Hockey Teeth

Filling the VU Multipurpose Room with people and elaborate lights, the Underground Coffeehouse and AS Productions held the finale to Sounds of the Underground on Friday, Feb. 21. Sounds of the Underground is a battle of the bands competition the Underground Coffeehouse hosts.

The three finalists were Blood Capsules, Oleomara and Hockey Teeth. They are all local bands in the pop-rock genre, mainly consisting of Western students. Blackwater Holylight, a popular rock band, also made an appearance as the headliner for the event.

Will Clawson, Underground Coffeehouse coordinator, said this finale was an honor to put on because he wanted to do something big.

“It’s happy and wonderful that it all worked out,” Clawson said. “It ended up being the team building experience that I wanted.”

Katie Gray from Make.Shift, Hollie Huthman from The Shakedown and Brent Cole from WhatsUp! Magazine judged the finale.

“The judges were chosen as long-standing community members with a demonstrated commitment to the music scene and connections to the arts industry and beyond,” Clawson said in an email. “There are tons of people in town who meet that description, and I’d love to see future coordinators foster even more of those relationships.”

Each band had 20 minutes to perform their set while the judges took notes.

The night began with Blood Capsules’ performance, which consisted of four original songs. Blood Capsules’ music focuses on human connections and handling adulthood. They played four songs about their time in Bellingham and navigating life, which the crowd heavily connected with.

Oleomara performed second and also played four original songs. They brought a mellow vibe to the stage by playing slow songs about life and nature. The slow songs got the crowd swaying, and generated a lot of applause.

Hockey Teeth ended the competition part of the evening. Hockey Teeth describe themselves as “Western’s first ever band” and brought confidence to the stage. They performed three original songs and one cover of the song “Jolene” by Dolly Parton, which engaged and surprised the crowd.

The night ended with the headliner, Blackwater Holylight, while the judges deliberated. Blackwater Holylight performed some of their most popular songs, which compelled everyone to dance.

Students at the event had mixed opinions on their favorite bands, but Hockey Teeth appeared to be the crowd favorite. A first-year student at the event, Natalia Guillen, agreed that Hockey Teeth was her favorite of the night.

“I was surprised by the covers,” Guillen said. “It was an interesting take on [“Jolene”] and something new.”

Forrest Moon, another first-year student at the event, said their favorite band was Oleomara.

Hockey Teeth took first place in the competition and won prizes including a set at Lawnstock, AS Productions’ annual spring music festival, and at the Bellingham Arts and Music Festival. They also wontime in a recording studio and various gift cards from the event’s sponsors, including Guitar Center and Boundary Bay Brewery & Bistro. Second and third place winners, Oleomara and Blood Capsules, also won gift cards from the event’s sponsors.

Nova Anteau, a first-year student at the event, said they enjoyed the competition because it’s a free show and a great way to find new music.

“It’s executed very well,” Anteau said. “You can tell they thought about the little things, like where the gender-neutral bathroom is.”

AS Productions and the Underground Coffeehouse worked hard to put this show together for a number of reasons. Two reasons being that this competition is usually held in spring and they’ve never had a headliner at the event before. Clawson said he’d done a lot of research on past competitions to prepare for putting this one together.

“This is our eighth year,” Clawson said. “The first one or two years it was actually called Battle of the Bay.”

Clawson detailed the process they used to pick the bands for the contest.

They released applications back in December and had people submit recordings. Clawson said they ended up getting about three times as many applications as they were expecting to receive.

“It was hard to pare it down to six bands,” Clawson said. “We tried to find people who have new things and could benefit the most from the prizes.”

Clawson added that they didn’t want to have people in the competition who had already belonged to a label because they already have the support needed to become big artists. Clawson also said that he wanted to put on a big final show to get bands more exposure.

“This is funded by students and the state so being able to use those funds to throw a show with such a high production rate and still having it be free is so exciting,” Clawson said. “It’s the whole point of the show, is making it accessible.” - AS Review