The Speech and Debate team provided a chance for students to express themselves and show off their musical talents.

On Fri., March 20, Battle of the Bands took place at SMFHS at 7:00 p.m.

This night was put together by The Speech and Debate team. There was a fee of $5.00 to enter to listen to the bands.

There were three judges. These judges were Shawn Denton, Alex Norman and Jacob Konicek. Denton is a bus driver, and Konicek is Stow Alumni.

The judges had categories to make scores in for each band. These categories were: originality, visual, entertainment value, musical quality and audience response.  Each of these categories was an equal percentage in the final score to be tallied up by each judge.

There were two bands and a solo who participated in this event. They performed in the commons with a circle of chairs around them that everyone sat in.

The first performance was a solo by Adam Murray.

Adam Murray had announced that his brother was originally supposed to perform with him but was not able to make it. He first sang one of his favorites, “Eighteen.” After he sang and played his guitar to that song, he sang, “Thumb Thumb Thumb” by The Naked Brother Band. The third song he decided to perform was, “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons. This was an audience catcher. When he announced this would be his third and final song to sing, he said the song is a common song that everyone would know. He was right. As he was singing deeper into the song, people in the audience joined in.

The second band that performed was a two person band, “Working Class Boys.” All three of their songs performed were all created by their selves. One band member, junior Charles Blair, sang and the other member, junior Jason Rozak, played his guitar.

The third and final band that performed was, “Close Call.”  “Close Call” consists of four band members. The four Band members are senior Taylor Herring, senior Zach Alberez, who actually attends Hudson, senior Jonas Dorton and junior James Brownrich. Herring sang, Alberez and Dorton played electric guitar and Brownrich played the drums.

This band was as announced by lead singer, Taylor Herring, as “untraditional” music style. The music style would be labeled as heavy metal. They only performed one song and that was created by themselves.

The winner of first place was “Working Class Boys.”

“I feel happy and shocked that we won first place,” Blair said.

His band mate, Rozak also had something to say about winning first place.

Rozak said, “I Feel excited that we played our first show and happy that we won it. I loved the reactions we received from the audience.”

In second place was “Close Call,” and in third place was Adam Murray.

Even though “Close Call” came in second place, Dorton said he was glad for the experience received, as well as Taylor Herring, lead singer, said, “I feel pretty good still, I think we did a good job.”