Occam's Razor at Battle of the Bands

Occam’s Razor, a band led by Fagan Harris and Pra Chandrasoma--two Stanford juniors--played at Phi Kappa Psi on Saturday night as part of that fraternity’s Battle of the Bands event.  The band opened with a high-energy jam that inspired both dancing and persistent yelling.  The song was especially memorable for the second part of its chorus, during which two singers belted, “Well I could be--,” in simultaneity with a guitar riff, followed by a high-tension pause, then “So much more,” followed by prominent guitar soloing.  The alternation of full-power vocals and moments of silence was supremely effective in exciting the audience.  The rest of the song possessed a calmer feel, including the repetition of “Baby, bay-bay” in the first part of the chorus.  With this song, the band seemed to be trading particularly on a strong build-up (of both melodic tension and audience participation), and they were successful in this respect.

The band’s next original song (fourth on the set-list), called “Solution Lovefix,” traded on conveying guy-girl difficulties; in particular, it tried to express the angst of a guy reluctantly dealing with (and occasionally accepting) a persistent girl’s advances.  The accompanying music seemed to match the undulations of the lyrics: first, the male character is standoffish, then he gives in a little, then he finds the willpower to harden himself, then he relinquishes a bit, and so forth.  In parallel, the music would pick up speed and energy and then quiet down, in a similarly patterned form.  Though the background did shift to match the energy of the singing, the rising and falling of the instrumentals (in terms of energy and tone) seemed to short-match the rising and falling of the lyrics (in terms of content).  While one could assert that the pattern became a bit “too repetitive,” it’s likely that the band intended it to be that way, as a reflection of the monotony in male-female relations.  The choppy guitar strumming throughout the song corresponded nicely to the back-and-forth motion and uncertainty of the piece’s themes.

Between those two original pieces, the band covered two songs: “Stronger,” by Kanye West, and “Billie Jean,” by Michael Jackson.  During “Stronger,” Chandrasoma rapped, while Harris played the Daft Punk-created accompaniment on guitar.  The objectives of performing this piece seemed to be two-fold: to excite the audience with a song that they could recognize and sing along to, and to impress the audience with a rendition of the song that would exceed its expectations (despite lacking much of the electronic equipment used in the original version).  Occam’s Razor certainly achieved the first goal: the crowd’s movement and volume jumped substantially as the song began.  The band met their second goal as well, though not quite as aptly as they met their first.  Chandrasoma’s rapping was clear and on-beat, but lacked the emphasis listeners are used to hearing from West.  Keeping in mind that Chandrasoma had been singing just a few minutes earlier, however, we might consider his rapping more than competent.  After all, the band may have been pursuing a third goal: to reflect crossover potential.  This potential certainly revealed itself in Harris’s accompaniment.  His guitar playing achieved a sound shockingly similar to that of Daft Punk, yet differed noticeably and interestingly, with a less-ample, sharper sound.  The audience reacted with corresponding glee.

Overall, Occam’s Razor accomplished what seemed to be their primary objectives: they established themselves as a versatile and memorable rock band, with inclusions of rap, electronica, violin-soloing, covers and original songs.  And through their energy and track selection, they provided the audience with a fun, exhausting performance.