Unfortunately Battle of the Bands did not strike a chord with the Upper School this year and lost it’s rhythm near the end of the planning process. Though it appeared as though Battle of the Bands would come back this year, the planning committee, headed by Upper School French Teacher Aimeric Lajuzan and Upper School English Teacher Emily Anderson, chose to cancel on the week of the event.

“From year to year there’s different levels of how many bands are interested,” Lajuzan said.

A week before April. 4, the scheduled date of the event, there were three slated bands however, with less than a week to go the band Good Luck Finding Iris was the only remaining band.

“I kinda wish we could restore [Battle of the Bands] to it’s former glory. I think because we stopped for two years it pulled a lot of the kids away from thinking they could play in a band,” Good Luck Finding Iris drummer Lutalo Jones said.

This is the second school year that Battle of the Bands has not occurred due to a lack of band participation following a more successful Battle of the Bands in the 2013-14 school year. Taking into consideration the natural ebb and flow of number of bands in the Upper School, event organizers want to reframe how the event is planned each year.

“For sure it’s not making us think ‘ok we’re not doing battle of the bands anymore.’ Every year we put it back on the table and see how much of a push there is from the students,” Lajuzan said.

Though the exciting sounds of electric guitar and energetic percussion will not flow through the St. Paul Academy and Summit School hallways this year, it will be missed by students.
“I wish in the future we could make the battle an event where kids can give their try at music and just have fun with it,” Jones said.