This past Thursday night, at The CBU Pit Lounge, it was the punk rock trio, Static in Action, who battled their way to first place against Thought Machine at the 2nd annual CBUSU Battle of the Bands!
There was a lot on the line this year for the competition. The winner would walk away with $1500 in cash, have their song played on 101.9 The Giant, spend one full day recording at Sound Park Studios, and get a spot on the ECMA Campus Kick Off Show featuring the one and only Joel Plaskett! With five other bands all wanting the same thing, Static in Action knew it would be a tough competition.
The Battle of the Bands was a five-week event that started off with six great local bands. The opening night included Back Pocket Material, The Company, Painting Purple, Black Tooth Grin, Thought Machine and Static in Action. Each week there was a special tribute or challenge that these bands had to meet. It went from Michael Jackson tributes all the way to Bob Dylan. There was even an East Coast tribute night. It really kept the bands on their toes. SIA’s front man, Harry Doyle, found that covering someone else’s song each week was harder then he thought. “We were really used to playing our own songs all the time,” Doyle said. “It was really challenging to learn music that someone else had written every week. It really added to the creative process.”
SIA are very happy that they ended up entering the competition. “We looked at the prizes that they were offering this year and decided that it would be worth it,” Doyle recalled. “The money, alongside the recording time and the show with Joel Plaskett—it was really going to help our band move to where we want to be.” The CBUSU Battle of the Bands also helped the band write new material. “We were practicing so much to keep up with the challenges that not only were we getting tighter musically, but we also wrote a brand new song because of it!”
Thursday night’s show also saw a guest spot performance from last year’s winners, The Easy Bleeders. With the calibre of musicians that this competition is supporting, it is sure to have an important place in the local music scene in the years to come.
If you are looking for a chance to see this year’s winners, Static in Action, you will have plenty of opportunities during ECMA weekend. They will be playing Thursday, March 4th, at the CBU ECMA Campus kick off Show with Joel Plaskett. Later in the evening on Thursday night they will be at Governor’s Pub on the Esplanade for The East Coast Uprising 2010 show. On Friday evening, March 5th, they will be performing at Maxwell’s on Charlotte Street for the ECMA Loud Stage also featuring The Motorleague. And finally on Saturday afternoon, March 6th, SIA will be playing at the We Unite! Festival taking place in the Civic Centre Round Room located on the boardwalk in downtown Sydney. To listen to SIA or for more information on future shows, you can visit www.staticinaction.com or www.myspace.com/staticinaction.
