“NECC Music’s Battle of the Bands never disappoints,” said Dean of Liberal Arts Amy Callahan. On April 10, at the TC building in Haverhill cam- pus the Battle of the Bands was held, a music competition that gathers NECC community and the love of music.
Dean Callahan was one of the judges, along with Music Professor Jared Holaday and professional musician in the area, Michael Ruggelo. The judges had a hard time to place the three top bands because all the musicians on stage were so talented, engaged the audience and gave their best.
“I love the opportunity to see all the amazing talent that our students have and their connections to the community. This is an event that really brings the community onto our campus to celebrate our students talent. It’s collaborative, it’s exciting and it’s uplifting. It’s fun! It’s also connected very deeply to our academic program in the music associate’s degree. Each band to be eligible to perform in the Battle of the Bands, it must have one current music student or one music alum of the college, so each band has very close connection to the college.”
Neck Dive, who has performed for three years in a row, won first place in the first year.
“They are always a favorite; they are a crowd favorite and they are one of my favorites. People get up and dance,” said Callahan.
This year the first-place winner was a “wonderful band” called Dog 8 dog.
“They just are very energetic, and their music is just powerful and fun,” said Callahan.
Second place went to Krankenwagen. They are another band that people got hyped with.
There were more bands participating this year, such as No Wave Charles and Moonlight Bandits. “I think the interest is growing. Probably the rep- utation of the Battle of the Bands is expanding in the community. We had five bands performing original songs for the most part, a few covers here and there which were fun, and just the goodwill and the generosity of spirit of all the musicians supporting each other. The crowd supported our students and local musicians. It’s really beautiful to see,” said Callahan.
Not only there were music students attending, Digital Photography students were assigned to take pictures of the event by their professor, Alex Bordino.
Battle of the Bands brought around 70 people together around music, and this event was organized by music professor Alisa Bucchiere.
Dean Callahan remarked on Bucchiere’s hard work, “I’m so grateful to professor Alisa Bucchiere for conceiving the idea and executing this amazing Battle of the Bands. That’s one of my favorite events of the year and it’s wonderful for the music associate’s degree program.”
Each band played between five or six songs. The members of the bands in order of appearance were:
No Wave Charles: Henry Na- chamie, Vocals/Guitar.
Krankenwagen: Paul Fry, vocals/ guitar; Caleb Dyer, keys/vocals; Chris Drew, bass; Santino DeMonte, drums.
Neck Dive: Cade Dones, vocals/ guitar; Luke Waites, guitar/vocals; Soph
Madera, bass/vocals; Jackson Page, drums.
Dog 8 Dog: Meg Collins, vocals/ guitar; Brad DiPalma, guitar; Sarah Bird, keys/vocals; Chris Drew, bass; Santino DeMonte, drums.
Moonlight Bandits: Sandy Lin- coln, vocals/guitar; James Higgins, keys/vocals; Chris Drew, bass; Santi- no DeMonte drums.
