By John Mackowiak
The 2008 Fred Fest Battle of the Bands—32 different bands wanted in. Thirty-two different local bands thought that they had enough talent to open for Fred Fest's headlining act, Cartel. Thirty-two bands, double the number of acts who expressed interest in the battle last year.
Each artist sent a demo and application to SUNY Fredonia's Sound Services—the student group that sponsors the battle.
The campus' masters of sound listened to each demo and carefully considered each application. They narrowed the 32 down to eight.
Eight bands competed in the first round of the battle of the bands.
And from those eight, the campus voted three acts into the final battle.
Sound Services Equipment Manager Kenny Christensen set the stage during High Noon Friday, approximately 5 1/2 hours before the battle went down.
“Three bands going into final battle, which this time around are Gonculator, The Scarlet Ending and Ghost of a Stranger,” Christensen said. “Come down, check it out and vote for your favorite band, and we'll see who gets to play for Fred Fest, opening for Cartel.”
Gonculator already won the Battle of the Bands in 2006. The Scarlet Ending has had its music featured on MTV's The Hills. Ghost of a Stranger was the clear underdog.
Posters quickly appeared around campus.
Sound Services hung fliers that urged students to come to the battle and vote for their favorite band.
Other signs that read, “The Scarlet Ending for Fred Fest 2008,” or “Vote 4 Ghost of a Stranger,” were also quite visible on campus bulletin boards.
When the clock struck six on Friday, the battle began. It went down in the Williams Center on the SUNY Fredonia campus.
Gonculator was first to take the stage.
Vocalist Jacob Karl Kodweis practically ate the microphone as he sang with his mouth and eyes wide open.
He wore a suede vest and a matching green hat. Kodweis's wide open eyes looked the crowd over, as he raised and fluttered his eyebrows.
Yellow lights shone from behind the stage, as the band made its way to the bridge of one of its songs. Gonculator stood on the stage in silhouette.
Guitarist Sean Greif slapped his hands together over his head. He urged the audience to sing and clap with his band, saying “We're all in this together.”
Bassist Derek Stoll slowly bobbed his upper body up and down. Cam Griffith slammed his drums. Kodweis dominated the center of the stage. Settling into a crouch, he quickly shuffled forwards and back, intensely eying over the crowd with his eyebrows raised.
The audience swayed back and forth, many didn't move their feet, just swayed. It was as if they were standing with the weight of their upcoming decision on their shoulders. Who would they choose to open for Cartel at Fred Fest?
Gonculator was attempting to be the first band to win the battle of the bands twice within four years. After its set, the band said what winning would mean to them.
“It would bring the satisfaction of being the only band to do it two times within four years, which would be nice,” Kodweis said. “I mean, you know, that's a pretty honorable achievement. If not, we'll play BJ's Fest and we'll have a good time with the cats and the dogs and the condoms.”
“With that, I think, at bottom, it's just about playing as many shows as we can and just trying to make an impact,” Greif said.
“Yeah, it's Fred Fest, you know, there's a million people there, some from out of town, it's a good place to play,” Stoll said.
“If we win, it will be the official last Gonculator show at Fredonia, and that'll be it. It'll be the last show we play on this campus,” Griffith said.
The Scarlet Ending was up next. Violinist/guitarist Kayleigh Goldsworthy took the stage alone.
It was the first time the band had ever started a set like this. Kayleigh stood on stage by her lonesome, without her twin sister Kaleena, who plays the keyboard, and without the rest of her band.
Kayleigh showed off her legs, wearing a little black dress and black heels. A string of pearls was around her neck.
The rest of the Scarlet Ending joined Kayleigh on stage mid-song. Kaleena, along with guitarist Jon Tedd, bassist Brian Cooney, drummer Kiel Feher and cellist Jess Hafner, quietly walked onto the stage and waited for Kayleigh to finish her song.
They got right into after that, playing their clean and crisp pop music, which has always been well-received on-campus.
All of the band members are classically-trained, giving the Scarlet Ending the ability to play simple pop songs or very complex arrangements.
Kayleigh and Kaleena marked the end of each song with a gracious smile, as the crowd shouted for more.
One of The Scarlet Ending's songs – “The Way We Used to Be” – was featured on the hit MTV reality show, The Hills.
