By: Margot Dragos
“How many of you guys have ever seen a hardcore band before?”
That’s how singer Will Torres and the band Majunche opened their set at the City University of New York (CUNY)’s 1st Battle of the Bands on Thursday, May 7. Hardcore is a subgenre of punk rock characterized by its heavy, fast, and aggressive music.
Majunche, a Venezuelan slang term for inferior or mediocre, is an all-Latino hardcore band that pushes for more hardcore representation in NYC.
“We wanted to introduce people to the hardcore scene,” said Justin Medina, Majunche drummer and Brooklyn College (BC) senior. “Not just the genre, but the overall scene and what comes with it: community, passion, and in my opinion, controlled chaos.”
Their set prompted the formation of a large mosh pit in the middle of Hunter College’s Black Box theater, where attendees could be seen moshing, headbanging, and even doing the worm.
A mosh pit had previously formed for Ten Fold, a band broadly defined as alt-rock, that played three original songs as well as a cover of “Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)” by Deftones.
“I think our main goal in the band is to write really good songs and also to expand the scene around New York,” said Michael Vigil, Ten Fold drummer and LaGuardia Community College freshman.
“We’re trying to bring more energy into the music here,” singer Omar Griny, Baruch freshman, continued.
The event was hosted by a collaboration of CUNY radio stations, such as Hunter College’s WHCS, BC’s WBCR, Baruch College’s WBMB, and College of Staten Island’s (CSI) WSIA, as well as CUNY By Students. All bands had at least one CUNY student in them, and seven CUNYs were represented overall.
Hunter has hosted its own Battle of the Bands for the past two years; this event marks the college’s first collaborative effort with other CUNY campuses.
“We wanted to make sure that we had a wide arrangement of CUNY bands representing a lot of different schools and genres,” said David Horn, WHCS general manager and Hunter senior. “We didn’t want to have the same performance over and over again.”
“Freak Out,” a five-person band with Hunter College’s Julia Waters and Baruch College’s Joshua Chung, opened the event with covers from 90s artists such as Jeff Buckley and Mazzy Star.
“Nobody’s Nothing” featured Queens College senior Malcolm Seaton, who brought original raps and electronic music to the stage. He was accompanied by guitarist and City College senior Andrew Braithwaite.
In between each band taking the stage, campus radio stations and CUNY By Students threw merch into the crowd. There was also a raffle where four students took home bags of CUNY By Students merch.
“Pawn Promotion,” last year’s winners, rocked the stage with original songs and ended their set with a cover of the classic heavy metal song “War Pigs” by Black Sabbath.
The band “2/14,” also previous winners, ended the night with a punk-rock set full of energy.
The winners were determined by the audience, and votes were measured by how loudly the crowd screamed for each band’s name at the end of the night. “Pawn Promotion,” “Ten Fold,” and “2/14” were the respective top three.
“We have such talented musicians within the CUNY system, and we wanted to hold a space that’s reflective of that,” Horn told The Vanguard. “We wanted to give a space where people can just relax, have fun, and not have to worry about classes.”
The event not only encouraged CUNY students to enjoy a variety of live music acts but also gave these bands a platform to share their art with a college demographic.
“I think it’s important for an all-Latino band, regardless of genre, to be up on stage and representing,” said Will Torres, singer of Majunche. “Because I know, for me, growing up, I would have loved to have seen that.”
“We don’t have enough good live music events in New York,” said Zahir Lara, an attendee and Hunter junior. “I feel like the culture has kind of gone a bit away from that, and it’s cool to see any sort of event that celebrates it.”
Students can check out the college radio stations and CUNY By Students at their Instagram accounts: @brooklyncollegeradio, @whcsradio, @wbmbradio, and @cunybystudents.