Longfellow Wins Battle of the Bands in Bird Arena
By Nicholas L. - 3/7/2002
On Friday, February 8th, Ohio University's Department of Campus Recreation held it's first ever Battle of the Bands in Bird Arena following the OU club hockey 6-3 win over nationally ranked Penn State. During the third period of play, area bands began to haul their equipment into the somewhat chilly arena and waited for the final buzzer to sound.
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As soon as the game ended, students working at Bird Arena and students in the Department of Campus Recreation began to hastily set up for the "battle" to commence. Two stages were put together at one end of the rink, both consisting of hard rubber mats that were laid down onto the ice. This allowed for one band to set up while another was playing and made the event run quite smoothly. Sound equipment was provided, including microphones and monitors.
In all, six bands took part, including Flinch, Neutral (www.neutralband.com), Longfellow (www.longfellowfan.com), and Streetside Strong (remaining band names unavailable for story). Each band had a 20 minute set allotted to them and the order was determined alphabetically. As the bands played, people skated on the ice to the music.
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Open skates after hockey games have been going on for some time, but having live music concurrently was something new for open skate frequenters. Judging for the competition was done by a panel. The winning band received half of the admission fee of $3 per person. An estimated 200 people attended the event.
At the end of the evening, the judges voted Longfellow as best band. The majority of the evening had a punk/hard rock type feel, but Longfellow offered up a different sound for the skating crowd with a mix of rock, pop, and jazz. The group, consisting of four music majors here at OU, have been playing out now for about 5 months and have found a way to mesh the sounds of an acoustic guitar, vibraphone, electric bass, and drum set into a distinct sound.
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Longfellow plans on releasing its first independent album this spring. For more information on Longfellow, check out their website listed above.
