Top honours Taken at Battle of the Bands

BY CHRISTY MARSTERS

Various musicians fought for the title of top rocker during the Future Promotions Battle of the Bands event held at the community centre recently in Windsor.

Taken, a heavy metal group from Hants County, stole the show July 14 with a powerful performance and won bragging rights, $400, a free concert promotion and a large trophy to displaying their supremacy.

Guitarist Joe Dodge says the event was an awesome time because getting to see other performers and having the chance to play at home was a really cool experience. “It was a cool night and winning was just the icing on the cake,” he said.

Bait and Switch, another metal group, placed second and won a smaller complimentary trophy for a show well done. Other groups present during the event included Moment of Truth, Splynter, Distracted Actions, Alice Stops Time and Simon’s Funk Garden.

Taken drummer Aaron Matthews says the band took first place and should defend its title again next year. “Going into the competition I didn’t really know what to expect,” he said, “but I really enjoyed it.”

Tim Matthews, bass player and lead vocalist for Taken, says he learned from the Battle of the Bands experience because he didn’t expect to have younger fans at the show. “I didn’t think it would’ve been their kind of music,” he said.



Truly amazing talent

Heavy metal is an outgoing style and Taken is very different band, Tim said. “However, after the performance I was excited because I was pretty confident we had a chance of winning.”

Taken plans to put their earnings from the Battle into a fund set up for the group with hopes of having enough money to gear up an album for future release.

Bobby Morton of Future Promotions says Taken is a phenomenal band. “I watched them in high school (under a different name) and they were good back then, but it’s hard to describe how far they’ve come. They have a truly amazing talent.”

In fact, Morton said, the talent in this area is unreal. “The event was a great success for being the First Annual Rock-A-Thon Battle of the Bands. The crowd seemed really into the bands and they appeared to enjoy themselves. The event overall was a great success and next year I hope it grows to an even bigger scale.

“Having an event like Battle of the Bands sparks interest to the youth in the community and allows them to be more involved with different music and recreation programs. A small community needs events like this to keep things interesting,” Morton said. “I just want to say thank-you to all the staff and volunteers that made this night possible.”