The winners of the Battle of the Bands, One Pearl Earring, hit the stage.                     Photo by: Dallas Gittings

The band One Pearl Earring won the Battle of the Bands that took place on Saturday, January 5th. The event began with a cover of Pat Benatar’s “Heartbreaker” from the judges, who included Susky’s very own orchestra director Zachary Levi. This pumped up the crowd and warmed up the equipment.

   The first student band, having been picked randomly from a hat, Youthful Tradition, was introduced by the Mistresses of Ceremonies, junior Katie Martin and junior Jessica Voltaggio.

   After Youthful Tradition’s funky rock set, One Pearl Earring came on. They played a soulful acoustic-pop set.
After One Pearl Earring finished up their set, Classified came on, the band that some people have consistently felt “ should have won.” Classified played a set that was incredibly tight.  After Classified finished their set of classic rock, Sound Reinforcement came on to perform. Once Sound Reinforcement finished their set, crowd favorite Time Out came out to perform their varied covers and genre spanning rock. After Time Out, One Quantum Leap came on the stage to perform their very intricate and longer styled songs. Once One Quantum Leap finished their 30-minute set, Shoot for 5 came out to close the night. Shoot for 5 played a familiar blend of pop and punk.

At the end of the night, it came down to three Bands: A Quantum Leap, One Pearl Earring, and Time Out. These three were chosen based on crowd reaction, along with point distribution among the judges. Time out took third place, and A Quantum Leap took second. This left One Pearl Earring to take the win. Christian Poole, director of the jazz band and one of the event organizers, was satisfied with how the event ran as smoothly as anyone could have wanted. “[I am] incredibly happy with how the night turned out,” said Poole.