Kaleena let the audience know that right before they performed the song. She says it every show, and she said that she doesn't care if some individuals in the audience hear her say it over and over.
As she sat behind her keyboard wearing a black vest over a red tank top, Kaleena, speaking for herself and for Kayleigh, said having their song on MTV was the proudest moment of their lives.
Kayleigh struck the first chord of the song on her guitar, while Kaleena sang the da-dum-da-dum melody.
The girls quickly end up buried in the emotions of the song. The audience responded with a sway and a toe tap.
Kayleigh's exposed calf muscles flexed, as she danced in the center the stage flicking the strings on her acoustic guitar.
Filled with energy, Kaleena bounced behind the keyboard. Her face told the story behind the song.
After they finished their set, I asked The Scarlet Ending the same question I asked Gonculator. What would winning mean to them?
“For us, I think it's more of like, 'this our last chance to be able to be part of the battle,'” Kaleena said. “This is something that we've aspired to do all four years that we were here, to be the band that's chosen by our peers in order to perform at Fred Fest.”
“I think that's the biggest thing, … that by doing this show and just being in the second part of the battle was a lot for us because it meant that there were people out there who enjoyed our music and voted for us,” Kayleigh said. “So, to be able to play Fred Fest as the opener would mean a lot to us not only to get a really good spot at Fred Fest, but also it would show that there's a lot of support from our peers.”
Ghost of a Stranger – the underdog – was the final band of the night.
It was tough to tell how the crowd felt about the band. One young woman dressed in red was busy sending text messages until she walked away from the stage, while another sat Indian-style 4 feet from the front of the stage. She slowly moved her arms around as if she were swimming through the air. She whipped her head around and bobbed her shoulders.
Clearly, it seemed that there were mixed feelings for Ghost of a Stranger.
The last song they played felt futuristic.
Guitarist Adam Korbesmeyer played a riff that conjured The Killers. It blared as vocalist Pete Torrey sang the lyrics. He kept his eyes shut tightly, spitting each word out of his mouth.
In the middle of the song, something went wrong with one of the stage lights. Sparks flew as the light blew out.
Drummer Josh Martin and bassist Greg Gebhard had looks of fear written across their faces, while Torrey and Korbesmeyer went on, oblivious to the small explosion.
They fought through the fear and slammed their way through the rest of the song. As the final band, they had used their final song to leave a mark in the memories of the concert goers.
Votes had been filing in throughout the night. After Ghost of a Stranger's set, the last few people left to vote quickly cast their votes, and Sound Services started counting.
The number crunching didn't take long. As Sound Services prepared to make the announcement, the three bands and their most loyal fans filed back into the Williams Center.
A female member of Sound Services stepped up to the microphone.
“I was told to make this really suspenseful and to put a lot of long pauses in it and to start with the third place,” she said. “In third place we had, really long pause, The Scarlet Ending.”
A tinge of surprise fell over the crowd. Still, the people in the room were drowning in anticipation. The young women on the mic went on.
“We had in second place—like I just want to say first, all of the votes were really close, like within 10 votes. It really came down to that,” she said. “All right, our second place band was Gonculator.”
The surprise turned to shock for some. Ghost of a Stranger's fans erupted in cheers and applause.
“So that means,” someone in the crowd yelled. You could hear frustration in his voice.
“So that means, yes, process of elimination, Ghost of a Stranger was our first-place band,” she said.
Just to put things into perspective – its’ an upset bigger than the Giants defeating the Patriots in this past Super Bowl. Maybe even bigger than USA hockey team beating the Russians in 1980.
Perhaps, that's little over dramatic, but I, along with most others who attended, were caught off guard by the results.
Ghost of a Stranger, itself, might have been just as shocked.
“I'm just really happy because last year we lost by 10 votes,” Korbesmeyer said. “I'm just really happy and excited to play Fred Fest.
“I'm just relieved,” Gebhard said. “I was freaking out pretty bad, so I'm relieved it's over.”
“I was worried about tonight, definitely,” Korbesmeyer said. “Definitely, worried about tonight because The Scarlet Ending and Gonculator are two very popular bands with great followings, so we really promoted a lot to try to get people to vote for us.”
Ghost of a Stranger won the gig. They will open for The Secret Machines, who open for Cartel at Fred Fest.
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