It comes once every year. It is a battle to determine who the absolute best is. It is the Battle of the Bands.
UPC hosted the Battle of the Bands Sept. 11 which featured local talent from around the University and the Auburn community.
Anne Smead, director of special projects, gave insight on how the bands were selected for the event.
"We have six bands participating, but 11 applied," Smead said. "We have a scoring process based on demo tapes that they have turned in."
UPC didn't specify on what genres can perform at the Battle of the Bands.
"Any genre can apply and perform," Smead said. "We do have rock and we have a turntable for playing music. Jazz bands have applied."
Smead said they wanted to have a huge mix because some of the bands perform more pop or rock type music while there are others that play more like funky rhythms and some other different, more eclectic sounds.
UPC awarded a cash prize for the winners of the competition.
The first place prize was $400, second was $300 and third was $200.
Smead said the competition is judged on originality, vocals, stage presence and the quality of the music.
Ann Geoghagan, assistant director of special projects, said the rules for the competition were straight forward.
"This is a family event, so there's no cussing or obscene lyrics allowed," Geoghagan said. "You have to play two original songs and then one cover song. If you have more time after that and you want to play more songs, you're more than welcome to."
Some bands chose to play more of their songs to show their range of talent.
The Battle of the Bands, according to Smead, will be used to expose local talent to the Auburn community. Some bands debut at this event each year.
"The inspiration for Battle of the Bands is to get local bands that might not be heard anywhere else," Smead said. "Not all Auburn students have heard them before, so they have a place where they can perform for free and get their music put out there and win a prize of course."
Anthony Van Edwards, lead singer of Blame Sydney who played in the competition, said this will be the bands first public appearance.
"It's our first time to display our talent in a campus event," Edwards said. "We do a couple of shows around Auburn."
Edwards said the band has been playing together for awhile and they feel like they have perfected their sound and were ready for the competition.
"We were playing for awhile, and we're pretty cohesive now," Edwards said. "It's pretty competitive, and we hope the people will like our music."
The band decided to compete because it agreed it was a good chance to get its name out.
Edwards said Blaming Sydney has been working hard to get their music to various record companies.
"We are making a demo right now, and we're going to see how that goes," Edwards said. "We're trying to get a label to sign us soon."
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