Band competitions — they’re all pretty much the same, right? Garage Wars, Battle of the Bands, My Band is Better than Your Band, or What Band Sucks the Least Worst; jaded local scensters have seen it all before. A gaggle of competitors, mostly relative unknowns, parade doggy-show-style before a panel of drunken judges with dubious credentials. The band who brought the most friends along is ultimately declared the winner only to implode into complete obscurity a short time later. If you’ve been nodding along with the preceding statements, Isaac Creasey would like to change your mind.
Creasey is promotions manager of MacLeod Trail venue The Stetson and a veteran of Calgary punk stalwarts Downway. This is his second time hosting this particular fight club, and yes, it’s bigger (twice as many bands, double the venues, double the prizes) and probably better, but the original guiding principals remain standing and unscathed. Firstly, the bands do not submit to a demeaning audition and application process to gain their slots on the card for Band vs Band 2. Every last one was hand-picked and personally invited to participate by Creasey himself. “I started with a list of 50 or 60 bands — there’s that many bands of that calibre in the city,” he says with a hint of surprise. “Last year I had 16 bands. This year I had 16 bands in 16 seconds.” The Underground stepped up to provide a second venue so that 32 bands could square off in the same four-month timeframe, with two bands going head to head, two nights per week. Bands that win at the Underground compete next at the Stetson, and vice-versa. Who’s-on-first is decided by a classic coin flip.
Secondly, “It’s not a popularity contest,” Creasey stresses. “There’s three judges on the judging panel every night. They count for 75 per cent of the band’s score.” Street cred and reputation are no surefire indicators of a band’s chances. “What a band has done in their past, or how many albums a band has released or how tight a band appears on record has nothing to do with this competition. It’s all based on the live performance that night, and the truth of the matter is, some bands bring it and some bands don’t. If you have a rough night and you train wreck, you’re not moving on in the competition.”
Last year, The Rocky Fortune ended up grabbing the gold. “I had them pegged from the start. They won out against a lot of great bands — Cranston Foundation, Kilbourne, Five Star Affair, Vailhalen, Gunther, Beija Flor,” Creasey says, offering up an admittedly impressive list of local talent. This go-round, there have already been a few upsets and surprises. Punk rock upstarts Press Gang took out scene veterans The Cripple Creek Fairies before being put away by The Evidence. Bantamweight folk-hero Matt Blais (rhymes with play) has toppled several louder, heavier Goliaths to survive to the semi-final round. “Matt Blais is very definitely an oddball in this competition. He is very much predominantly a folk-type artist, but when he brings the whole band out, that totally changes. It becomes more rock and very energetic.”
By the time you read this, only two bands will be left to duke it out for the Grand Prize: $2,500 cash, five days in the studio and $3,000 worth of promotional assistance. Even the losers should look good with certificates for tattoos, hairdos and some shiny new gear. Creasey sees Band Vs Band 2 as a positive contributor to the music scene he’s a proud part of. “All these bands were chosen because of the attitude they have,” he says. “A lot of bands that are doing this are doing it as a personal favour to me. There’s nothing negative about it, I stress that. There’s really no losers, it’s just whoever played better that night. You’re not a bad band, you just didn’t play as good on that night.”
