The audience at last Friday’s Battle of the Bands came to New Brookland Tavern expecting a showdown of the best bands in the area. The floor in front of the stage filled up almost as soon as the doors opened, proving that the final round of the two month-long competition would be the most exciting yet.
The last four of the 37 who began the battle, Octopus Jones, Invader, Dance Commander and Foley, made sure of it.
After three rounds of intense shows and loud fans, those four bands finally competed for the grand prize of $2,000. Octopus Jones, an experimental rock band from Myrtle Beach, both opened and stole the show, sending fans into a frenzy after its first song and ultimately walking away with the top cash prize. “It was like Christmas morning when you’re eight years old. We turned New Brookland Tavern into a dance party afterwards,” bassist Clay Carlisle said.
When asked about the band’s game plan going into the competition, Carlisle said the band mainly tried to garner a lot of support.
“We just tried to get as many people as we could that would dance with us. We mostly used word of mouth, but we also advertised on Facebook and MySpace and put up fliers.”
The five judges of the battle used five categories to score the bands and decide the winner, including professionalism, musicianship, showmanship, how well the band worked as an ensemble and audience participation. Although Invader, a local metal band and the second place winner, brought in a large and extremely energetic crowd, judge Herbert Wilson said that Octopus Jones was the only band to earn consistently high marks in all categories.
“Overall, I thought they were the best band that night. They brought out a good amount of people and they put on a really good show. They’re all good musicians and they did well in all of the categories,” Wilson said. “Octopus Jones was just the best band across the board.”
The last 10 bands left in the competition received prizes, with the fifth through tenth places winning $150 each. Third and fourth place bands, Dance Commander and Foley, respectively, received $300 apiece and the second-place winner, Invader, won $500.
Octopus Jones is made up of college students, with three members who attend Coastal Carolina University and one member, Chris Wilson, who attends USC as a biology student. Besides two minor lineup changes, the group has been together for three years after meeting initially at Coastal Carolina. Describing the band’s sound as “spankwave boogie,” Carlisle cites the Talking Heads and Tom Waits as major influences. The band plans to use its winnings to record an EP in December that will hopefully be released in January or February. Check out Octopus Jones at myspace.com/octopusjones or on its Facebook page.
