Five Fernie musicians will be heading to Creston in late June for a ‘Battle of the Bands’.
Local band Chungus, along with acoustic singer-songwriter Anita Roloff, will be in Creston for the event on June 24 and 25.
Hayley Ward, singer of Chungus (which she says means ‘fat and lovable’), said they are an alternative punk band, but are a ‘pretty eclectic group of people.’
The band is about a year and a half old, coming together in its current form during the pandemic period.
The Creston event will be their first Battle of the Bands.
“I’m excited,” Ward said.
“I haven’t done much live work before, I’m pretty new to being in a band, personally. But my band mates are all a bit more experienced than me in that,” she said, adding that she’s a little nervous, but more excited than anything.
Roloff, who said her genre is best labelled as folk-pop, has also never done Battle of the Bands before, and started playing live shows about a year to a year and a half ago.
“This is also really new to me, I’ve never even thought about battle of the bands before,” she said, adding that Chungus is the biggest reason she’s going, calling them an inviting and inclusive band.
There will be 15 bands and artists competing in the battle, spread across four venues on Friday the 24th.
Chungus will be playing at 8:30 p.m. at Frisky Whisky, and Roloff will be playing at 9:30 p.m. at Kokanee Inn Pub. The other two venues are Jimmy’s Pub and Grill and Julio’s Lounge. The event is being put on by Stay Live Productions.
Hayley said sets will last 20 minutes for each band, and Chungus aims to play nine original songs.
“It’s pretty high pressure to just kind of crank in as much as you can, and give the people the best rendition of yourselves that you can.”
On Saturday, finalists will compete for the win at Millennium Park at 7 p.m.
Roloff said she just wants to have the best experience she can.
“I’m not there to win, I’m not even there necessarily to perfect myself. I’m just there to live the experience, and meet other musicians, and add it to the arsenal going forward.”
Ward said she and her Chungus band mates are excited, and can’t wait for the event.
“We’re thrilled to be playing somewhere new and being able to share our love of punk with new faces and get some exposure while doing what we enjoy.”
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josh.fischlin@thefreepress.ca
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