Rock and roll ain't noise pollution
Music competition at UVM raises funds for charity

Larry Frisoli | photo editor

Ten bands competed at the University of Vermont's (UVM) Battle of the Bands on Saturday, Dec 1.  The event was put together by UVM’s Community Service Scholarship Program (CSSP) and a publicity company, HyphEN Productions.  The competition took place at 242 Main, a music venue and youth center located in the same building as Memorial Auditorium.

Rock

Ten bands made it to the finals, after going through a three-day audition process in late November.  A group of students in the CSSP went through 20 bands before they came up with the 10 to compete in the finals.  According to members of the CSSP, a diverse range of music was selected.

The metal band Amadis took first place in Saturday’s competition.  The band received free studio recording time at Mad Cow Productions in Essex, Vt. photo courtesy of Todd Belfour

Sara Lubold was one of the CSSP event organizers who worked on the selection process.

“What happened was we had bands submit music online,” Lubold says. “That was pretty cool.”

Each band entered the battle through MySpace, linking information and music files via their band’s own Myspace accounts.  Once the bands had their information submitted, Lubold and crew got together one night to view the contestants using a projector screen and large sound system.  Lubold says that the process took a long time, but they wanted to make sure they were making good selections.

“In order to pick the bands that we wanted, those who were organizers got together, and we took a couple of hours and picked the bands,” Lubold says.

The afternoon of the event, the venue was bursting with local youth and UVM students alike.  242 Main is a youth center which doubles as a music venue for local bands.  Richard Bailey coordinates programs at the venue and has been working with local acts to play there for the past eight years.

Natalie Karlin, the adviser for CSSP, says that the event was put together almost entirely by three UVM students.  She says it went smoothly considering the amount of organizing required for an event this large.

“I was very impressed,” Karlin says. “They got helped from Ben Mench, from HyphEN Productions, but besides that they were basically on their own.”

The night ran smoothly, according to members of the CSSP, except for one last-second cancellation by local group, Maui in Ithaca.  Chris Gibbo, a member of the Sara Holbrook Community Center teen staff was able to perform in place of the missing act.

“[Gibbo] started the night by introducing the Sara Holbrook Center, and then he started playing,” says Casey Sexton of the Sarah Holbrook Community Center.

Throughout the night, 10 bands performed 10-minute sets of original music.  A steady flow of fans entered and left 242 Main, but money was being made for the Sarah Holbrook center as admission was charged at the entrance and donations were taken throughout, Sexton says.

Putting it all together

The CSSP students dedicate 80 hours of community service per year as part of their scholarships.  In years past, there had been group projects, but the majority of work took place on an individual level, Karlin says.  This event was a solid chunk of the community service for the members involved, she says, and it was a good illustration of how collective efforts can be productive.

The panel of judges consisted of members from the band The Grift, who performed a 30-minute set before the bands set up to compete. photo courtesy of Todd Belfour

“This was the project we had to kick it off,” Karlin says. “We’re urging the CSSP members to work together.”

Since early October, Lubold, Nick Balfour and Mian O’Dowd, began organizing this fund-raiser.  They worked with Casey Sexton, administrative and development coordinator of the Sarah Holbrook Community Center as well as Ben Mench of HyphEN Productions.  Mench was an available resource specializing in operating the event and working with the bands.

“Basically it was the three of us making all the phone calls, by the end we were at a meeting every day,” Lubold says. “It was pretty hectic for the last weeks, but for the show things went especially smooth.”

The venue

242 Main is a small space tucked away inside Burlington's Memorial Auditorium, and Richard Bailey had been the program coordinator and director for eight years.   He runs the venue and says that the JBL PA sound system is one of the best quality in the city.  The sound system was donated by Club Toast when it shut down in the 1980s, and 242 Main has produced professional audio ever since.

“People forget about us a lot,” Bailey says. “We’ve been around so long.”

In 1985, 242 Main was started by Bernie Sanders and his wife Jane. Sanders, then mayor of Burlington, set up this center under the City Arts department, and for many years the spot flourished as a community gathering place, Bailey says. It is currently one of Burlington's Parks and Recreation program sites.

“The shows that we do at 242 are a very small element of what the space is about; we have music education programs, afterschool music programs, and music camps,” Bailey says, “[The venue is] much more about developmental programs.  The live shows are all icing on the cake.”

After winter break, 242 Main will be home to an afterschool music program. Jan 9, students from local schools can attend workshops, music theory classes, individual lessons, and band exercises three days a week for six weeks.

 “242 Main has been around for 23 years,” Bailey says, “I attended the space in the '80s when I was a kid.  They used to host battle of the bands; they stopped doing that in the '90s because a lot of kids thought the competitive nature was a problem.”

Bailey says that he was more than happy to rent out the venue for a battle of the bands because the event doubled as a benefit concert. The battle was a motive on some level, but most people were getting to together and donating to a good cause, Bailey says.

“It put on a good spin to something that was completive,” Bailey says.

Fans gathered to watch bands compete, as money was collected at the door and during the show for the Sara Holbrook Community Center. photo courtesy of Todd Belfour

With a capacity of under 150 people, 242 Main is a fitting venue for smaller acts around the area.  The space is used for dances, parties, and all types of events. 

Bailey says that he would happily rent out the venue again for a future fund-raiser. Bailey admired the CSSP’s focus in producing a battle of the bands as a charitable event.

“Maybe it’s something we could do on an annual basis and we could have it be a benefit,” Bailey says. “They really showed me how it could be done.”