Beating out three competitors Thursday, King Cloud took first place at Dance Marathon’s annual Battle of the Bands competition, thus earning a spot to play during DM next month.
Members of the band said they didn’t expect the victory but were excited about the opportunity.
“I was pleasantly surprised,” said McCormick senior Patrick Leonard, who plays keyboard and guitar for King Cloud. “There were a lot of really great bands playing. The overall quality of the music was extremely high.”
The bands were ranked on different criteria including judges’ input, the number of check-ins for the band and the amount of donations made during the performance. The judges based their decisions on whether the band would be a good fit for DM and how excited the crowd was during each set.
The number of people who attended increased significantly from last year, said Emily Blumberg, DM special events co-chair. Nine bands applied initially and the number was narrowed down to four after a sub committee reviewed the applications and each band’s demo, she said.
“It was a great year, this year especially,” said Andrew Christy, DM special events co-chair. “We wish we could’ve had multiple winners, but we’re really excited about the one that did win.”
King Cloud members said the group started seriously rehearsing at the beginning of this year after playing together casually a few times last year. They want to use the competition to spread the word about their band.
The set during DM will be longer than the 20-minute Battle of the Bands performance, including about 10 songs and featuring a combination of original songs and covers.
“We recognize people at DM want to hear songs they know and can dance to,” Leonard said. “But we also have some songs that we are really proud of and want to share with the world.”
Members said the group’s original songs represent each member’s individual tastes. As a newly formed band, they said they had not yet found their style and each of their songs were extremely eclectic and unique.
“We have to work on developing an identity,” said Weinberg senior Carter Freeman, the band’s drummer.
Leonard said DM will be the band’s first big performance. Some family members of the bandmates will be coming to hear their set, Freeman and Leonard said.
“It’s like 1,000 people,” Leonard said. “That’s going to be awesome. I might never play for that many people again.”
The members of King Cloud said they are excited to play for such a large crowd and are looking forward to having a role in this year’s DM.
“It’s such a cool thing to the Northwestern experience,” said Weinberg junior Jordan Cohen, who sings and plays bass for the band. “It’s Northwestern’s event that you think about every year. To be the one band that gets to play at it is really cool.”
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