Big Love Monster wins the battle of the Bands

As it does every year, this year's Spring Fling Battle of the Bands served as the perfect precursor to Saturday night's big show. A slew of awesome Plymouth state bands made their way to the stage on Friday evening in front of a pretty healthy crowd of students, law enforcement officers and fun vendors of all kinds as the campus geared up for Drake's performance the following evening.

Leading off the proceedings were Plymouth mainstays and winners of a few past battles, Forging Reverie. The Reverie gentlemen did the best they could with an opening slot in the daylight, energetically ripping out a few new songs like "One Idea" and the aggressive "Short Fictions", which received positive reactions from the crowd. Guitars were the highlight of Forging Reverie's set, with Derek Heidemann showing off some serious finesse in his fret work. Newcomer Justin Newton, brother of frontman Tyler Newton, provided some excellent flourishes of background vocals and rhythm guitar, making the band sound bigger than they have before.

Eventual Battle of the Bands winners Big Love Monster also took a daytime slot, jamming and picking their way through a truly funky bunch of songs. Again, the guitar work in this band, along with lead singer Phil Barber's dapper suit coat, stole the show. Sam Demers really impressed the assembled students with his ability to play some pretty difficult stuff while still providing stellar vocals.

Dana Brearly, Matt Feehan and Justin Cohen turned in an excellent set of covers, including the Goo Goo Dolls' "Iris,S" Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" and an encore performance of Jimi Hendrix's "All Along the Watchtower." Encores and covers are both rare animals within the context of the Battle of the Bands, but the trio pulled them both off well in front of the increasingly large crowd.

Several great sets were played after the sun went down, including an energetic set from rapper Chris Marr. Most notably, Gator Bait and the Road Sodas turned in a very entertaining performance of their punk-tinged garage rock, sounding like Modest Mouse on steroids as they blasted through their set. The band encored with a rousing cover of Neil Young's "Rockin' In the Free World," which was met with raucous applause from the crowd. Although they didn't win, the Road Sodas stood out as the most unique and refreshing act of the evening, due to the fact that they truly sounded like no one else that took the stage that evening.

After all the student bands had played their sets, New Jersey ska legends Catch 22 took the stage to rock the Battle of the Band attendees. The band joyously blasted through classics like "9mm and A Three Piece Suit," "Dear Sergio,""A Minor Point" and "This One Goes Out To…" and it seemed a fitting end to the successful Battle of the Bands. Fan favorite "Keasbey Knights" received the best crowd reaction, and the band's horns-and-distortion-soaked brand of pop punk kept the kids dancing until the end. After Catch 22 left the stage it was announced that Big Love Monster were the victors of the day, and the crowd dispersed to enjoy the remainder of their Spring Fling weekend.