Josh Bell

Five bands will march front and center onto the SDSU campus to sing, strum and beat their way to the top for this year’s Battle of the Bands.

Sinner’s Swing steps up from Sioux Falls to challenge all. Chris Kappen, a freshman journalism major, plays lead guitar for the band.

“If you like any type of rock and roll, you’ll like us,” says Kappen.

According to their MySpace page, the lineup also includes: Nick Kappen (vocals/ guitar); Joshua Barse (bass guitar); and Billy Baker (drums).

An interesting thing about this band is Kappen’s 14-year-old brother sings lead vocals.

“A lot of people get turned off by that. I tell people to come out and see us before they judge us,” Kappen says. “We have a lot of classic rock influences: Van Halen, Led Zeppelin kind of stuff. Velvet Revolver is also a big influence of mine.”

Sinner’s Swing contacted the concert coordinator but was rejected from the battle at first.

“I kind of went around and got people to … check out our music. We actively wanted to let people know we wanted to play there. It’s good exposure and seems like a lot of fun,” Kappen says.

Lunar Funk Theory is another band coming up from Sioux Falls. Their MySpace page describes them as a “jam band/ funk/ psychedelic.” Their lineup includes: Lee Walsh (guitar/ vocals); Angie Walsh (hand drums/ guitar); Rolo Mofaky (drums); Ben Baymiller (bass/ mandolin); and Matthew Summers (sax/ guitar).

Welcome to the Cinema, Brookings natives, participated last year. Although they did not win, they return with a vengeance. WTTC’s lineup includes: Darin Dahlmeier (guitar/vocals); Ezekiel Richter, senior media production major (bass guitar); Tom Weismantel (synthesizer); Andrew Eide (keyboards/backup vocals); and Cody Brown, senior media production major (drums).

The band’s MySpace page says, “Cinema will take your ears and your taste buds on an exotic pleasure cruise through several nostalgic ports of call, dabbling in familiar sounds, but never setting anchor for too long so as to keep the voyage enticing.”

Three SDSU students join together to form a fairly new band known simply as Rev. Carl Deardoff, a senior broadcast journalism major, leads this Christian rock band, playing guitar and providing vocals.

“This area has a large Christian population; you can really feel that presence. We would like to give them a band that they can get behind if they don’t want to play country or any other form of rock,” says Deardoff.

The other two members include Brady Bothwell, a senior accounting major (drums), and Bryan Bader, a senior nursing major (bass).

Carly Zebell, University Program Council’s concert coordinator, tried to bring in a variety of bands.

“Welcome to the Cinema I’ve heard around before. Rev was recommended through a friend. Sinner’s Swing and Alex & the Moonshiners came to me, and Lunar Funk Theory was recommended by my mom. I wanted to bring bands with different sounds,” she says.

Although Rubber Gloves and Dopplegarten had planned on playing, the drummer from Rubber Gloves broke his foot, making him unable to play.

Similarly, Zebell said, “Dopplegarten booked another show on the same Friday due to a misunderstanding.”

The audience will once again be choosing who wins. There will be a vote during or towards the end of the last performance when students will be allowed to pick which band they want to win. SDSU students with an ID get in for free; others attending only have to pay $2 to see these bands.

The bands will begin at 7 p.m. on Nov. 21 in the Volstorff Ballroom.