By Danica Ward
Staff Writer
Oct. 27 was a big day for rock music fans on campus. The College’s own student event planning College Union Board, and their music offshoot CUB Alt, presented the second annual Battle of the Bands competition.
Local acts Polyester Hall, Phoenix Valley, Toilet Theory, Eventide and Terrorgheist battled it out over the course of a three-hour show to see who would open for CUB’s main concert of the year, rapper A Boogie Wit da Hoodie on Nov. 11.
Held in the Brower Student Center, a large crowd gathered throughout the night to attend the free rock show. CUB also provided stickers, posters and temporary tattoos promoting the event that guests could take home.
Each of the six bands had a bucket with their name on it that attendees could drop their ticket into. Throughout the night, hoards of people stepped up to the table to cast their vote. Although each band fit into some sort of rock sub-genre, they varied from heavy metal to indie and emo.
All of the bands brought their best game to the show, getting the crowd to sing along, rock out, and even create a mosh pit at some points in the night.
After a night of high voltage energy and music, the winning band was announced. The College’s own Toilet Theory emerged victorious, becoming the opening band for CUB’s main concert coming soon.
The band also took the time to answer some questions about their experience with the competition and how it feels to wear the CUB Alt crown.
Toilet Theory consists of members sophomore elementary and special education and psychology major CJ Castaneda (vocals/guitar), sophomore electrical engineering major Katrina Alcalde (vocals), junior nursing major Ariana Tabamo, sophomore graphic design major Gabrielle Brideau (guitar), sophomore mechanical engineering major Marc Reyes, junior interactive multimedia major Garrett Gonzalez (keys) and junior civil engineering major Ian Gonzales (drums).
Almost a year ago, Gonzales and Gonzalez asked Alcalde, Reyes and Castaneda to start a band, and eventually they became their final form. Although they mostly play at events hosted by the Pan-Asian Alliance, they gained more recognition after playing at CUB’s Funival event.
The band mused in a text interview, “I think that one of the things that has evolved for us the most has been our confidence and our musicality as a band, it’s so much easier to play and work with each other because we are genuinely all friends outside of the band.”
In preparation for the competition, the band came up with a set of songs they knew by heart, as well as a few new ones, and “came into this event, of course wanting to win, but more importantly, just to have fun and perform for a crowd again.”
Castenada also added, “I think we had a lot of good things going for us during the performance, we had a lot of really fun crowd interaction moments, we had some silly little band interaction moments, and, in general, it was just one of our highest-energy performances.”
Of course, the band was ecstatic when realizing they won the competition, but the moment was made even better by the fact that the members had friends there to celebrate with. As CUB’s main concert comes closer, Toilet Theory knows they have to “lock in,” and just have fun.
In addition to them winning the competition to open for A Boogie, the main event will be one of their biggest audiences. The band noted that they are excited to be performing for their friends, but “are even happier to represent the Asian-American community at TCNJ! While we hope that people have fun and jam along with us, we also want people who look like us, sound like us, and understand us, to feel represented and uplifted!”
Catch Toilet Theory opening for A Boogie Wit da Hoodie on Nov. 11 at the College’s Recreation Center.
