DPL Teens

With nothing but talent up on the stage, the 2011 Teen Battle of the Bands was our best battle to date.  No joke. 

Check out the winners:

1st place–Emily Majetic with special guest Ian Miller

Emily also won 1st place in our 2009 Teen Battle which makes her our first ever two time winner!  Bravo, Emily!  Her vocal stylings are much like those of a beloved songbird…natural, effortless, captivating, beautiful, sweet, and endearing.  As an added bonus for this performance she had another skilled musician on board for one song, keyboard that is, and vocals too, which brought so much more talent to an already winning performance. 

2nd place–Surface Tension

Unfortunately, we didn’t get any good pics of this band on stage so we hope you enjoy these candid backstage shots of them relaxed and having fun.  On stage however, these guys know how to get down.  Back for their second round of DPL’s Teen Battle (they entered last year, as well) it’s no surprise they took home a top prize this time around.  A group of dedicated young musicians with stage presence and style, Surface Tension is no stranger to the limelight as they’ve played over 50 area shows!  Maybe they’ll take it on tour someday.

3rd place–Homegrown Hero

Another rockin’ set was provided by Homegrown Hero, a group of experienced performers hailing from Eldridge, which earned them the 3rd place honor.  What’s great about these guys is not their killer musical skills, not their energizing sounds, not their ability to take the audience by storm, no, not any of these awesome qualities…they’re funny, too!  Seriously.  If they ever hang up their instruments they should take aim on careers in comedy.  And for those of you tuned in to Battles past, you may remember in 2008 a band called ‘That One Band’ who played a song called ‘That One Song’ yeah, well that was these fellas.  They won 1st place that year. 

Wow, it looks like with the top winners all having been in DPL Teen Battles before this year turned out to be quite the Battle of Battles.  We can’t wait for next year!  In the meantime check out the winning acts at Youth Fest this Wednesday in Centennial Park starting at 9 am.  Or at the Street Fest on July 29th & 30th on the corner of 3rd and Harrison.  And if you can’t make those don’t miss your last chance on Friday, August 12th at the Back to School Bash in Garfield Park.  All three gigs are sponsored by Davenport’s Parks & Rec. Dept.  Check their website for all the event details and more.

A ginormous THANK YOU to all the teens who participated in this year’s Battle.  When we said that there was nothing but talent on the stage, we meant it!!  Stay tuned as we feature other teen performers in the days to come…

As promised we’ll be highlighting all the teen performers that took the Battle stage in front of the Fairmount St. Library last Wednesday.  First up we’ll be showcasing the solo artists.  The past 3 years solo artists were not invited to enter the Battle of the Bands, so we thought we’d try something different this year.  Such a decision certainly made for a more interesting line up and added great artistic value to the evening.  As it turns out, solo artist Emily Majetic even ended up winning this year’s competition!  Pretty impressive!  Three teen judges and two adult judges, who also happened to be members of the U.S. Navy Rock Band, scored this year’s winners and Emily’s performance came out on top. 

Emily lives in Moline and has loved music all of her life.  Although she has only been playing shows for a couple of years, she started singing when she was just 4 1/2 years old.  Emily has great stage presence and engages well with her audience.  Some of her lyrics are a bit dark, yet they mesh nicely with her lovely singing voice and sweet acoustic guitar tones.  When asked what she likes most about making music she said she loves everything about music, especially being in front of a crowd.  It was also cool to hear that, besides music, Emily is a huge fan of art–especially painting and sculpture.  We’re so glad she signed up this year and certainly wish her well in all of her artistic endeavors.  Another huge congrats to our 1st place winner who received $100 and the chance to play two more paid gigs over the summer.  Way to go, Emily!  Be sure to check out her Myspace page, too.

Our second featured solo artist, Jerra Williams, is from Rock Island.  Jerra was definitely our most unique performer and there’s a lot to be said for that.  I knew right away, before the Battle had even begun, when I asked Jerra what sort of music he liked and his response was contemporary jazz, R&B, and some pop that we would be in for a treat performance-wise.  Jerra’s instrumental set consisted of him on the keyboards tapping out a couple original tunes and even a version of Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix.  Cool.  When asked to describe his sound he said that it’s kinda serious and though it may sound serious he’s really just a jokester.  We’d love to see where Jerra’s musical path takes him and we couldn’t be happier to have had him play as a solo artist at the 4th Annual Battle of the Bands!   It was also a true pleasure to see how proud all of Jerra’s family was of him and his performance.  Nice work, Jerra!

-Christie

The winners of the 4th Annual Battle of the Bands are…

1st place:  Emily Majetic

2nd place:  Sleeping On Sidewalks

3rd place:  FireSale

First, second, and third place winners received $100, $75, and $50 respectively.  They will also each have the chance to play two paid gigs over the summer.  Thanks to the City of Davenport Parks and Rec. Department for helping sponsor the 4th Annual Battle and for setting up the paid gigs!  The first gig will be at Youth Fest on July 7th, and the second gig is at the Back to School Bash on August 14th.  Check ‘em out.  The other Battle performers were Render, Demon Ducks, Shockwave, Vanishing Point, and solo artist Jerra Williams. 

Congrats to all the performers!   And an extra special thanks to all the fans that came out to support them!  It was such a great Battle and everyone played really well.  It was also super cool to see all the bands working together helping each other with set up and tear down between bands.  We hope they all had a good time and will be ready to rock out again on the Battle stage next year.  For funzies we’ll be posting tidbits of all the bands on the blog over the next few days.  So, keep an eye out.

Lastly, we’d like to extend a gigantic thank you to the U. S. Navy Rock Band who closed the evening with a great set!  They covered everyone from Justin Timberlake to the Allman Brothers and had many of the audience members dancing around to the good tunes.  Who knew rockin’ out at the library could be so much fun?!?

-Christie