Revolution to host Battle of the Bands for RevFest

Chris Rutledge

Fresh off the heels of the Starry Nights Music Festival, WKU’s own Revolution 91.7 radio station will host their annual RevFest tomorrow at 5 p.m. at the WKU Colonnade.

This year, Revolution will host Battle of the Bands, a free event where 10 bands will compete for prizes.

Program Director Stacie Hewitt said the idea benefits both the bands and Revolution.

“We do this twice a year – RevFest in the fall and Mayhem in the spring,” Hewitt said. “One of the reasons we did Battle of the Bands this year is so we can save money on paying other bands to come in, and then focus all of our budget on Mayhem, so we can pull in a bigger headliner this year.”

Another organization benefiting from the event is the Henry F. Moss Middle School Music Program. All money raised from the event will be donated to the program.

“They don’t really have very many instruments, and we’re definitely all about the instruments here at Revolution,” Hewitt said.

Hewitt encourages WKU students to attend the event.

“It’s one of the few opportunities to get to hear all of the local bands, especially since so many of the music venues have been closing down,” she said. “It’s going to be a great time, and it supports a charity.”

The event is sponsored by Great Escape Records and Comics, Yellowberri Creative Studio, Greyskull Recording Studio and Cici’s Pizza. The prizes include a two-day recording session at Greyskull Recording, a press kit from Yellowberri and the opening slot for Mayhem.

Revolution put together a committee and had local bands send in submissions to select who would play the Battle of the Bands.

About 19 acts made submissions, and the committee chose 10 of those bands, Hewitt said.

Among the top 10 was local band Fat Box, who said they’re treating the gig like they treat any other.

“Our focus is on the music. We’re just going to go and play our asses off and see what the judges think,” guitarist Murf Adams said. “It think it’s awesome that they’re having a battle of the bands.”

Adams said that while the band won’t be debuting any new gimmicks, they still hope to win the competition.

“They’ve got some really cool prizes,” Adams said. “I know Yellowberri does some awesome work, and we’ve done some recording with Greyskull Recording. Whoever wins it – it’s really going to benefit them.”

Another local band, The Black Shades, is taking a different approach to the competition. Lead vocalist/guitarist Aaron Clark says that the band has tailored its set list to fit the limited amount of time the band is allotted to perform.

“We’ve already talked about it, we’ve had band practice this week and we’ve put the best of the best of our set and kind of made an A-team of all of the songs – tthe crème de la crème,” Clark said. “I think we have just as good of a chance as anyone does over there. I mean, Bowling Green has a lot of really good music talent at the moment.”