Playing to an audience of hundreds of musicians, artists, writers, actors, and dancers cheering and wearing themed outfits to celebrate may be a lofty dream for some, but for students in the Battle of the Bands, will become a reality Thursday, March 14. 

For the second year, each grade has put together a band to perform, each matching the Spirit Week music genres of the day. Freshmen will perform country music, sophomores will perform techno, juniors will perform beach bops, and seniors will perform Y2K music. 

“I think it’s definitely going to be fun,” junior band organizer and band junior David Aloni said. “Nerve-wracking, but not really. If everyone knows their parts, it should be easy and it should be fun. I hope to get the crowd into it and participate in a way.”

Some students, such as visual arts freshman Christina O’Grady and theatre freshman Juliana Priddy, were chosen to compete based on their involvement in School of Rock, an extracurricular program that specializes in rock and roll. The bands are not limited to just music majors: theatre, communications, and visual arts majors are among the performers.

“I think it’s really cool because there’s kind of a stigma for visual majors that they’re kind of quiet people,” freshman band organizer O’Grady said. “For me, this is kind of big, because it is just in front of pretty much the whole school but I’m excited to be able to do it.”

Preparation began with creating setlists based on their music genre, with two genres — beach bops and Y2K — absent from the prior year’s competition.

“I was kind of upset when they told us our theme was Y2K (instead of Rock n’ Roll),” Johnston said. “But I started to realize that Y2K isn’t a genre as much as it’s an era, so we can have a bunch of different genres in our set.”

Most of the student practice was on an individual basis, with students practicing at home. Some of the class bands only plan to rehearse in school two or three times before Thursday’s performance.

“(Individual practice) does make it a little bit more complicated because then when we come together, we have to adapt something that we were doing (individually) that doesn’t exactly work with everybody else. So it definitely adds a layer of difficulty,” sophomore band organizer and vocal sophomore Lara Miranda said.

With less than a week before the event, performers are coming together to assemble the performance as a whole.

“Our biggest thing that we’ll have to rehearse is transitions, because everyone can learn the original songs on their own, but the transitions is where it really makes or breaks a mashup,” Johnston said. “If it’s a sloppy transition, it makes the whole thing sloppy, so you’ve got to get those tight.”

As the bands prepare for the competition to see which class will receive the Spirit Week points, some students look back on last year’s performance to prepare for the one to come. With hopes of redemption, the senior class is now featuring a “secret weapon” with their special guest singer in hopes of improving their odds of winning.

“Last year, we had a devastating loss as a junior class,” Johnston said. “So it’s definitely, personally, more of a personal drive to come back from that loss and win, or even if we don’t win, at least just do something that we’re actually proud of.”

Many students, including Miranda and Johnston, also competed in the inaugural Battle of the Bands in 2023, giving them some experience with the emerging Spirit Week tradition.

“I think that, honestly, the best part is hearing the crowd sing along and getting everybody involved and hearing it all come together, because the prep is so stressful because you want to get everything right,” Miranda said.

This is a developing story.

An update was made to this story March 15.

Dressed in outfits representing their grade level’s theme, students gathered in the gymnasium on Music Genre Day (March 14), the fourth day of Spirit Week. During lunch, they sang along to music and watched Battle of the Bands: a competition that requires each grade to perform songs from their respective musical themes. The freshmen’s theme was country, the sophomores’ was techno, the juniors’ was beach bops, and the seniors’ was Y2K (the early 2000s). In an attempt to win first place, the bands created their own setlists and practiced after school and during lunch in the days leading up to the event. 

Theatre senior Blake McCall

Q: What was your position in Battle of the Bands?

A: I played guitar and I sang a couple songs. 

Q: What made you want to join?

A: (Digital media senior) Coral (Johnston) asked, so I was like ‘I did it last year,’ and I think I needed, we (Johnston, strings senior Pablo Weir Beriro, and theatre senior Liam Demary) all needed a moment of redemption. 

Q: What was your process in selecting songs?

A: Y2K is a big era of music, so there was so much we could have done. We just chose some of our favorite songs and some of the most iconic songs from that era.

Q: How do you feel about performing in front of your classmates?

A: It’s terrifying because I want the respect of these people, and I want them to like it, but also once you get up there and you start, they’re all into it, so it’s fun. It’s exciting to share your art with your classmates.

Band junior Charles DeBay

Q: What was your position in Battle of the Bands?

A: I played bass guitar.

Q: What made you want to join?

A: I did it last year, (and) I’m very good friends with a lot of people in the band. They asked me to do it again, (so) I couldn’t say no.

Q: What was your process in selecting songs?

A: We (vocal junior Luke Saraceni, band junior David Aloni, theatre junior Zac Ashberg, piano junior Noah Kriegstein, and theatre junior Mason McGahey) brainstormed ideas that fit the theme and then went from there. 

Q: How do you feel about performing in front of your classmates?

A: I love it. It’s very fun. Everybody’s always super supportive. People will always make you feel better about yourself.

Communications sophomore Ben Seelig

Q: What was your position in Battle of the Bands?

A: I was the synthesizer (one who plays a musical instrument that creates sound electronically).

Q: What made you want to join?

A: Well, I was actually asked by (vocal sophomore) Levi Cowen. He was the leader. 

Q: What was your process in selecting songs?

A:  At first, we had a couple of songs. We even had “…Baby One More Time”  in our setlist. However, there (were) some complications. There was a point where we were supposed to only do techno pop (songs, so) we changed our setlist, (but then) we had to (switch) back to what we have now.

Q: How do you feel about performing in front of your classmates?

A: I was pretty nervous. When people started coming in, I realized just how many people are gonna see us and our performance.

Theatre freshman Juliana Priddy

Q: What was your position in Battle of the Bands?

A: I was the lead vocalist. 

Q: What made you want to join Battle of the Bands?  

A: The Student Government (Association) asked us because me and one of the guitarists, (visual freshman) Christina (O’Grady), have a band outside of school. 

Q: What was your process in selecting songs?

A: I wanted to do the most favorable country songs (and) most well-known (for the) beginning song (Somethin’ Bad by Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood). It was just a great song to start off with to get the audience excited.

Q: How do you feel about performing in front of your classmates?

A: It was definitely scary since this was our first Battle of the Bands, but my goal was to just show off the freshmen, have fun, and be happy.