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Dixon Band Wins $400 in Battle of the Bands

Over 150 fans pack the house at Cornerstone Baptist Church for the Battle of the Bands finale

After four months of narrowing down the competition to the very last night, hosted its final round of the second annual on Friday, April 29. Over 150 fans of all ages showed up on Friday to show their support for the finalists.

The show kicked off with a quick acoustic set by Robbie Gardunio while people continued to file through the doors. There Came a Day officially opened, followed by Crush the Adversary and finally June Breaks Bright. All three bands brought a tremendous amount of energy to the stage and the crowd reacted with dancing, jumping, screaming lyrics and crowd surfing.

The atmosphere inside Cornerstone was very intense as the crowd pulsated to every move by the bands on stage. Though it might be intimidating to some, there are subtle family nuances about the crowd that could easily be overlooked. When someone fell over, someone picked them up. If someone hit another person, they made sure they were not hurt. If someone’s hat flew off, someone brought it to them. Needless to say, the crowd was vigorous and ecstatic.

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Each person was given three tickets at the door which counts as their votes. When it came time to vote, the audience flooded the stage to cast their tickets for their favorite band. Crush the Adversary took first place with a total of 203 votes and winning the grand prize of $400. June Breaks Bright came in second with 154 votes, winning $200. There Came a Day came in third with 129 votes and was awarded a $100 prize.

The 2011 Battle of the Bands winner, Crush the Adversary is a fairly young band and was a bit of an underdog entering the competition. The members of CTA came together in August of 2010, sharing the common passion for Christian hardcore music.

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“We came to the conclusion that we don’t want to make music if it doesn’t glorify God,” said Dakota Fry, guitarist for CTA. “We want to keep that our priority.” All the band members are ambitious to take the band into the future and are going to use the $400 to record their first EP album.

For Ken Martin, Student Ministries Pastor of Cornerstone, this event is about giving teens a safe place to have fun while receiving a positive message.

“The idea actually came about in 2001, in Washington… I was the youth director there,” said Martin. “We wanted to do something for the youth that was fun and healthy. The first show we did, I think we had 30 people show up for it… the last show that I did there, we had 400-plus kids there.”

Martin hosted Battle of the Bands events in Blaine, Wash., for six years before coming to Dixon. His success here has him planning for next season.

“My hope is that next year, we won’t be able to do it here because it will be so packed-out that this place can’t hold it,” he said.

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