Bands battle for Bigelow Bash

Registering at the crack of dawn, stage fright and an overload of rubber duckies were not… Registering at the crack of dawn, stage fright and an overload of rubber duckies were not enough to deter eight local bands from storming the Pitt stage Monday night and matching up against each other for a chance at playing at Bigelow Bash.

Eight different acts offered 10 minutes of their best stuff to a crowd of about 300 students in the Assembly Room of the William Pitt Union at the Pitt Program Council’s Battle of the Bands.

The winner of the competition procured the opening spot for headliner Live at Bigelow Bash on April 14.

The Saturn Five, the Chancellors, Approaching Infinity, Greg Fitzgerald, Pfunkt, Aaralyn, the Fixes and the Looks filled out the night’s roster of eclectic sounds.

Bassist Adrian Rooney for The Saturn Five woke at 6 a.m. two weeks ago in order to secure his band’s chance to perform at the battle.

“We wanted the opportunity to get some fans and meet everyone because we’re new to the area,” he said of his band’s enthusiasm for the night. “We wanted it for exposure.”

For the battling bands, Monday night’s event was their biggest shot at stardom yet. A spot in Bigelow Bash would offer unmatched exposure for an unsigned group, according to PPC’s director of special events, Roger White.

“I think it’s really great for bands to get exposure like this, and it’s a major opportunity to open for a multi-million dollar recording artist like Live,” White said. “We’re proud of the fact that we can provide a venue like this.”

The bands competing on Monday needed not to be all Pitt affiliates; only one Pitt student in each group was required for registration. This opened the battle to a larger selection of local talents, some of which have played gigs at Pittsburgh venues like Mr. Smalls Funhouse in Millvale, recorded albums and hosted tours in the past.

Sarah Ollio, incoming special events director at PPC, and J.J. Abott, incoming advertising director, hosted the battle.

Acts ranged from a solo piano and vocals by Greg Fitzgerald, to the Chancellors’ cover of the Chuck Berry classic “Johnny B. Goode,” to an audio-visual spectacle of rubber duckies by funk-techno-electronica band Pfunkt.

“Anything they want to bring in, they’re allowed to play,” White, said of the wide-variety of sounds for the night.

Judging the bands for the evening were students Jeremy Zerbe of WPTS radio and Justin Jacobs, an A’E writer at The Pitt News.

Music industry professionals Dave Sedalmeir and Frank Murga also came to rate the acts. Sedalmeir represents and produces college-aged local bands at The Talent Group in the Strip District, and Murga, who lists MTV’s Parental Control and ESPN’s Bound for Glory shows as his credits, works as a TV producer in Hollywood, Calif.

The four judges chose the top three acts of the evening, and the crowd decided the rankings by noise level with PPC’s decibel counter.

The Fixes came in third with a decibel reading of 105.4, and Pfunkt made in a close second with 109.6 decibels.

The Saturn Five, the victors of the battle and winners of the coveted Bigelow Bash spot, clocked in with an enormous 112 decibels of cheering from the crowd.

The five-member band riffs on keyboard, guitar, drums and bass with a self-proclaimed style of rock, a twinge of metal and a little bit of Kelly Clarkson, according to their Web page on MySpace.com.

The Saturn Five will open for alternative/modern rock group Live this Saturday at Bigelow Bash. The event begins at noon in front of the Cathedral, and Bigelow Boulevard will be shut down for the day.

Pfunkt, with their second-place title, won the opportunity to play at the Upper Campus Residential Student Life’s spring carnival but could not commit to the event because of a scheduling conflict.

Instead, The Fixes will play at the RSA event at 6 p.m. this Friday in the Sutherland Courtyard.