My review of this event was delayed a few days due to our usual weekend concert preview cycle conflicting with when I would have normally began typing it out, but I made the slightly impromptu call to head over to Sault Michigan to check out the fourth annual Lake Superior State University Battle of the Bands on Wednesday! Returning to their on-campus Arts Center, this is the second time that I have crossed the border to check out the festivities (following 2024), and it was a good day to do so given the dramatically increased cash prizes and larger advertised lineup. Attendance in the the theater wasn't sold out, but a good sized crowd turned out, aided in part by a large group of students from a high school downstate (I think it was a marching band). The crowd was vocal and attentive as you'd hope, and compared to 2024, there was a surprising amount of impromptu clapping along with certain artists. Always good to see an invested audience like this!
The MC of the battle this year was Ryan Maurer, an accomplished local actor who you may recognize from Soo Improv, Yooper Frankenstein, and various stage productions. He's also married to Sara Maurer, an adjunct instructor and writing tutor in LSSU's arts department. Judges included Dr. Jason Swedene (an LSSU professor who competed in the last two battles with The Undecideds and Socrates & The Caveman) and current students Nathan Piche, Jack Callaghan, and Victor TenElshof. I do not know if the judging criteria has changed since 2024 (re: was each judge scoring on one specific aspect or were they all assessing everything now), but Ryan's pre-battle specifics weren't as detailed as Noah Luce's were two years ago. I will note that Ryan was still referring to this as the third annual battle, omitting the fan-voted 2023 debut event won by The Sole Aggressors. Unchecked error or is this a retcon because of the lack of judges in 2023?
Eight scheduled acts were blocked in 15 minute timeslots, but the lineup was gradually impaired by artist withdrawals that I'll address as Ryan mentioned them. The opening act on Wednesday was new jazz fusion sextet FusionCore, made up of current Sault Area High School students. Despite being the biggest band on the bill, they had the shortest set, playing for only 7 minutes! I'm not sure if this was due to their inexperience and/or the late 7:06 PM start time, but they didn't have any clear song breaks either, and no real crowd banter, Still, the kids were dressed to impress and have a promising ska-heavy sound that you certainly don't get much of in the EUP! I couldn't easily make out the singer's voice, but Byron Hockersmith made for a good effect by leaving stage and coming back with a trumpet of his own to play. They do need to work on their stage presence, but FusionCore are off to a good start!
The first of three solo competitors was next, namely local singer/guitarist Danielle "Dee" Homminga, a rising local musician and performance artist who also appeared in Yooper Frankenstein. Despite FusionCore's short set, Dee didn't begin performing until 7:22 PM due to technical difficulties, but she still had a longer set featuring three covers, including of Dolly Parton and Cage The Elephant songs. Dee's guitar work wasn't perfect but she has a nice voice and she had a natural rapport with the audience, and she has a bright future of her own ahead! The third performer on Wednesday was supposed to be local indie rock singer/guitarist Adam Alford, but he no-showed the battle (unlike with Sonic Dazye's withdrawal in 2024, Adam's absence was announced to the live audience). Adam clarified on his personal Facebook page that he caught a cold, and you know how that can affect a singing voice, but check his original music out on streaming!
The opening half of the battle concluded with new local classic rock/country act Whiskey Red, featuring singer Holly Sibbald (ex-Small Town Society) and guitarist Jason Lamoreaux (ex-Full Throttle) joined here by bassist Mark Blackwood. Possibly because of Adam dropping out, they got a longer four song set, including covers of songs by Zach Bryan and The Devil Makes Three, plus a closing original about drug addiction. I wasn't familiar with Whiskey Red, but I did find that country rock covers suited Holly better than what we heard at the 2024 battle, and Jason's shared lead vocals on "Something In The Orange" were well implemented, as was strong fan interaction. I'm not a country guy, but they delivered well! After a 15 minute intermission, the battle resumed with Dynamix, and while initial promotion didn't say they were one & the same, we can now confirm that they are the renamed evolution of reigning champs The Dynamic Duo.
