Battle of the Bands

The Katawicks, the 2020 winners of Dayton Battle of the Bands

The 2nd annual Dayton Battle of the Bands series kicks off at The Brightside on Thursday, January 20, 2022. The six-week series seeks to highlight emerging, original musical talent in Dayton through a unique community collaboration between The Brightside, Sound Valley, Venus Child Productions, and Levitt Pavilion Dayton.

The series runs on Thursday evenings from 7-10pm at The Brightside (905 E 3rd St, Dayton) starting January 20th and running through February. Each Thursday evening features 4 bands performing 20 min sets. Each paying patron gets a ballot and one vote. There are also 3 local music industry judges voting too. Judges and audience votes are split 50/50 during the playoff rounds. The winner of each Thursday competition will move onto the finale, which is held on Saturday, February 26, 2022.

One major thing that is different this time is that each finalist (6 total) will get an opening spot on Levitt Pavilion Dayton’s 2022 summer schedule! This is a major opportunity for all the bands. Each finalist will also receive a video of one song performed live during the finale from Sound Valley Dayton. The winner of the entire competition will earn studio time to record an EP, which was generously donated by Dayton Sound Studios.

“Despite ‘battle’ being in the name, this is actually a really friendly competition and a great way for bands to network with each other and get feedback from the judges,” Carli Dixon, owner of The Brightside, shared with us.