Local bands compete for spot at Tempe Music Festival

The Season Premiere performs at the Tempe Marketplace during the COX ROX SRP Garage Band Competition, in which college bands compete for the chance to open for a National Act at the Tempe Music Festival on Saturday. (Lindy Mapes/The State Press)

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Visitors to Tempe Marketplace left with pounding eardrums after the first round of the Circle K Tempe Music Festival’s SRP Garage Band Competition on Saturday night.

ASU rock band The Season Premiere will advance to the semifinals of the competition.

The six college bands that performed were selected through online voting to compete for the opportunity to open for a headline entertainer at the Tempe Music Festival on April 3 and 4.

Six high-school bands competed earlier in the day across town at Desert Ridge Marketplace.

The lineup on Saturday was composed of Ripp Tyde, Westcott Avenue, No Longer Together, The Season Premiere, Rescue The Future and Race You There.

“Obviously, we’re extremely happy to move onto the next round, and we know we have to put on an even better show ... than we did last time,” said lead vocalist Justin Garza, a business management sophomore. “It would be our dream come true to play at the Tempe Music Festival. We’ve all grown up around here so it’s definitely a big deal to us.”

Garza, a business management sophomore, and Riley Knapp, a Brophy student the band found on MySpace, are the most recent additions to the two-year-old group, filling the roles of lead vocals and drummer, respectively.

The band performed several original songs and a cover of “Best of Me” by The Starting Line in front of a large and growing crowd on the District Stage at 7:30 p.m.

“They were really good tonight,” said Laura Palmisano, a broadcast journalism sophomore and fan of The Season Premiere. “There was great crowd participation. The whole show was very high-energy.”

Crowd reaction, musical quality and originality were an important criterion for the judges who determine who moves on to the semifinals.

“It was really fun and the crowd interaction was great,” said bassist Jon Colton, a finance sophomore. “There’s no feeling like hearing people scream for you.”

The band agreed that their fans were instrumental in the competition process, voting online and showing support at the performance.

“We have such great fans,” Colton said. “We love the ASU support. We would love to see even more of it.”

The top band from each category, high school and college, and one “wild card” will advance to the semi-finals on March 15.

They will then compete against each other and the six bands selected from rounds two and three, which are scheduled for Feb. 28 and March 3.

The nine semifinalists will perform for the taping of “Cox Rox,” which will air on Cox 7-AZ later in March. Online voting to determine the five finalists will take place from March 23 through March 29.

The final five will then perform live at the Tempe Music Festival, and one band from each category will be selected to perform two songs before the festival’s headliners — Kid Rock, The All American Rejects, and 3 Doors Down — take the stage.

The winners will also each earn a $1,000 scholarship to be donated to the music education program of their choice, sponsored by Salt River Project and a $500 gift card to Dillard’s.

Reach the reporter at melanie.kiser@asu.edu [5].