Thursday September 2nd was a night of excitement and talent as the Wendy's Lounge was filled with University at Albany students ready to listen to a night of musical performers battling it out for a chance to be named the best.
The Clash of the Bands competition was comprised of seven very talented acts: Tarot, Crayolasaurus Rex, Life Among the Trees, Ashes of Shiloh, Kneebenders, individual act Brendan Marin and The LateShift. Each act had to have at least one member from UAlbany. The music ranged from mellow café style to punk and rap.
The performers were judged by a panel of five people: Dan Crowley, this past summer's interim director for marketing; Jessica Dolnick, president of Students for Live Music; Pamela Malatesta, assistant director for the Office of Student Involvement and Leadership; Brandon Patterson, the Student Association Supreme Court Chief Justice; and finally Andrew White, program director of WCDB 90.9 FM.
Jessica Dolnick described the judging system and grand prize. Each judge had a table of five categories in which to score each performance on with each category being worth 20 points, making a grand total of 100 possible points. The performers were judged on crowed appeal, stage presence, hustle and flow of the music, uniqueness and overall performance.
Each performer had five minutes to show the judges what they had in hopes of winning the grand prize. The winner of the Clash of the Bands will be opening for Third Eye Blind at the fall semester concert in the SEFCU arena.
Dolnick also added, "The Clash of the Bands gives the students in bands a chance to feel [like they are] a part of the community." This seems to have been the case, as other students were encouraging the performers on stage to have some fun. One student was even trying to sing along and made up dance moves to some of the songs!
Before the music started, Ashes of Shiloh told the ASP that they came out to, "get their name out there" but also "for the love of music."
In a similar conversation with Crayolasaurus Rex, they said, "How often do you get the chance to open for Third Eye Blind?" They were very excited about the prize but it was a surprise when they said that they put their band together just so they could compete! They said, "At first it was for the prize, but now we're having a lot of fun with it."
As the music played and the crowd cheered, the judges marked their papers to determine the winner. The show started at 7pm and ended roughly at 9pm. Once all the acts had done their very best the judges were left with the difficult task of choosing the winner.
After about fifteen minutes of calculating and deliberating the scores the winner was announced, and it was Brendan Martin.
Brendan Martin is a senior here at UAlbany who likes to play basketball and work on his music. He is very serious about what he does as far as his schoolwork, with an excellent GPA in the Business department, as well as his music.
He has performed in other venues and has opened for Fabolous, Juelz Santana and New Boyz. Martin seemed to be so humbled and ecstatic about being named the winner of the Clash of the Bands. "It feels really great to win the Clash of the Bands with rap," he said after accepting congratulations. He emphasized how serious he was about making his music career successful and how support from all was greatly appreciated. At the end of a brief interview he said that he was headed off to the studio to work on his music.
Congratulations to Brendan Martin on the win. Be sure to check him out on facebook at www.facebook.com/BMartinnn and bid him congratulations and good luck on opening for Third Eye Blind.
There is talk of another show in October - how about a Girls versus Boys competition, "Clash of the Sexes"? We shall see.
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B. Martin / Blog
Solo Senior Rap Artist Wins Clash of the Bands
Thursday September 2nd was a night of excitement and talent as the Wendy's Lounge was filled with University at Albany students ready to listen to a night of musical performers battling it out for a chance to be named the best. The Clash of the Bands competition was comprised of seven very talented acts: Tarot, Crayolasaurus Rex, Life Among the Trees, Ashes of Shiloh, Kneebenders, individual act Brendan Marin and The LateShift. Each act had to have at least one member from UAlbany. The music ranged from mellow café style to punk and rap. The performers were judged by a panel of five people: Dan Crowley, this past summer's interim director for marketing; Jessica Dolnick, president of Students for Live Music; Pamela Malatesta, assistant director for the Office of Student Involvement and Leadership; Brandon Patterson, the Student Association Supreme Court Chief Justice; and finally Andrew White, program director of WCDB 90.9 FM. Jessica Dolnick described the judging system and grand prize. Each judge had a table of five categories in which to score each performance on with each category being worth 20 points, making a grand total of 100 possible points. The performers were judged on crowed appeal, stage presence, hustle and flow of the music, uniqueness and overall performance. Each performer had five minutes to show the judges what they had in hopes of winning the grand prize. The winner of the Clash of the Bands will be opening for Third Eye Blind at the fall semester concert in the SEFCU arena. Dolnick also added, "The Clash of the Bands gives the students in bands a chance to feel [like they are] a part of the community." This seems to have been the case, as other students were encouraging the performers on stage to have some fun. One student was even trying to sing along and made up dance moves to some of the songs! Before the music started, Ashes of Shiloh told the ASP that they came out to, "get their name out there" but also "for the love of music." In a similar conversation with Crayolasaurus Rex, they said, "How often do you get the chance to open for Third Eye Blind?" They were very excited about the prize but it was a surprise when they said that they put their band together just so they could compete! They said, "At first it was for the prize, but now we're having a lot of fun with it." As the music played and the crowd cheered, the judges marked their papers to determine the winner. The show started at 7pm and ended roughly at 9pm. Once all the acts had done their very best the judges were left with the difficult task of choosing the winner. After about fifteen minutes of calculating and deliberating the scores the winner was announced, and it was Brendan Martin. Brendan Martin is a senior here at UAlbany who likes to play basketball and work on his music. He is very serious about what he does as far as his schoolwork, with an excellent GPA in the Business department, as well as his music. He has performed in other venues and has opened for Fabolous, Juelz Santana and New Boyz. Martin seemed to be so humbled and ecstatic about being named the winner of the Clash of the Bands. "It feels really great to win the Clash of the Bands with rap," he said after accepting congratulations. He emphasized how serious he was about making his music career successful and how support from all was greatly appreciated. At the end of a brief interview he said that he was headed off to the studio to work on his music. Congratulations to Brendan Martin on the win. Be sure to check him out on facebook at www.facebook.com/BMartinnn and bid him congratulations and good luck on opening for Third Eye Blind. There is talk of another show in October - how about a Girls versus Boys competition, "Clash of the Sexes"? We shall see.
Reply