Story by Natalie Horner
Photo by Sreang “C” Hok
Upon arrival at WOW Hall Saturday night, the vibe was so accurately reminiscent of a middle school dance that the lack of giggling tweenage girls seemed somehow incongruous. Benches around the perimeter of the venue were full, leaving the few stragglers without a seat stranded awkwardly in the middle of the empty floor.
Ethos Magazine, the UO Cultural Forum, and Ninkasi Brewing teamed up again for the second annual Bandest of the Bands. The show started 7:00pm Saturday, and as holds true with most events in a college town, the party didn’t really start until at least 9:00pm.
When the first act, Mudpuppy, took the stage, those hugging the walls mercifully migrated toward the middle of the dance floor, but the crowd remained sparse. By the second and third acts (Jameson and the Sordid Seeds and Grace Mitchell, respectively), the crowd was noticeably fuller and more relaxed; at this point, the breaks between bands had allowed for more than one trip to the bar.
It was the last acts, Tyler Fortier and Rare Monk, that played to the fullest crowds with Rare Monk garnering the most enthusiastic crowd reaction of the night. The once sparse, stand-offish crowd was now flush with the stage and a small, jumpy mosh pit had materialized. Chants of “Rare Monk” followed the band off stage. Vinnie and The Rips also played to enthusiastic, but slightly sparser, moshing.
This year six bins were lined up in the lobby, one for each band. Members of the crowd voted by tossing a pair of clean socks into their favorite’s bin. The socks were tallied, the judges deliberated, and Eugene’s “Bandest” band of 2011 is…Rare Monk! The groups prizes include $250, studio time from topsecret productions, and a feature article in the spring 2011 issue of Ethos. Runner-up Tyler Fortier also gets $250.
Throughout the night, approximately 200 people filtered through the doors, raising $1,149 for Ethos, a notable increase from last year’s $800.
