It was a beautiful sight- 800 people filling up the Vogue to watch local music.

After the first couple of bands played, I was asked to take over judging duties for a person that had to leave the Vogue early. I judged most of BoB 2k2 and has thus far enjoyed forgoing that duty, but judging the finals is a remarkable opportunity. To go from 115 bands to 7 bands vying for 10k is a very special thing to have a hand in.

This year overall did not assemble the standout lineup of last year’s finals- Extra Blue Kind, The Fugless, The Pub Sigs, The Slurs, Devil to Pay, and victors Loretta. This year was much more eclectic albeit a bit less dense in talent- Samsell, 83 Feet, The Malcontents, Rhymefest, 7 Degrees from Center, Sonus Ventorium, and victors Devil to Pay.

83 Feet sounded much better live than on their MP3s, but still never jumped that far into the good side of mediocre for me. I’m not the biggest fan of horns with my rock generally, but these guys seemed to lack definition in a way that begat indifference. They had good energy and were musically competent, there just isn’t anything to hold on to and be impressed by.

Sonus Ventorium also doesn’t play my genre of choice, but put on a great live show. They had a fella in a gorilla suite wearing a Sonus t-shirt passing out fliers in the crowd which was a lot of fun. Frontman, Altus Snow, has a lot of chops as the livewire center piece of the high decibel outfit.

Samsell has become infinitely better than the first couple of times I’ve checked them out. They have a pretty strong market share of the indie Brit pop rock formula. What amazes me is that much like Interpol, they don’t like to admit they sound so closely to other bands. One song was directly influenced by the Cure and the next by the Cars, but the observation is taken in offense. Ah well. One of the guys in the band even tried to even the score of my last article by pointing out my use of a double negative (not once, but twice) when I standing in a circle of Samsellians. He was referring to my phrasing of “not dissimilar” in my BoB preview. Because that was a purposeful phrasing for me and was too amused by his intention for a gut shut so I let it slide.

The Malcontents are always good for a great live show. Their sets are a lot of fun, although this one seemed to have lost the edge of the sets I have previously seen. They were good, but not outstanding. I was unsure of how they would place, especially because when it comes down to it, they are an out of town band, hailing mostly from Lafayette, I believe.

Rhymefest put on show. By show I mean he had Mablab as his backing band and started of with the addition of a tribal drum outfit onstage, shirtless and painted for battle. It was a very entertaining set of theatrics. The elements were a bit misused, although. Mablab played over the record that DJ Indiana Jones was spinning, lending only the velvet voice of Kate Lamont to fly beyond the recorded tracks. The set started strong and ended strong with “Bout to Get Ugly” while the middle was much thinner.

7DFC played one of the strongest sets I’ve seen out of them in the last 2 years. The addition of guitarist Ross, formerly of the local band Mind’s Eye, these guys have a fuller sound and a strong presence. Tim Koberstein is also an exemplary front man with a stockpile of original rock moves and a confidence that isn’t wasted on overstatement. I should clarify that in the last article mentioning them they sounded like an all-ages specific type of band. The Vogue is a 21+ venue and they may have had more people in support than any other band- that rocks.

Devil to Pay is doomy stoner rock goodness. They are heavy on the riffage and the hair swinging and definitely brought the rock to get the win. Although it was a tough decision between the sets of DTP and 7DFC, they brought their A game, a shitload of people and the judge’s votes to pull it off. It was very sweet to hear Steve Janiak thank the crowd for their support during the past year while he was recovering from a blot clot disorder that nearly ended him in January of this year. It was also very cool that they were the only band to return from last year’s battle finals with the 7DFC finishing second- the only band present from the BoB 2k1 finals.

Although I won’t disclose the order of my ballad, I will say that I am proud of the results.