2010 Loerie Awards Battle of the Bands winners picked
A Walk with the Wicked guitarist Ian Robbins. Photos by Ingrid Sinclair
Mercury Live was pumping to a very different kind of tune on Friday evening when five bands - I Scream & the Chocolate Stix, A Walk with the Wicked, Dead Alphabet, Anaphys and The Gloonies – competed in the 2010 Loerie Awards Battle of the Bands competition. The victors were I Scream & the Chocolate Stix, whom we’ve come to know as a quirky band with a quality message in their hit song My Cape Town.
The judging panel was made up of esteemed members of the local music and advertising industries: publicist Louise Crouse, Net#work BBDO Executive Creative Director Rob McLennan, John Langford of Big Concerts, music manager and agent Maryke Zietsman and John Monsoon, music editor for One Small Seed.
The five bands that took to the stage performed wildly different styles of music, giving the mixed-bag crowd plenty to dance to.
The judges
Cape Town band A Walk with the Wicked started things off with an energetic and typically hardcore death metal set – the long-haired metalheads had a lot of support at the competition and the mosh pit was throbbing, as it does at Mercury.
Then it was The Gloonies’ turn – a six-member outfit that has a dainty frontwoman with a massive voice. Their progressive rock songs were appreciated by the crowd but the Meatloaf cover – none other than I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That) – ensured rapturous applause.
Johannesburg band Dead Alphabet offered the freshest, slickest sound of the night with an overall fantastic delivery. Their The Doors-like undertones and rambunctious Kings of Leon energy make this band one to watch; they’ve definitely made a lot of new fans this weekend.
But everyone knew the prize was in the bag when I Scream & the Chocolate Stix took to the stage with their upbeat hip-hop/rock sound. My Cape Town was their second song of the night and as it started the room erupted with cheers. Whether the members of the audience were Capetonian or not didn’t seem to matter much at this stage of the night – it’s everyone’s Cape Town now.
Dead Alphabet lead singer Adam Edwards
