Battle of the Bands (04/05)

The art event I attended with Tom Berry and William Payne was the 18th Annual Battle of the Bands, which took place at the fraternity Phi Kappa Psi on Stanford campus Saturday night. Specifically, we watched a set of four songs by the Stanford indie rock student band known as Occam's Razor. The instrumentation consisted of two guitars which switched between playing rhythm and lead parts, a bass, keyboards, drums, and a violin. The keyboardist handled the lead vocals and one of the guitarists added harmony and backups.

The band opened with an up-tempo original song of theirs. Next, they covered the Kanye West song "Stronger" and Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean." Finally, they closed with another original song of theirs. What first struck me about this performance was the song ordering, which at any concert is a crucial aspect of connecting and engaging with the audience. By opening up with the up-tempo original song of theirs, they were able to introduce themselves and their sound to the audience. The song itself was pretty accessible with a catchy chorus and traditional pop lyrics ("Baby! Baby! I could give you -- so much more"). What impressed me right off the bat was that the band was able to have the audience dancing to and even singing along to a song most everyone there had never heard before. That said, using the opening song as a basic palette warm-up, the band was able to amplify their connection with the audience by playing clear crowd-pleasers in "Stronger" and "Billie Jean." While it is not a novel idea for a rock band to play a rap song in a concert setting, Occam's Razor pulled off "Stronger" quite convincingly. The lead guitarist handled the crucial part of the backing track (which in fact is a sample of a Daft Punk song) using the proper effects (e.g. distortion, phaser, delay) to nail the sound of the record. The drums and bass also did a good job of providing a pounding beat and strong backbone for the rap.

Familiarity of the performance to the record is the quality that most audience members appreciate in a live band playing a cover tune. However, in order to make a significant impact on the audience's ears, a band has to also offer some contrast/dissonance to the original tune. In other words, to quote the commonly cited-expression, the band has to make the song "their own." Otherwise, the performance becomes stale and predictable. After all, why not just listen to the record or go see the original performers if it's going to sound exactly the same? Judging this band's performance, they did quite a good job of keeping the music fresh and original. First off, having a violinist in the group adds some distinct tones and melody lines that the other rock instruments didn't really provide. Although again not a novel idea to have a violinist in a rock band, it is still nevertheless appreciable for its uniqueness. Furthermore, having the rock vocalist deliver rap vocals is a stretch, but he pulled it off with his own brand of idiosyncrasies and tremendous stage charisma.

The end of "Stronger" was very much the climax of the set. "Billie Jean" offered a nice contrast to the other two songs in almost every category (genre, tone, tempo, lyrical styles, and song structure). Among other things, it featured the bass in the spotlight, rather than the guitars. However, upon finishing the "Billie Jean," it was a minor letdown for the band to play a slower-tempo, less catchy, original piece for their closing song. The connection and chemistry that the band had built by playing a mixture of original songs and covers was slightly compromised at this point. This tune featured much less energy from both the audience and the band. As a closer, it didn't really end the show on a high note that they should have left us with.

Overall, however, the performance was quite solid and the band demonstrated their talent in both their instruments and stage performance. Clearly, they are very experienced.

-Daniel Gratch