First Battle of the Bands: A Loud Success

by Judy Silberstein Photos by Jonny Benton: See Photo Essay Below

(September 25, 2002) "This is the Battle!" pronounced the Master of Ceremonies, senior Dan Davis and the crowd of area high school students roared its approval. Amplifiers blaring, the first of six bands assumed control of the outdoor stage at Mamaroneck's Harbor Island Beach Pavilion on Saturday, September 21. Each band had 25 minutes to strut its well-amplified stuff - a mixture of metal, punk, reggae and skaa.

"This was the biggest crowd, I've seen and I've only missed one Battle of the Band," said senior Marc Gottlieb. Village of Mamaroneck Recreation Supervisor Rosane Saracino concurred, " It was very successful - 310 people showed up." There was also a music loving gorilla, who has since been seen chasing cars in the Mamaroneck High School parking lot.

The Battle of the Bands is a joint venture between the Village of Mamaroneck Recreation Department's Teen Center and R.A.D.A.R. (Responsible Action: a Drug & Alcohol Resource), a group of school administrators, parents, teachers, and youth officers from Larchmont and Mamaroneck. (More information on school programs is available at: Alcohol and Drug Awareness Programs.) Both organizations have been working to "create positive alternative activities for teenagers on the weekend," said MHS Social Worker Helene Fremder. She added, "This Saturday was a beautiful night. The air was clear, there was no smell of beer or other alcohol."

"We started this program," said Recreation Supervisor Saracino, "because grades 9-12 are always looking for things to do in the community." The department has been working hard to get the right mix of venue, activity, dates and supervision. On Saturday, there were six staff people and two "bike cops," and a detective who stopped by, but the adults maintained a low profile. "We run an extremely user friendly program, that's well-supervised," said Saracino. "There were no incidents, other than everyone having fun," she reported.

The Battle of the Bands has grown increasingly popular over the past two years with both musicians and fans. Saturday's battle was between six bands of mostly MHS musicians playing as the: Act of Ignorance, All of the Above, Daly's Gone Wrong, Downward Spiral, Hump-T, and Pigeon Collision.

Some of the bands have a wide following, reported MC Davis. "People are really into it. Lots traveled from Yonkers, the City and from around Westchester to see the show," he said. Most of the fans, though, were from Mamaroneck High School and were cheering for musicians in all the groups.

The fans were also snapping up copies of the Downward Spiral's latest CD, "Unsound Mind" released for the first time at the Battle. Members of the band recorded, produced, illustrated and distributed the CD themselves, and by the end of the evening were completely sold out of their first run of 37. Plans are afoot to "burn" additional copies.

While the bands battled on, an anonymous panel of adult musicians and music lovers took notes and conferred among themselves. Then, as the last band wound down, the judges huddled, and the emcee got the word. Davis took the stage one more time to declare, "And the winner is....Pigeon Collision!" Victorious for the first time in its career was the band of MHS seniors Trevor Boggs, Morgan Dryden, Matt Nelson and Matt Saporito. The Pigeon Collision celebrated and once, again the crowd roared its approval.

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