When I was in high school, I had a ton of friends who had bands. They were forced to put on their own shows in basements, VFWs and dog kennels, often being chased from venue to venue by older folks who could not stand the noise.
For this reason, it was extremely inspiring to see the kind of support given to high school bands by organizations and individuals around the county at Saturday's Anne Arundel High School Battle of the Bands at Maryland Hall.
Ten bands had the opportunity to showcase their music on a large stage, using professional sound equipment with an engineer, to a large audience. Not only am I impressed with the idea, but the support of other high school kids. The show was sold out and more kids were still trying to get in.
Some bands had their own cheering sections, even outside of their families.
Though all ten bands displayed tremendous talent and heart, two bands clearly stood out from the pack: Archbishop Spalding's Brightview Avenue and Severna Park High's Aww Yeah! The bands took first and second place, respectively, although if it were up to me I probably would have reversed that order.
Pop-punkers Brightview Avenue played with the most enthusiasm, but Aww Yeah!, which combined the styles of Bob Marley, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Sublime, was comprised of the superior musicians. In fact, the band actually took the Best Vocalist, Best Bassist and Best Drummer awards. Brightview Avenue took the Best Song and Best Performance awards. I guess the high energy performance was what put the band over the top with the judges. Both bands had about equal amounts of fans, however Aww Yeah! actually had a dancing section on each side of the stage.
Here is my impression of each band. You can watch video of each band on HometownAnnapolis.com with the provided links.

View my photos here

Melody Page - St. Mary's High School
Melody, the only solo artist of the group, looks like Miley Cyrus and sounds like Lisa Loeb. She's the one artist I had heard of before the battle, as she was featured in The Capital in the past.

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The Honest Life - Broadneck High School
The Honest Life was fairly typical of a lot of high school bands back in Central Pennsylvania, where I grew up. Their songs are fairly aggressive with a lot of screaming during the verses with melodic choruses. It sounds like they listen to a lot of Underoath and Hawthorne Heights, and kind of blended those two styles together.
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Life Worth While - North County High School
Life Worth While was very similar to The Honest Life, although without the melody. That probably really hurt them in a competition like this one.
I have to say though, it was impressive that their "singer" could scream like that for that long and never lose a step. And, I'll never get tired of seeing long-haired, tie-dye wearing kids in hardcore bands. That rules.
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The People In The Windows - Annapolis High School
This band took third place and guitarist Haines Whitacre took his instrument's top honor. The People In The Windows sound like big fans of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. In fact, they almost sound a little too much like the multi-platinum recording artists. There is something to be said about originality, which could have hurt this band in the long-run. They impressed the judges, but they probably would have been in my No. 5 spot.
Kudos to drummer Jeremy Byrd for rap-singing and playing at the same time. He also played in Melody Page's band that night.
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Purple Everywhere - Old Mill High School
Purple Everywhere was one of the most low key band's of the night, which probably helped them out place the hardcore bands, but put them only at spot No. 4. Had all genres been judged fairly, I'm not sure if this one would have cracked the top five. Vocalist Christian Smith was probably one of the better singers of the night. He clearly can actually sing and isn't just doing the "rock and roll" throat thing. This was the only band who chose an insanely huge, current song to cover, "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz. I liked the idea of some of the bands doing a cover song, but by picking a song like that one, you could butcher the hell out of it and most people wouldn't even notice because of all of the singing along. Sort of smart for the room, but maybe not for the judges.
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Aww Yeah! - Severna Park High School
To me, this was clearly the best band of the night. The band kicked off its set with a spot-on cover of the Red Hot Chili Peppers "Aeroplane." Not only did it sound great, but I loved the choice. It was a hit, but amongst the Chili Peppers hits, it's a more obscure tune, as it is taken from one of the band's least appreciated records, "One Hot Minute." Sure, Aww Yeah!'s performance wasn't the most energetic, but it was the best, musically. A little bit funk, a little reggae, a little punk and a little classic rock. The band took second place and three individual awards. They deserved No. 1. It was really outstanding, too, to see that at least 50 kids had their Aww Yeah! t-shirts. And every time anyone would say "Yeah" into a microphone, the kids would respond "AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW YEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"
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Blind Redemption - Chesapeake High School
Blind Redemption's bassist, Glenn Williams was wearing an Avenged Sevenfold shirt, and the band played a cover of "Gunslinger," during its set. It's safe to say, their original songs were certainly influenced by the Southern California goth pop/metal group. Blind Redemption fit right in with The Honest Life and Life Worth While at first, but another song they played fit right in with Brightview Avenue. It's good to be diverse, but you can't sound like two different bands. These guys probably need to work on a focused sound.
Oh, and if I could give a "Most likely to have purchased their wardrobes at Hot Topic" award, it would go to these guys.
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The Bob and Mr. Man Show - South River High School
I felt bad for these guys. One of the guitarists was asked to leave after he was seen smoking outside of Maryland Hall. Not only was he under 18, but the battle was pushing an anti-smoking campaign all night. The band's vocalist sat out in protest, so The Bob and Mr. Man Show was stuck playing a three-song instrumental set as a trio. They were not the worst band by a few, but the missing members had the guys off their game a little. You could tell how awkward they were trying to play a set, and who could blame them. They get points just for not giving up, and they did a pretty cool instrumental cover of System of a Down's "Sugar."
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Brightview Avenue - Archbishop Spalding
I had a feeling these guys were going to win this thing. To me, they were probably in the top five, but I would have rated at least two bands ahead of them: Aww Yeah! and Ground. Though, you have to give them credit. Their performance was by far the most energetic, and it didn't look too planned out either. Some of the other bands had planned guitar moves or synchronized jumps, but with these guys it was just pure passion and energy. It's great to see a bunch of kids that really believe in what they are doing, and they weren't the only ones. A section of screaming girls turned out with signs in support of them, and were even yelling out requests.
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Ground - Southern High School
Ground had the most comfortable looking performance of the night. I thought to myself as they played, "these guys look like they do this all the time." They were the most original band of the night, with a sound like a mesh of Primus, The Presidents of the United States of America and Bad Religion, with some Police thrown in there as well. They rocked out a little harder than most of the bands with three of them approaching the lip of the stage and playing with their instruments extended toward the crowd. They also had the only "big rock finish" of the battle,  with both guitarists ending up on their knees.
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