Battle of the Bands

The Bluebird declared war Thursday as it held the finals for the Little 500 Battle of the Bands. The final four included The Adultery Brothers, The Gentle Shades, Charlie Patton’s War and Mid-American. However, only one was victorious and given the opportunity to open for one of the concerts sponsored by Ice House Foundation during Little 500 week. Though tension was high throughout the competition, Charlie Patton’s War was eventually declared the overall winner. The all-sophomore group, made up of lead vocalist Blake Rhein, drummer Aaron Frazer, guitarist Kyle Houpt and keyboardist Justin Hubler, said as a newer band it couldn’t be more excited for this opportunity.

IDS: When did you first hear of the Little 500 Battle of the Bands competition?

Hubler:  I think it started in November, but we didn’t find out about it until the middle of December.

Frazer: Well, I saw it, but I didn’t think anything of it.

Houpt: We thought there was no way. We were like, “It’s too late, whatever.”

Frazer: Right, because the top eight were well over 100 votes each, and that just seemed like a daunting task, to overcome that deficit. But then The Adultery Brothers entered and very quickly made it to the top eight, so we were like, “Maybe it’s not too late.”

IDS: How was your overall experience with the competition?

Rhein: We played all right both nights. It was nice having a longer set the second night.

Frazer: I think having a longer set in the finals really allowed us to showcase our versatility and really show the range of our influences.

Rhein: ... and it was nice to play third both nights. That was a good spot. We were kind of able to be that climax as the last band, a good resolution.

Houpt: It’s like a novel, if we were able to write a novel of the finals.

IDS: How do you feel about your newfound success in winning Little 500 Battle of the Bands?

Rhein:  We can’t believe it. It feels really strange.

Frazer:  We were the only band who didn’t have any members 21 or over. Most of our friends are our age, too, so it would have been understandable if we didn’t get as many votes. It was cool to have won, but we’re keeping things in perspective. We are a new band, and we’re amidst a great music scene.

Houpt: It was an honor to play with the other bands.

IDS: How did Charlie Patton’s War first come to play together?

Rhein:  Kyle and I were living together, and we had the idea of starting a band. We were really set on it, and we started playing together ... Kyle was a talented drum player but a much more talented guitar player, so we asked our friend Aaron if he wanted to play drums with us, and he seemed very excited, so he obliged. We were soon to find out that you can’t have Aaron without Hubler, and after playing with Hubler for three minutes, we decided we had to have him. And then we were Charlie Patton’s War, and that’s pretty much how we formed.

IDS What do you define your musical style as?

Frazer: I usually tell people it’s heavy blues-rock, soul influenced.
Aaron It definitely comes from the blues. It’s inspired by good ol’ rock ’n’ roll, but it also comes from gospel, country, funk, jazz ...

Rhein: Hip-hop.

Frazer: Sure, hip-hop.

Hubler:  Pretty much every style of music.

Frazer: To just call us a blues band might not be the most accurate because I think we use Charlie Patton’s War to explore other types of music.

IDS: Are you currently working toward an album or EP
release?  

Frazer: Some people have asked us, “Are you going to start recording an album or anything?” But at the moment we don’t really feel any pressure to do that. We’ve just been making songs as they come and fortifying the ones we have.

IDS: What will be your reward for winning the competition, and what do you look forward to most?

Frazer: The whole Battle of the Bands was sponsored by Ice House Foundation, which is the sponsor for some of the concerts during Little Five week, so we’ll get to open for one of those in April.

Rhein: We’re excited. If we’re opening for a hip-hop artist, we’re going to try to bring a little more of those elements because that’s what the people are coming to see. It’s a lot of people.

Houpt:  Reaching out to a whole new crowd of fans that might not have heard blues
music before.  

Rhein: You can’t really fit 3,000 people in a basement, so it will be cool to play to that
many people.

Frazer: Right now the main people who listen to our music are friends and friends of friends, so it’ll be cool. It’ll be nice to just have our name up there, and when people talk about the Bloomington music scene, it’ll be nice to have our name mentioned.

Hubler: That’ll definitely help us.