For those of you who did not read my Zinefest article, I will reiterate that I am neither a writer nor a music critic by trade. I am a photographer, and what I really wanted to do on the night of this show was curl up on the couch with my dog and watch The Lord of the Rings (special editions of course!). But when I found out that if I didn't do this then the whole project would be scrapped, for you Richmond, I drove to one of my least favorite places in the area, the West End. Now I will stumble through this article in an attempt to give you the coverage that the event deserves. As a very drunk girl would tell me later in the night, "You know this is the Battle of the Bands right? Like you know how fucking important this shit is?!" Yes, I am aware, and I can only hope my writing proves worthy.

When I arrived at The Playing Field, the front room was bathed in an orange light, offset by dark green walls. The pink-washed stage was set for The Velvet Nines, but it remained devoid of band members for quite sometime. Renee, director of public relations for Rockitz was busy running around looking for the 5^th judge and coordinating various other aspects of the show, so I set up shop behind the judges' table. Soon I discovered I was sitting next to some members of The Velvet Nines, so I asked one, "Is there anything you'd like me to know?"

"Nah, I'd rather you just hear it and find out," he told me. When they finally took the stage, I was delighted to see the singer strutting around, swinging his hips like Elvis, karate kicking, throwing his head back, and really working up a sweat under the pink lights. This guy was going to give me some interesting shots. His vocal style reminded me of Jim Breuer's AC/DC impressions, but maybe that's because I know more about comedy than music. The lyrics left a little to be desired, but the music held my interest, as well as the stage presence commanded by the singer and backed up by the guitarist. The bassist went pretty much unnoticed (not in a musical sense but physically on the stage) until he dropped his bass towards the end of their set. "Give it up for Mike dropping his bass!" the singer shouted to the crowd and everyone cheered in good humor. They debuted a new song, "Passerby", which ended up being my favorite song of their set. They finished off with a bang, the singer going down on his knees playing high on his guitar vis-a-vis Michael J Fox in Back to the Future, and after the final note the lead guitarist chucked his instrument to the floor.

My first thought when A Good Natured Riot mounted the stage was, "Holy shit that girl's got a washboard!" Harking back to my "Zinefest" article, nothing gets me going like novelty instruments! It turned out that this girl was a jack of all folk instruments, and showed skill on the washboard, a box drum, and a tambourine, as well as singing. On most songs she sang harmony with the stand-up bassist, as the main singer crooned sweet folksy tunes akin to the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack. Not that I disliked the main singer, but I enjoyed the vocals of the washboard girl a little more. Her voice sounded a bit deeper and thicker, with more resonance than her singing partner. The group also sported a fiddle and a banjo, with the main singer playing acoustic guitar. They actually got the crowd dancing, which none of the other bands really managed to achieve in such a dance-prohibiting space with the decidedly older west-end crowd. Their set ended with an enthusiastic send-off by the audience, which Renee noted to the judges.

59H20 played next, and as I eyed the double-decker keyboard, the photographer in me cringed, as usually these instruments prove difficult to photograph. Fortunately for me, the keyboardist was quite the character (and admitted to me later that he was once a photographer, so he knew about being seen). As I approached him from the side to get my shot, he flashed me his best "O" face, and proceeded to ham it up throughout the set. He squished heads in the crowd with his fingers, played air guitar with the actual guitarist, and sometimes stooped low between the keyboard decks, peering out at the crowd with an amusingly eerie expression. Instrumentally I really enjoyed this band, but my impression of the vocalist waxed and waned. It seemed she could do really well holding long notes, but when singing strings of words with shorter syllables, her voice got a little flat, and didn't hold the same power and attitude that her physical presence exuded on the stage.

The night was feeling long by the time The Jay O'Ferrell Band started their set. The crowd was dwindling and moving on to other sections of the venue, which sported fuse-ball, pool, and poker tables. Their choice of opening with a Pearl Jam cover might not have been the best as there was a sleepy feeling enveloping me, and from the looks of it, a few others in the crowd as well. Though the song seemed to mesh well with their style, it did nothing to get me excited for their set. None of the members really worked the stage much, which also discouraged me from re-energizing, though they did well to turn the bass up higher than any other band that night. The bassist looked a bit like he may have paddled up from a Louisiana swamp, which did interest me, but by the end of their set I was wondering if I would make it through the set break-down to the next band.

By the time Caught in the Rift finished their sound check, my excitement over the beautifully decorated saxophone was dying at the realization that the bongo-player who played with them earlier in the Battle of the Bands competition wasn't there. It seems some of the original members of the band are no longer with them. Though I missed the bongos, the band still played well. The singer gave his usual star performance, often closing his eyes as he sang what Meredith Ripple (one of our writers) refers to as very "human" songs.

The band scoring process was three-fold. Internet viewers cast votes for Youtube videos of the final bands, each paying audience member was given a ticket to cast in their favorite band's box, and the five judges scored the bands in areas ranging from technical proficiency to audience reaction. When all these areas were tallied together, the winner, and my favorite band of the night, was A Good Natured Riot. During their set they had mentioned that at first they thought this did not seem to be the competition for their style of music. Clearly proved wrong, they won the grand prize of a $1,000 Metro Sound gift certificate as well as a chance to be featured by us next month. Caught in the Rift came in second, winning a $500 Rocket Pop Media Music Video. After them came The Velvet Nines earning 5 hours of sound support by Amanda Sound for an evening. 59H20 came in fourth, winning 4 hours of recording time at Snake Oil Recording and a $100 gift certificate from Plan 9, and The Jay O'Ferrell Band rounded out the group winning 4 hours of recording time with Red Amp Audio and a photo shoot with celebrity photographer Wolfgang Jasper.

By Photographer and Staff Coordinator: Megan Wagner

Megan earned her BFA in photography from VCU and has studied art for over 10 years. She has been living with musicians for most of her 4 years in Richmond, often photographing band practices to take a break from her fine-art photography homework. Though she has no musical talent (unless you count some wicked finger-drumming), music has always been a strong influence in her life, and she almost never leaves the house without headphones on. She's been a die hard Tool fan for seven years, though she has an eclectic taste ranging from Cake to The Coup. Check out some of her other photography at wagnerme.com.

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