punk...
So is this
David and Trey duet
Will and Eric duet
Keltz, Dave and Trey
It's BSB time!
David beats stuff
Ben takes a sip
Your funk-daddy
I'm squishing your head!
BSB part 2
Trey...in a dress?