Battle of the Bands.

[metalmaniac]

Hey,

My band (www.myspace.com/risebandmusic) has got a National BOTB next weekend... and im a lil worried as its being professionally judged that they will see my band as a lil gimmicky.

See my guitarist uses a 7 string guitar.. im on 7 string bass and a fretless 4 ... and the drummer is only 15 and our singer is midget.

Dont get me wrong we do use every string.. not just for show.. but im worried the judges may see us as a lil gimmicky.

Im expectin (and know) a couple of the bands to be normal 4 pieces with normal tunings standard guitars etc. Normal 4 string bassist who plays the rythm (arguably as he should)

(we use drop A now)

Anyone got an opinion.

CHeers

Ash


PS the songs on the site are old versions.. theyve since been slightly jazzed up to accomodate the 7 stringedness except for Seconds from the Edge which is on a fretless.

Edited September 14, 2007 by metalmaniac

[bassboy115]

Being different can be a good thing!

[Subthumper]

Battle of the the bands are allways a bit gimicky in themselves.Personally I'd just treat it as any other gig,enjoy the playing and not worry too much about the outcome as its allways such a mix of styles.Good luck.
Cheers Just

[jacko]

You're putting on a show. Be a showman, that's what it's all about. if the judges really are professional, they won't care how many strings you're using, they just want to be entertained.

[The Funk]

I don't know why but I'm picturing a midget frontman dancing around a mini Stonehenge.

[OldGit]

[quote name='jacko' post='65300' date='Sep 25 2007, 01:23 PM']You're putting on a show. Be a showman, that's what it's all about. if the judges really are professional, they won't care how many strings you're using, they just want to be entertained.[/quote]

+1
Cynically, BOTB's are generally won by the most entertaining band that takes the most supporters.
Do that and the number of strings or height of your singer will not matter.

[cheddatom]

Every botb i've been to or played at have had questionable results.

We played one once, and they gave us a list of the things the bands were being judged on. Last on the list was "number of people who showed up to watch you". They were asking the audience, as they turned up, who they had come to support. So basically, it was a local popularity contest.

The only way to enjoy BOTB's (as someone already said) is to treat it as a normal gig. That way you won't be annoyed when some crap band takes home the prize.

[OldGit]

[quote name='cheddatom' post='71101' date='Oct 8 2007, 04:16 PM']Every botb i've been to or played at have had questionable results.

We played one once, and they gave us a list of the things the bands were being judged on. Last on the list was "number of people who showed up to watch you". They were asking the audience, as they turned up, who they had come to support. So basically, it was a local popularity contest.

The only way to enjoy BOTB's (as someone already said) is to treat it as a normal gig. That way you won't be annoyed when some crap band takes home the prize.[/quote]


or .......
You can play them at their own game:
Really turn on the show for that 20 minutes, polish it until it shines, go on and play as if you are playing Wembley stadium.
Get organised so you can take more mates than anyone else to every BOTB you enter, be more entertaining than anyone else .. then you may not "win" but if you then flyer everyone else in the room you should get the other bands' crowds interested in you as well and along to your normal gigs ...
Do that enough and you can forget the BOTB's or pick and choose the ones you go in for.

Given the way most bands approach BOTB gigs it's easy to look so much better than most who think their inherent talent will shine out, even if they don't actually do any work towards honing it or bother take any mates along ....

[OldGit]

[quote name='cheddatom' post='71101' date='Oct 8 2007, 04:16 PM']We played one once, and they gave us a list of the things the bands were being judged on. Last on the list was "number of people who showed up to watch you". They were asking the audience, as they turned up, who they had come to support. So basically, it was a local popularity contest.[/quote]

Well der...

Of course it is, just like every time you play a pub gig and want to be booked back: Pull a crowd -> get more gigs.

What do you think they judge them on? The number of notes in each bar of the lead break or your interesting use of polymodal chromaticism?

It's really back to the ol' theme again. if you aren't entertaining enough or organised enough to draw a crowd then you need to review your modus operandi and reason d'etre too ..