Columbia Theatre, formerly Center Stage, welcomed a multitude of genres to its stage Thursday, all competing in support of one cause.
With three separate prize packages on the line, six bands competed in the Leadership Board’s Battle of the Bands finals, which supported Big Brothers Big Sisters of Muncie.
After this event, the Leadership Board raised “right under $1000,” Marilyn Pugh, a member of the Leadership Board, said. The total collected for Big Brothers Big Sisters was the sum of the previous two rounds’ earnings, in addition to the final round, which Pugh said was the most successful of the three nights.
“I think overall, we were extremely happy with the results of the event,” Pugh, a Ball State graduate student, said. “We had a larger crowd than the first two rounds. We made more money in the final round, as well.”
The winner of the Battle of the Bands was Steve Robert with the Jazzmanian Devils, who received the most votes from those in attendance. See Emily Play finished in second, and The World’s Slowest Comeback finished in third.
Steve Robert, lead singer and guitarist with the Jazzmanian Devils, said he was very happy with the amount of people he was able to get to come out to the event.
“I had asked a lot of people to come, and a lot of them did come, and I really enjoyed that, of course,” Robert said.
Robert entered the competition at the last minute after seeing someone post a link on Facebook. His band plays shows around Muncie and looks to continue doing more of the same, as well as having more music and videos posted online, he said.
In terms of the cause, Robert said he is very much in support of Big Brothers Big Sisters and its work across the nation. In fact, he said he was a Big in the program when he was in college.
“They get a little check from me every year as a contribution,” Robert said. “I think it’s an awesome program and that there’s a huge need to mentor children that may not get as much mentoring as they need.”
Although Robert’s act was first and it received the most votes, the other two winners played later in the night, a facet of the competition that Pugh noticed and wishes could have been changed.
“I think part of the reason See Emily Play and The World’s Slowest Comeback made it — again not discrediting their talent, but they were later in the evening, so more people had come at that time,” she said.
She said she also thinks having an 18 and older crowd in attendance would have possibly leveled out the voting a little bit more.
“It was a bit of a flaw, but we had to follow the rules since it was 21 and up crowd,” Pugh said. “If we could’ve had an 18 and up crowd, we would’ve had more people there.”
As for the future of the Jazzmanian Devils, Robert and his band will continue searching for any opportunity it can find.
“We’re just going to keep practicing and looking for places to play,” he said.