The band confirmed this on their Facebook page, and as such, ex-Absolute bassist Bill Spence and drummer Dan Jackson have joined Danielle Petingalo and Ben Huyck in this mixed genre cover quartet. Set times definitely appeared to be growing as the night went on, as Dynamix played five songs, including covers of Gretchen Wilson, Halsey, Alannah Myles (always a trip seeing an EUP band covering Cancon), and The Cranberries. I wasn't at last year's battle, and Bill & Dan only joined this band a month ago, but Dynamix came in with the fullest presentation as an established band here, covering a diverse array of music with energy and enthusiasm, and you wouldn't have guessed that this foursome only united as a full band recently! The next set belonged to veteran local folk musician Kevin Blakeney, who is one of just two performers to have competed in all three four LSSU battles of the bands to date.
The slow growth of set lengths continued, as Kevin played six songs, including a Blue Stones cover and his originals "Gone Are The Days", "Babe", "Thank God For The TV", and "The Burning". You did get a sense of Kevin's discontent with the state of the world in some of his lyrics, but he performed well with his requisite grit and determination, and the crowd got into it, with a surprising amount of impromptu clapping! Good stuff for fans of acoustic singer/songwriters, and if he played shows in Sault Ontario, he'd find a strong audience here too (granted, every performer here would!) The penultimate band was supposed to be returning local rap duo Tunngtyed, but they dropped out on short notice due to an unspecified emergency. Hopefully all is well with The Baztad and G-Blunt, though I wonder if their and Adam's withdrawals helped explain why set times got progressively longer as the night wore on?
After all, they had two hours to fill, though it does work out that the band order put all returning acts after the intermission, so they benefited from any timeslot extensions (if so, I feel really bad for FusionCore!). We did have one more change to the performers though, as About:Blank drummer Kade DesArmo was called into work late on Wednesday and was unable to compete. Luckily, frontman Parker Talentino is also a solo musician who competed as such here in 2024, so he reverted to acoustic singer/songwriter mode as a result. Note that Parker is the other performer to play at every LSSU Battle, having played with Tarnished in 2023 and with About:Blank last year. While Ryan did invoke the About:Blank name still for introductions, this was a Parker solo set otherwise, and he played eight songs, including originals like "Given What I Got", "When I Fall", and "Already Been Said", plus a Green Day cover.
Another entertaining set for fans of acoustic alt-rock, and Parker had good candor and explanations of his music, with some enthusiastic fan input at points! I do prefer the heavier About:Blank, but Parker's solo music has seemed to take a back seat to his band, so it was a nice change of pace to dip back into that well! While judges deliberated and tallied their scores, Ryan plugged upcoming Arts Center events and interviewed some of the performers. All sixteen performers on Wednesday were on stage for the announcements of the winners, and taking home the $1,000 first place prize were.... Dynamix! Make it two straight battle victories for this band regardless of name, which is a huge feather in Danielle & Ben's caps in particular, and it will be interesting to see where Dynamix go locally in the near future! Whiskey Red claimed the $500 second place prize.
Even without Kade present, Parker claimed the $250 third place prize, giving him two podium finishes at local battles in a row (About:Blank won $500 for finishing third at the Superior Whitefish Festival Battle of the Bands in Brimley in July). Congratulations to all of the prize winning artists! In spite of the late artist withdrawals and the slow increase in set time lengths, this was a fun evening of EUP talent, but I've really gotta get across for a Sault Michigan show that isn't a battle of the bands! Hopefully this event returns next fall, even if it stays on a Wednesday (the first three were Thursday nighters), and there's so much talent in Northern Michigan that deserve to get the spotlight, especially from Canadian readers. You can check out our photos from the battle at this link or via our Facebook page, limited to 5 apiece because I didn't realize that FusionCore were playing an abbreviated set and I needed to film something.
As for my videos, here's FusionCore playing the end of their un-introduced last (only?) song, Dee Homminga covering Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams", Whiskey Red covering Sam The Sham & The Pharaohs' "Li'l Red Riding Hood" (with healthy audience involvement), Dynamix covering Audioslave's "Like A Stone", Kevin Blakeney playing his original "Remember Palestine", and Parker Talentino playing his own "Running From The Day"!
That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and features on the SMS as we wind down October next week! Thanks everyone!
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