speakers, the crowd cheered wildly. After they had finally died down, the entire venue shifted its attention to the East stage, where they were met by three mid-teen looking guys; a drummer, a bassist, and a guitarist.
“Hey guys, we’re Rotten Weasel Indicator. We’re pretty underground so a lot of you might not have heard of us before but we’re pretty legit. We have a pretty rad following on MySpace…” said the front man, who was clad in a beanie hat, thick rimmed glasses, a plaid shirt and skinny jeans.
The band then proceeded to labor their way through a couple minutes of music riddled with “Hey”-s and “Ho”-s. The individuals themselves were adequately talented but the music that they played clashed horribly and lacked cohesion, sounding like three instruments playing at the same time, but never in unison.
After a weak cheer the crowd shifted again, this time to NoCal’s stage, who awaited the attention of the entire venue. They had decided to open their fight with an old school cult-classic and when the attention was turned to their West stage Moses said “Umm, we’re NoCal. Thanks for coming out, our first song’s called ‘Cute Without the E (Cut From The Team)’.”
• • •
“They seriously couldn’t have picked a better song to come out with,” said a girl as she pushed her way through the crowd to see NoCal’s stage, her friend in toe. “The harmony is seriously perfect for their raw style… it sounds like there’s like four people on stage.”
“True story, I didn’t know Lee could sing too!” her friend agreed as they found a pocket in the crowd.
As the girls nodded with the music, NoCal hit the bridge of the song and the crowd erupted into cheers when Lee came in screaming the second harmony, adding a sharp artistic touch to the song as they wove in and out. They crashed through the remainder of the song much like waves repeatedly beating the shore, washing over the rocks.
• • •
The final chords fading through the speakers were drowned out by the now ecstatic crowd, who eventually died down and turned their attention toward the South stage.
“Hey everybody! We’re Caligirl and we’re uber excited you’re here!” exclaimed a bubbly blond girl at the front of the stage. They were an average sized band, consisting of a guitarist, bassist, drummer, and the girl singer. All looked to be in their middle years of high school. “We’re pretty much like Jimmy Eat World or Blink 182 but better because we have a girl singer!” She paused to point to herself before continuing. “We’re gonna play ‘Crushcrushcrush’!”
As the band began to play they sounded neither good nor bad. They played through the song adequately enough but had little claim of extraordinariness apart from the fact that their singer was a girl. Their song ended uneventfully and after the crowd cheered briefly, the attention was turned in towards the center of the floor where the three judges and the emcee sat above the crowd at their table.
“Alright, the judges have had their first listen! Now let’s see who they decided to kill …” the emcee said in his signature voice. There was a pause during which the crowd began to chatter amongst themselves about who they thought should be eliminated.
Finally, after what seemed to the boys to be an eternity the emcee spoke again. “Alright, so the judges have made their first elimination. And I quote,” he said, unfolding and reading a paper aloud, “Often times if nobody’s heard of your band it’s because you suck. We, the judges, hereby eliminate Rotten Weasel Indicator.”
“Ouch!” Mo leaned over and whispered to Lee, “they could at least be nice about it…”
“Yeah,” Lee agreed, “What a buncha pricks!” Mo could tell that Lee was about to continue when he was cut off once again by the emcee.
“Alright, guys, that was round one. As we found out the judges this year are brutally honest so I guess you’re gonna have to step it up a notch!” he said with a twinge of sympathy in his voice. “Bloody Demon, you have the floor.”
There was a moment of silence before Bloody Demon’s drummer set straight into four cymbal crashes to introduce ‘Begging For Mercy’. The masked guitarist, who demonstrated a considerable amount of talent, bobbed through the gate carrying with him the sharp sounding guitar intro while the prominent singer howled “Yeeeeeahhhhhhh” into the center microphone from the mound of bones. The drummer then erupted into some double bass work. One of the other guitarists strode to the front and made a giant circular motion with his hand, demanding a circle pit.
• • •
“Look at that guy go…” a girl yelled, following her friend to a safe place in the crowd away from the mass of movement. “His voice doesn’t sound human when he hits those low screams…”
“I wonder how many cough drops he goes through after a show,” her friend replied, a smile crossing her face.
