The 2016 VM Radio Battle Battle Of The Bands Preview (Night #2!)

TOMORROW marks night #2 and the last semifinal of this year's VM Radio Battle of the Bands at The Canadian Nightclub, so here's our extended preview of tomorrow's action! As you may remember, last week saw The Din defeat Heavy Head & Stereo North to claim the first of three spots for next week's finals, and the full field will be determined tomorrow, where they'll be joined by tomorrow's winning band and the highest scoring runner-up band as a wild card finalist. Like last week, judges Dustin Jones, Rob Speers, and myself will score competitors on their originality, stage presence, musicianship, crowd reaction, and professionalism, with huge prizes and promotion from Village Media, Tidal Records, Case's Music, The Rad Zone, Maxx Graphics, and Labatt Breweries awaiting, so don't forget about the stakes at hand! With only 5 band registrations this year, this last semifinal sees a head-to-head battle between just two local bands, so here's what you should know about tomorrow's competitors!

Eclipse: Fresh off of their third place finish in Thursday's Speak Easy Battle of the Bands, this new modern/hard rock quartet (featuring 3/5ths of Project 421) will look to see if lightning can strike twice to send them to the VM Radio Battle finals next week, where members Curtis McKenzie and Daniel Horton could be faced off with their old band The Din, fronted by their ex-Haggith bandmate Mike Haggith. Will Eclipse punch their finals ticket tomorrow?

K.I.C.K.: Joining Heavy Head as the only battle newcomers in the field, local indie/acoustic rock quartet K.I.C.K. (short for the Keep It Cool Kids) have been active since 2012, and feature alumni of Cowboys & Indians, State of Misery, and Starlit Sins in their lineup. Somewhat of a dark horse this year among their otherwise plugged-in brethren, can Simon, Tyson, Kevin, and Aaron move on to next week's finals? Support them via their own Facebook event page for the battle!

With an uneven number of bands this year, the third band slot tomorrow will be filled by local punk/metal quintet (and fellow Speak Easy Battle competitors) Jack Spades in their second concert set of the year. A non-competitive set due to frontman J.D. Pearce's promotional involvement in this battle, look for some familiar faces in their lineup from past battle runs with bands like T-Rex Manning, The Bear Hunters, and Heavy Head, so prepare for a fun set of punk and metal intensity from Jack Spades!

Also, an added wrinkle was noted to me last week by Project 421 guitarist Blair Burch, which is that Eclipse bassist Fred Dunn is the brother of K.I.C.K. drummer Aaron Dunn! It's not often that you see siblings compete against each other in a local battle of the bands, so we'll have to see how things shake out tomorrow on that basis! Remember, tomorrow's winning band is guaranteed to face The Din in next week's finals, and the highest scoring of the two runner-up bands will be back for a second chance in the finals as well, but will last week's second place band return, or will both Eclipse & K.I.C.K. get a finals encore? Be at The Canadian TOMORROW to find out! Huge prizes for competing bands and individual performers await next week, and you can see who gets there tomorrow night at 9:00 PM, with a $5 entry fee at the door (unless you already have tickets for the full event.) For full public details on the ongoing VM Radio Battle, visit the official Facebook event page!

While a little more compact than most local battle of the bands one-night lineups, an exciting competition lies ahead tomorrow, so will Eclipse ride the momentum of last week's Speak Easy Battle to the finals, or will K.I.C.K.'s acoustic indie rock win over the judges instead? Be there for all of that, plus a guest set by Jack Spades, TOMORROW NIGHT, and I'll see you guys there! Thanks everyone!