The fourth annual Dayton Battle of the Bands finale takes place on Saturday, March 9, 2024, at The Brightside Music (905 E 3rd St, Dayton, OH 45402), and features six winning bands from each of the playoff rounds.
The finalists from all six weeks include The Bruins (pop/rock), Sheller (alt/punk/metal), Austin Wolfe (Americana/folk), The Shady Pine (country/bluegrass), Melinamarie (hip-hop/R&B), and Freakquency (funk/jam/progressive).
While the finalists were determined in their categories via a combination of audience and judges’ votes, the final round will be 100% determined by the audience.
“We do ranked-choice voting so that alleviates the popularity contest issue,” said Libby Ballengee, music booker and promoter at The Brightside. “People can come and vote for their fave band, but sometimes everyone loves one band and they get everyone’s 2nd place vote, and that puts them over the top.”
By eliminating the element of bias, relying entirely on the audience feels like an objective method of choosing a winner.
“I don’t know that any panel of judges I could put together would be fair considering we all have genres we like more than others,” said Ballengee.
Previous weeks’ performances were on The Brightside’s smaller Vod-Vil Bar stage, while final competing bands will make their musical cases and perform once more on the Ballroom stage.
Vying for the Grand Prize, the winner gets a free EP recording session with Dayton Sound Studios and the opportunity to perform at Levitt Pavilion Dayton, among other rewards from Little Monster Printing and Dayton’s Original Pizza Factory.
Dayton Battle of the Bands 2023 winner, crabswithoutlegs, a jazzy nine-piece, has quickly become one of Dayton’s darlings, playing the Levitt and becoming a staple act at The Brightside. There’s a good case to be made for the potential of this year’s winner.
Tickets to Dayton Battle of the Bands are $15 in advance and $20 at the door. Doors open at 6 p.m. The show starts at 7 p.m. Each ticketholder will be granted one vote.
The Brightside Music & Event Venue is located at 905 E 3rd St, Dayton, OH 45402.
Ticket link: https://www.venuepilot.co/events/94654/orders/new
