Eccentric rapper steals show, wins annual Carolina Productions event
Faux fur, Mitt Romney and Four Loko found a place on the Russell House Ballroom stage Wednesday night for Carolina Productions’ annual Battle of the Bands competition.
Four Columbia bands brought everything from rock to pop punk to some winning raps, with Risky Business — the off-the-wall game changer of the night — crowned the victor in the battle. The group, led by rapper and fourth-year business student Taylor Gibson, won a new Xbox and the opening spot for Sequoyah in the USC Homecoming concert.
There were neither lighters nor beers held high in the air — it was quite an orderly concert. The audience of about 50 sat in a semicircle 15 feet from the stage, before CP’s concert coordinator Jesse Fayne summoned the crowd to the front of the stage after the first act.
“Lose your whims for a second, let’s go. Let’s make this work,” Fayne said.
Whirled Beet, the show openers, played a set of rock with a touch of reggae. The three-man band’s electric guitars dominated most of the set, but a brief run on bright purple conga drums during “Sweettart Heart” added an extra something to the rundown.
Pop-punk Columbia regulars A Brighter Life followed, with lead singer Jordan Kirk swinging his microphone in circles and jumping up and down across the stage — it was a scene straight from New Brookland Tavern.
They are “five sexy dudes making love to your ear holes,” Fayne said in the band’s introduction.
A Brighter Life brought out a couple of closet head-bangers in the crowd, singing at the edge of the stage and lacing in a few lyrical profanities.
They had all the energy, and as veterans to the Battle of the Bands stage, the guys put on a good show. They got into it — cracking jokes between songs, setting a laid-back, but more realistic, concert experience.
As the next band, Set Ashore, set up for its performance, an instrumental version of Kelly Clarkson’s “A Moment Like This” blasted through the speakers. It was weird.
Set Ashore, who threw a hand-written “Sex Ashore” sign over A Brighter Life’s drum kit, had some pitch problems.
After signing up for Battle of the Bands, Ashore’s lead singer and drummer bailed, leaving the new lineup only two times to practice before the show. Performing a song titled “You Only Call Me A Man When I Cut the Grass,” the interim lead singer admitted to writing all their songs just last week.
The show ended on the best note possible with the eccentric: Risky Business. Gibson took the stage clad in a faux-fur pea coat, red slacks, white loafers, headscarf, heavy eye makeup and glitter. Think Ke$ha.
Gibson requested his own house music — Melissa Etheridge, of course — which played from a makeshift spin table: a Four Loko-stickered Macbook and an American flag-draped table which read “Never Again Y’all.”
They weren’t eloquent, but the Risky Business raps were certainly entertaining. Gibson told stories of trips to Disney World, recounting a few words to fellow park-goers: “Aerosmith is better than your parents, and you can’t accept it.”
He dedicated his follow-up rap to the “Walk this Way” greats, leading into a post-song rant on Mitt Romney saying, “That dude is a Ken doll past his prime.”
Bringing Occupy Wall Street, orange soda and Amanda Bynes into his set, Gibson offered the audience just one more nugget of wisdom at the end: “Abstinence for everyone. No condoms, because we haven’t hit 7 billion people yet.”
The show, despite a slow start, made its way to greatness with Gibson’s slightly offensive but nonetheless entertaining performance. His win was well-deserved, and he closed the night with a crowning remark: “Don’t vote for Mitt Romney.”