Photo provided by Kaila Lifferth The band Electric Symphony Performs during Clifty Creek’s battle of the bands at Columbus North High School.
Now everyone’s welcome to get into the rock n’ roll spirit with music by student rock stars.
In a collaboration with Clifty Creek Elementary School music teacher Kaila Lifferth and the Columbus Area Arts Council, the first community Battle of the Bands in years will be held Nov. 22 from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at Columbus North High School. Doors open at 6 p.m.
The show is free to attend, but attendees are welcome to leave a suggested $10 donation to the Arts Council. Donations of pantry items like canned goods are also being accepted for Love Chapel.
Lifferth has produced a Battle of the Bands rock show with her second to sixth grade students for a few years now, as she wants her students to continue playing music and forming their own bands after they leave her classroom. She said it has become a huge event for the school and families.
She wanted to keep the show up, so she spoke with the Columbus Area Arts Council about potentially expanding it. Her band Flat Earth performed a street show for the Arts Council a few years ago, but she said this is her first year working in tandem with them. She said the Arts Council has been great to work with.
“… I also have a bunch of kids who’ve talked too me about how they wished that they’d been able to do a Battle of the Bands or something similar to this and so I just thought, ‘you know what? Let’s do this for the community,’” Lifferth said. “And there used to be a Battle of the Bands years ago and it just died out. And so I guess I just need to bring it back a little bit.”
Four bands, including two high school bands Stingray and Electric Symphony and a band titled Hodgepodge, will be performing throughout the night. Though not participating in the battle itself, Flat Earth will then close out the night.
“The Electric Symphony, one of the high school bands, they closed out my school rock show last year, so I was aware of them and so I’ve heard them perform and they’re fantastic,” Lifferth said. “Sting Ray I hadn’t heard before and none of those high schoolers are mine. The Hodgepodge group, I pulled a lot of my kids that had left and that I wanted to get back playing.”
Audience members can look forward to predominantly classic throwback tunes and 90s rock during the show, Lifferth said. As it is the first year hosting something like this, she said they do not have any big prizes this time around.
But her hope is that the show becomes a huge thing and for it to inspire students to start picking up instruments. And even if they don’t have a band, Lifferth said she can help make a band for them.
“I just want to get these kids playing, off screens, playing music together. I just think… people always talk about how divided the world is, but when you go to a music concert, there are no lines,” Lifferth said. “There’s nothing that divides people, it’s just people rocking out…. If you want to get a little sentimental, I feel like this is how we’re going to cure civilization is by just rocking out together.”
