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Judging discrepancies and lack of communication have been blamed for some of the issues surrounding this year’s Battle of the Bands, which was won by Loki, a hard-rock band out of Portland. The annual contest – organized and presented by the Sophomore Owls – traditionally provides the winning band a spot on the Bumstock setlist. But controversy has erupted over a promise made by Erin Smith, Bumstock director, that the spot would be held for a campus band.
“There was a slight miscommunication between the Bumstock Committee and the Sophomore Owls,” Smith said.
Devon Gaudette, the Sophomore Owl in charge of the event, agreed with Smith that it was due primarily to misunderstanding.
“We feel this is a minor issue,” Gaudette said.
Initially, Smith claimed little to no affiliation with the Battle of the Bands outside of the fact that a Bumstock slot was guaranteed for the winner.
“This was not a Student Entertainment event,” Smith said. “This was run solely by the Sophomore Owls.”
When first questioned about the involvement of Student Entertainment and the Bumstock Executive Committee with the competition, Gaudette stated that Smith was involved.
“She helped out quite a bit,” Gaudette said this month. “She created flyers for us, gave us some funding and helped us get funding from the appropriate places.”
He went on to explain that although she helped out in this way, she was not involved in the selection of judges or bands.
“She left it up to us to decide what bands should play,” Gaudette said.
As to whether or not the directors of the competition were asked to include only campus bands, Sean Walsh, a member of the Sophomore Owls and one of the coordinators for the event, stated that they were never asked to only include campus bands. Initially, Gaudette agreed.
Following an interview with Smith for this paper, however, he said that a meeting had been held at a later point but that it was too late to do anything about it since bands were already being selected.
“It was requested that they only include campus bands,” Smith said. “But at that point it was too late.”
E-mails were sent out by Smith as early as November and as recently as Feb. 17 stating that the winner of the competition was to be a “local” or “campus” band.
Complaints have also been lodged by bands and those in the audience about issues beyond the locality of the participating bands. Judges changed the scoring range mid-competition, thus resulting in two bands scoring 43 points each and one band scoring a 40, all of a possible 40. This change of scale mid-way through the competition caused some to question its fairness. Walsh attributes this change of scoring to the judges’ opinions on the bands.
“It was predetermined that if there was a tie, judges would have five minutes to discuss among themselves who they felt the better band,” Walsh said. “Some of the higher scores were given intentionally in order to tie Loki with Dature because, after Loki played, some of the judges weren’t sure which band they felt should move on.”
The judging panel consisted of four judges from the UMaine community: Jon Mason, Steve Barter, Michael Clay and Jessica Paul. According to Smith and Gaudette, they were all qualified and each had musical backgrounds.
None of the judges were available for comment.
Bangor Daily News