The battle was best left for the stage in the Commercial Music Program’s Battle of the Bands last Wednesday.

The concert had student-led bands perform in a venue in front of the Music Department for competitive purposes.

A total of three bands performed, in which a selected winner would get three songs officially recorded, a music video filmed by the film department and notch a performance spot for the Commercial Music Fair in June.

“The idea was to just see what would happen if we got people interested in the program and things like that,” Andrew Maz, instructor of Commercial Music, said.

Two categories were set.

In the high school category, No Vacancy, the only entrant, came out the winner. Dragonknite won the second category.

The other band who performed was Amplified Inception.

A DJ performance was also showcased in between sets.

An estimated 50 people showed up to the concert, despite poor advertising, according to Maz.

The beginning of the concert was plagued with sound issues, according to Blairr Rucker, an electrical engineer major, who was in attendance with his friends.

“A lot of the songs were having technical difficulties,” he said.

“I felt the show kind of opened up to a slow start.

“Once the bands started to get more into it, they started buckling down. Other than that, the show was amazing and I’m kind of glad I came.”

Aliah Richardson, an animal science major, noted that it was toward the end of the concert where everyone started to “pulsate” together.

The duo of Jessie Mendoza (DJ Tism) and Jaime (Jimmy Z) Zendejas provided the DJ’ing and the drumming during the concert.

The two met on campus and both seek to extend their instrumental paths to a professional level.

Zendejas said, “Coming here to school and taking classes, it kind of opens your perspective on the music industry and it’s something that I want to do.”

Mendoza said, “Jimmy is very talented. He gets down, he can read me and I can read him, so we have a pretty good vibe.”

As far as the performances from the bands, Rucker mentioned how Dragonknite was his preference, as he felt all the performers were on key with their timing.

In addition to involving the crowd with the music.

Regardless, he enjoyed every single aspect of the music.

“The music wasn’t excellent, but it wasn’t terrible,” he said.

“I love hearing all different kinds of music. I just love hearing how different people form together with different instruments.”

One weakness from the concert, according to George Loulakis, a nursing major, was that he wasn’t a part of it, he jokingly mentioned.

“I really wanted to go up there, though. I wanted to steal the show.”

Maz confirmed another Battle of the Bands will happen next year.