This is it.
The final chance to see who will represent the Fraser Valley’s best and brightest musical groups in CIVL’s ten week Battle of the Bands extravaganza!
After The Nacaals rocked Losses and Wild Card MG Graveyard out of the playoffs this past Saturday, it’s up to Chilliwack’s Empty After, Langley’s Derrival, and Abbotsford Wild Card Yes Men Jr. to decide the final band to make it into our deciding round and qualify for no less than $200 in gear!
101.7 Civl Radio and Warren Lane Pictures bring skateboarding documentary ‘Hicks on Sticks.’ It will be opening with a Zenga Bros bike messenger short ‘Road Sage.’
July 14th at the UFV Campus, lot E behind Aftermath. Admission is $2 per person, popcorn is by donation. Pack your car full, or bring a lawn chair and your ghetto blaster.
Hicks on Sticks (2012) official trailer from Warren Lane Pictures on Vimeo.
http://hicksonsticksmovie.com
Round 2 kicked off this past Saturday with a full house and performances from Poppy & the Pistols, Casinos, and Merciful Angles. We also upped the anti by adding a few more judges. At the end of the night, Merciful Angles come out on top and will be going on to the finals July 13.
Our first Fundraising Drive is on the horizon. It’s going to be awesome. Events include the final Battle of the Bands, a Punjabi Poetry Reading. Drive-In Theater featuring Vancouver skateboarding documentary Hicks on Sticks, and Friday July 19th will be a fundraising gala show at The Reach gallery with You Say Party‘s first local performance in years, along with emerging singer songwriter Casey Ambrose. The rest of the line-up is to be released. Check in for the rest of the line-up to be released and ticket information.
The final week of the first round was this past Saturday. It was a great show as Big Damn Hero’s started us off, followed by solid sets from both Derrival and MG Graveyard. In the end it was Derrival who emerged the winners of the evening and will be heading on to round 2. You can view performances from each band in round one on our youtube channel. Fan voting has commenced for the two wildcard spots. To put in a word for your top pick visit the CIVL Radio facebook page. This Saturday, June 22, the first week of round 2 we have Merciful Angel, Casinos, and Poppy & the Pistols competing. Things are getting serious.
It’s official; Anything can happen at the #CIVLBattle this summer!
After four straight opening round nights that saw the last band advance every night, including one night that saw a tie go to acts two and three, Empty After opened Week 5 with a raw three piece vox, guitar and drum performance that impressed the Aftermath crowd, still going strong with one night remaining on the qualifying round!
The #CIVLBattle is over the halfway hump in first round competition, and it was a perfect way to slide into the last two nights before our fan voting and playoff round! Continue reading
Hrdwtr open with a stellar set!
The first set of curve-balls thrown at this year’s #CIVLBattle reared their awkward head in week 3 of round 1, which saw Aldergrove’s Hrdwtr, Abbotsford’s Poppy and the Pistols, and Mission’s The Nacaals, who replaced Surrey’s Kara Kata Afrobeat Group last minute due to a scheduling conflict.
The set-up made for excitement enough, with a surprise entry from the highest rated submission not originally included in the initial 18 band competition, as was pared down from the whopping 47 submissions CIVL received from bands across the Fraser Valley.
But as Randy Bauchmann famously said, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!
Though Hrdwtr performed admirably in their opening slot with no shortage of catchy and well orchestrated tunes, it was The Nacaals and Poppy and the Pistols who finished off the night with, of all things, a tie for first place!
Poppy and the Pistols; One of two week 3 winners!
Both bands will now advance to the playoff round, and all bets are off for what happens in the next three weeks of preliminary competition!
Surprise last minute additions, The Nacaals make out with a week 4 tie to move on!
Stay tuned for next week when Abbotsford rock quartet Minnesota Nice, Langley ska-punkers Guts and Glory, and Abbotsford post-hardcore virtuosos Losses square off in what is bound to be one of the barn burner nights in this first round of the #CIVLBattle!
Fraser Valley’s Battle Of The Bands is off to a strong start, showcasing the talent of both seasoned veterans and energetic newcomers in the Fraser Valley music scene. The younger acts (like Casinos) have the clear advantage of energetic crowd participation, seeing a rush of fans and acquaintances fill the dance floor with loud cheers and polite dance moves (awkward sidestepping mostly, it’s all the rage these days). Meanwhile the long committed acts (like Old Mare) have the advantage of confident stage presence, having spent the greater part of ten years learning how to balance fatherhood with touring, translating the craft of musicianship into the writing and recording process of full length albums, and building a strong fanbase to share their work with. Seeing both sides of the artistic spectrum share stages is indeed a fascinating experience. Lonely Cave Kings from Langley played a solid set and nicely complemented the other two bands.
One would be tempted to call the results a popularity contest (with Casinos taking 1st prize while Old Mare placed 3rd), but to say one act is better than another would unfairly discounting the advantages and disadvantages faced by both artists. If anything the success of a Battle Of The Bands contest should be judged by the sense of shared creative expression it is able to inspire, not by who the eventual top prize is given to.
The fun continues next week with an equally diverse line-up with Folk-rock group Hrdwtr, from Aldergrove, Langley brothers Poppy And The Pistols playing alternative rock, and Surrey Kara Kata Afrobeat Group.
