Pipeline's 5-battle series a showcase for local rock

By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Staff Writer

•	Battle of the Rock Bands with guests The Lonely Kings, 2Face4 and Neural Void 6 p.m. Thursday $5 Pipeline Cafe 589-1999 Also: Preliminary competitions continue June 6, 13 and 20. Final battle June 27.

"We've had a lot of live bands in here lately who do Hawaiian-type music, but we really haven't done any live rock music for about eight months," said Pipeline marketing director Gretchen Broderson. "And there are a lot of good up-and-coming bands in town that really haven't been getting a lot of exposure."

A series of Battle of the Bands competitions — with the lure of prizes and audience exposure — seemed as good a way as any to attract a whole lot of those bands to the club in one fell swoop. And so Pipeline management immediately started contacting local bands they already knew of, and posting fliers in local music stores to gauge interest.

As it turned out, there was quite a bit.

Broderson said the open-to-interpretation "rock" element of the competition left ample room for bands from different genres to sign up. With the final handful of what will likely be 22 slots filling up for the Battle's four weeks of preliminary competition, Broderson said acts already in the lineup included straight-ahead rockers, punk bands, reggae rockers and hardcore acts.

The initial four bands scheduled to battle it out Thursday are Happy Gets Lucky, Bronson, Audist and Travellite. Opening the night with some noncompetitive jamming will be Santa Cruz, Calif.-based punk-pop band The Lonely Kings and local groups 2Face4 and Neural Void, from 6 to 10 p.m.

Bands will be judged in five categories: professionalism, originality, stage presence, music ability and paid attendance. More preliminary competitions (with up to six bands per night) follow June 6, 13 and 20, ending with a June 27 final all-out battle among the four bands that have the top four individual scores of the entire competition.

The grand-prize winner gets $5,000 in cash and prizes from event sponsors, and the opportunity to perform live at a KPOI-FM VIP party for as-yet-unspecified radio and record-label representatives.

"It's going to be great to get some live rock music back into Pipeline with this," said Broderson. "We're hoping that after the Battle of the Bands series is over, we'll have a lot more live rock 'n' roll."