“They sound really good, almost as good as Bullet!” said the girl. “Its a really good thing we got out of there...”
She pointed to where they had stood just seconds ago, where a great swirling pit of bodies was skipping and bobbing around to the music. Although they were inside, they swore they could see dust rising from the ground as bodies hurdled through the air.
• • •
The song had been intense up until now but as Bloody Demon entered into the second verse all hell seemed to break loose on the stage. The masked guitarist, Anne, the bassist, and the lead vocalist each screamed in rapid succession (and in near perfect harmony), flooding out of the gates and launching themselves all over the stage. The band moved independently but in perfect sync as noise came smashing through the speakers, chaos reigned as smoke canisters were set off and like clockwork the band moved around the stage weaving in and out without so much as nicking one another. Just as the chaos started to make sense on the stage, the music paused as the bassist growled in a deep raspy voice bordering the boundaries of humanoid vocalization. “Let it out just KNOW I CAN HEAR YOU.”
After converging once more at the chorus, there seemed to be nothing left standing in the way of Bloody Demon. They played through the complex song flawlessly, backing up screams from what seemed like every direction. Finally the song ended with a grueling “OH!” from the bassist, whose scream unsettled Moses a bit.
The crowd was deafening as they spun 180 degrees to face NoCal’s empty and now naked looking stage. Mo stood alone on NoCal’s bare stage, with Lee behind him. He looked forsaken and helpless as he scanned the crowd in a daze. Finally, he saw EmJay standing just in front of the judges’ table. As he watched her, he suddenly got up the courage to fight back and without so much as a word he started straight into ‘At Least I’m Known For Something’ by New Found Glory. Lee was right behind him with the drums as they made their way through the introduction.
• • •
“This is seriously exhausting…” a girl said as she and her friend arrived at the edge of the crowd on NoCal’s side of the venue.
“Oh man… Moses looks pissed, he’s like on a mission,” her friend said from right behind her. “This is another really good song for them.”
Mo was harshly smashing out the chords, but with a finesse that almost hinted at sarcasm. As NoCal hit the first chorus and began their mini-breakdown, the girls jumped up and down to the music.
“Yup, he’s definitely on a mission,” the girl told her friend as they bounced up and down.
• • •
They continued into the second chorus in the same flawless manner that they had become renowned for. Lee was in the zone, providing a bit more beef with a double kick bass. The crowd rolled like the ocean as Mo proceeded to sing ironically all about how much they sucked.
As the second chorus came to a close, Mo began to play the chords leading into the breakdown. Just before the song broke down they stopped, letting the sound waves bleed through the speakers. Mo let his guitar hang limp from his shoulder as he stared straight across the crowd and pointed at Bloody Demon’s masked guitarist, silently calling him out. The entire crowd seemed to follow his stare across
the room and just as the crowd began to chatter excitedly, Lee broke the silence with two rapid concussive blows to his long kick bass.
“Let’s get down, to business now,” Mo sang, strumming the rocky breakdown as Lee backed him up with cymbals and bass kicks. The crowd immediately left their feet and rose and fell with every cymbal crash.
“I’m saving myself the trouble in the end.”
Mo stood motionless with the exception of his hands, staring down the faceless mask from where he stood at the front of the stage. Mo’s eyes were unfaltering, unblinking, and unafraid. Even as the breakdown ended he stared into the blank mask, smiling darkly and singing.
As they rounded into their last chorus, the crowd was bouncing and nodding and rolling; enjoying themselves at the excitement at the musical brawl on their hands.
It took a good minute for the crowd to settle down and turn to the South stage, where they were awaited by Caligirl. Just as the girl opened her mouth to introduce their song, she was cut off by the emcee.
“Alright guys, it looks like the judges have seen what they’ve needed to see for this round,” he paused, accepting another piece of paper from the judges. “This fight is between Bloody Demon and NoCal. Caligirl is eliminated,” he read aloud. The girl’s face sank as the crowd almost immediately turned it’s attention back to Bloody Demon. Moses