Battle of the Bands Lets Southampton Teens Rock Out

As the sun started to set and the sea breeze began to come in, the sounds coming from Ponquogue Beach were not ocean waves but folk tunes and saxophones.

The Southampton Youth Bureau presented its 14th annual Battle of the Bands on Friday at the beach in Hampton Bays. Seven bands, all composed of students from local middle and high schools, played sets of covers and original songs to a large turnout of parents, fans and other teens looking for a fun night out. The bands on the bill played everything from rock and pop to punk and folk to kick off their summer vacation.

While the battle didn’t start until 8 p.m., early attendees were treated to a brief opening set from Lindsay Dunn, the winner of this year’s Hamptons Got Talent, another contest sponsored by the Hampton Youth Bureau. She sang The Weeknd’s “The Hills,” James Bay’s “Let It Go,” and X Ambassadors’ “Unsteady.” Lindsay’s powerful vocal delivery fits the sound of the ballads she performed, which she prefers over other songs.

“I like to slow things down when I sing,” she said after coming offstage to big applause. “It’s just more fun that way.”

At 8 o’clock, WBAB personality Joe Rock took the stage to welcome the crowd to the show and introduce the battle’s judges: Charles Certain, jazz recording artist and editor for SEA-TV; Brian Cosgrove, music director and host of “Afternoon Ramble” on WPPB 88.3 FM; and John Marano, owner of We’ll Floor U in Hampton Bays. Mr. Rock then allowed the battle to commence by introducing the first band: The Others.

The four-piece, all girl pop-rock band grabbed the crowd’s attention with a cover of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy.” With the backbeat of drummer Katie Moore, bassist Lana Fusco and keyboardist Lila Bowe, singer Lilly Kutner led the group on some more soul covers with their matching black-and-red style. Despite being together for only a month, band members said everything on stage felt right and didn’t focus on any possible stage fright.

“We just thought it’d be fun,” Lilly said. “We like playing classic rock and funk songs, so this was something cool to do.”

Next up was the first oddity of the night in the form of The Subterraneans. The seven-piece folk-rock band came complete with mandolin player Sam Shaffery, Keaton Comiskey playing the melodica wearing suspenders and a Stetson hat, and lead singer Connor Vaccariello in an equally fashionable Stetson hat and a hands-free harmonica holder akin to Bob Dylan. Rounding out the lineup were bassist Sam Basel, saxophonist Patrick Connolly, pianist Dimitris Niflis and drummer Nick Orientale. Coming to the stage with a very vocal fanbase that filled the front row, the band opened with an instrumental cover of Dropkick Murphys’ “I’m Shipping Up to Boston,” before playing three original songs. One song had the wordy title “Champions of Playing Pretend and Expert Scientist,” for which the band gave no explanation both on and offstage. For such a crowded stage, all seven members brought their own flash of energy and showmanship to a usually tame genre like folk. When asked why they chose the genre, Connor was very blunt.

“Well mostly it’s because I can’t sing anything else,” he said with a smirk. “But also because we think it means more and can also be used to help find love.”

Following the folk was Road Trip, a four-piece band that clearly knew their Long Island audience by opening with Billy Joel’s “Movin’ Out.” All sporting short-sleeved multi-colored Hawaiian shirts, the band captured the relaxing vibe of summer with guitarist Josh Pasca’s smooth strumming, pianist Nick Corridor letting his fingers skip along the keys and Andre Bianchi on drums. To add to the summertime vibe, the band had the audiences swaying and bopping to a cover of Sublime’s “Santeria” because, according to lead singer Christian Padavan, “We wanted to play a beachy song.”

With electric instruments owning the night so far, the acoustic rock trio of Sporting Goods took the stage with two acoustic guitars and Carlos Pacheco on the bongos. The band, also consisting of Edward Hennessey and Ian Thornton both doing double duty with guitars and vocals, opened with a cover of the Foo Fighters’ “Everlong” before playing two original songs. On the first original, Edward couldn’t decide what to title the song—choices were “Sad Boy Song,” or “Thoughts of the Sky”)—so he let the audience decide by gauging the crowd reaction to both titles. At the end of the set, he settled on “Thoughts of the Sky.”

To break up the show and allow the judges to collect their thoughts, the battle featured an intermission performance by last year’s champions, alternative rockers Fawkes. While the rockers tore through a loud and energetic set, one of the many heads bopping along to the music was Peter Strecker. The event coordinator and neighborhood aide to the Southampton Youth Bureau talked about the main goal for the battle.

“This really is an outlet to express creativity and bring the community youth together. It’s a slowly building program but it is growing. We used to only get five bands to sign up—this year we have seven!”

Mr. Strecker and his associates started looking for bands in March, saying how the essential requirement is that at least one member of each band must be a high school student residing locally. Mr. Strecker gives great praise and appreciation to the event’s sponsors, including Spring & Summer Activities of Hampton Bays, Simon Malls, Southampton Town Police, and PMA Recording Studios, which offered five hours of studio time to the first-place winner.

After Fawkes finished the lively set—as evidenced by lead singer Patrick Lligui’s shaking hands after bouncing and twisting around the stage while singing)—the battle resumed with The Target Audience. The three-piece skate and surf punk band was also all about energy. Lead singer/guitarist Frank Ragone matched the speed of his strumming with his powerful voice. Drummer Justin Bartoldus and vocalist/bassist Devon Lambert kept up with Frank’s speed. The band’s songs were so fast and forceful, they walked on and off stage in the blink of an eye.

The penultimate band was Millhouse, a four-piece rock outfit composed of Matthias Phillips on vocals and bass, Liam O’Brien on drums, and previous competitors from the evening Edward and Ian of Sporting Goods on guitar and vocals. The crowd became so enamored with the band that during their cover of The Strokes’ “Reptilia,” one of the audience members joined Edward onstage to sing the chorus. On top of that, Fawkes’ lead singer Patrick joined the band for a cover of Jimmy Eat World’s “The Middle,” to which the front row filled up more and started dancing.

The battle’s final challengers were Citrus Stomp, a six-piece band also featuring Edward, this time on bass guitar, and Dimitris, of The Subterraneans, on keyboards. The band came out to total audience adoration, which gave them all the more reason to kick into their, according to the band, “harsh noise” rock. The energy of the band was certainly bracing, with lead vocalist James Blydenburgh twirling and jumping around the stage to drummer Nick Arpino and Edward’s thumping backbeat. Also providing vocals and guitar was John Tocco.

In what may have been the most surprising moment of the night, the band broke out a ska cover of Coldplay’s international hit “Viva La Vida,” to which the entire crowd joined in the “Woah oh oh oh”s of the song’s chorus.

As Citrus Stomp came offstage, saxophonist Devin D’Agostino walked around with a big bright smile. Though when asked why, the answer sounds a bit somber.

“Today was my last day of my senior year of high school,” Devin said. “It feels good though, to play with these guys and play for our friends before going off to college. I’ve been playing sax since my second year of high school, so it’s great to play in band with these guys.”

Sure enough, Devin’s smile became even bigger when Citrus Stomp was announced as the first-place winners of the Battle of the Bands with Road Trip coming in second and The Subterraneans coming in third. The crowd was ecstatic and Citrus Stomp were equally overjoyed, so much so that they closed out the show with a cover of Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky,” featuring various other bands members and fans bouncing around onstage. The sounds coming from Ponquogue Beach on Friday were the most joyous “school’s out” celebration Long Island heard since ... well, last year’s show.