Mission Hills’ yearly Kaleidoscope festival for the arts is back as strong as ever, and for the first time, the rock band class hosted their event, Battle of the Bands, Monday, May 20, from 5:30 pm to 7 pm after school in the amphitheater. It featured the bands Rowdy Misfits, The Doorbells, Virtual Rebellion, Kachow, and Los Tumbados, all of which spent a lot of time preparing and practicing for the event to give the best show they could.
“All of us had to have two or three songs for our set-list. We started practicing for it about a month ago in class, and we’re excited but nervous to perform on Monday,” junior Gwen Espinoza said.
All of the bands playing in this event have a predetermined set-list that they’ve been practicing for the last four weeks, with most of these set-lists consisting of two to three songs. By the time they performed, most or all of these bands became experts at their chosen songs, and their performances entertained and provided a great experience to all the viewers, especially anyone who’s already into genres of rock and metal.
“Yeah, we’ve been practicing our songs for a while. Some of our [Kachow] songs are ‘Black Sheep,’ by Metric, ‘United States of Whatever,’ by Liam Lynch, and ‘Dreams,’ by Fleetwood Mac,” junior Nile Prokes said.
All the bands have been putting in consistent work to make their performances outstanding for the event, and this process also includes choosing songs that the crowd will enjoy and have fun listening to. The band Kachow played “Dreams,” by Fleetwood Mac, which is a song known by many. Band Rowdy Misfits played “Brutal,” by Olivia Rodrigo—a wildly popular song in the last year or so—and The Doorbells even played an original song, creating a unique twist to their set-list and setting them apart.
“I’m really hoping we get a fairly positive reaction from the crowd when we perform. I think everyone’s hoping for the same thing too. Even if it’s not everyone, just a few claps and cheers for us is enough. I also hope we get a lot of votes,” junior Damian Porter said.
Students among all the bands seem to share the same sentiment: they want positive and happy reactions for the crowd and hope that their performances are supported by their audience and peers. But there’s also some tension and anxiety because of the voting system that the event has in place. During the event and right after, the audience will be able to vote for the band that they enjoy and like the most—the votes will then decide who wins this battle and the final winning band will share a $200 cash prize that will be split between the members. Because of this, there’s a lot of pressure to go above and beyond, and major hopes that the audience will be supportive of the bands and cheer them on throughout their performances.
“This was honestly a great way for bands to get closer as well. Like, I think I’m a lot closer to my bandmates than I was before because we spent so much time practicing, and I’m grateful for it,” Espinoza said.
Not only is this experience for Battle of the Bands a great one for students to learn, practice, and get much better at their instruments and songs, but it was also a great team-building activity. Majority of the bands reported feeling closer with their peers after this month of practice, and claimed it to be a very light-hearted and enjoyable experience. While they are definitely nervous about performing, the process that got them there is not one to forget.
“It’s definitely scary, and performing with so many people from school and from outside of school gives us all nerves, but we’re doing a great job and I’m confident that everyone’s gonna do amazing,” Prokes said.
Ultimately, despite anxiety and nerves riddling all the bands and their members, the band Kachow came out as the winner. With an impressive 200 votes, Kachow’s members won the $200 cash prize that was evenly split between the five members, with band Rowdy Misfits coming in second.