Battle in the Ballroom
tWeezer captures right to perform at ‘Groovin on the Grounds’ event
   Die-hard fans and other music lovers filled the Union Ballroom Sunday as Students on Target presented the Battle of the Bands.
Crowds turned out to see their favorite bands and cheer as loud as they could in hopes their band would win. After all, the winner earned the opportunity to be the opening act at Groovin’ on the Grounds, to be held April 12.
“Our motto is ‘a good time not wasted,’ and that is what we hope to see here today,” said Eusebio Gongora, member of Students on Target.
The event started off well, with Birdfinger playing everything from LFO’s “Summer Girls” to Garth Brooks’ “Callin’ Baton Rouge.”
The band’s fans cheered loudly, even using air horns to push the decibel meter as high as they could. This use of artificial noise makers angered some fans of tWeezer, the next band to play.
“We told the bands they could not play instruments or use the microphones, but we can’t penalize the crowd,” said Katie Taylor, event director and mass communication senior.
The Weezer cover band tWeezer played, even incorporating a chorus of Britney Spears’ “Baby, One More Time” into one of its songs as comedy. The band brought a crowd roughly the same size as Birdfinger, and the audience appeared just as excited.
The next band, Time Has Revealed Us, or THRU, provided a much different act. The male vocal R&B group entertained for a shorter time than the rest of the bands. While its crowd was not nearly as large as those brought in by the other three bands, THRU had LSU basketball standout Ronald Dupree cheering for it.
The event concluded with Grey Street, the only Dave Matthews tribute band in Louisiana. It brought a large crowd as well, but could not get quite as loud as tWeezer’s.
When the results finally were calculated, tWeezer came out on top.
“We are super excited. We had been looking forward to this, but we didn’t think we would win,” said English sophomore Jonathan Pretus, lead singer for tWeezer. “We will be much better for Groovin’ on the Grounds,” he said.
Female vocal group Diamonz originally was slated to perform, but became ineligible because its members are trying to sign a record deal.
Event officials would not allow complete final results to be published due to the specialized formula they use, incorporating decibel level as well as duration.