Barely Know Her wins 15th annual Battle of the Bands

Students — and even staff — rocked out at Oceanside High School’s 15th annual Battle of the Bands on May 12, as one band narrowly defeated its second-place counterpart for one of the closest finishes in the event’s history.

Winning for the second straight year, Barely Know Her edged fellow competitor Landslide by one point in the contest, which featured five student music groups. Columbus Avenue, Oceanside Supergroup and 5 Pound Weight also vied for the title.

“It was certainly interesting this year,” said junior John Bologna, Barely Know Her’s drummer. “Each band brought a lot to the table, so we definitely were nervous. Although the competition was really fierce, it was nice that we were able to pull through and grab that win.”

To simulate a “showcase experience,” Student Projects Coordinator Patrick Turk explained, the bands each had 25 minutes to set up, play, and clean up their equipment. “We don’t need American Idol, we don’t need the Voice, because we just come here and melt faces,” Turk told the crowd before the students took the stage.

Barely Know Her, made up of seniors Austin Sharpe and Chava DiMaio, and juniors Joe Sammartano, Paul Cirillo and Bologna, formed in 2014. The local band has played at a variety of venues in the last few years, and was featured on “Rick’s Rising Stars” at Amityville’s Revolution Bar & Music Hall on May 17, a performance held by music industry veteran Rick Eberle that was televised on Verizon FiOS’s My Long Island TV.

“It’s been three years and we love it,” Sharpe told the Battle of the Bands crowd after opening their set with a spirited cover of “Jump” by Van Halen. “It’s one of our favorite shows to play of all time, because it’s where we’ve started.”

The group then shared some original songs, before concluding with a diverse medley, which included Led Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll,” Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life,” “Drops of Jupiter” by Train and other classics. The second-place finisher, Landslide, followed Barely Know Her, and livened the crowd to challenge last year’s winner.

A faculty band, comprising Turk, Annie O’Hara, Angelo Musto, Joseph Perri, Tim Watkins, Josh Hickey, Richie Woods and students Mike Cascio and Dean Klebonas — was the last to perform, as they rocked out to Aerosmith’s “Dream On” and Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode,” among other tunes. “Full disclosure, the faculty band exists for entertainment purposes while we tabulate the [scores],” Turk laughed.

After calculating the Olympic-style scoring, which took into account five categories, including musicianship, performance and songwriting, Turk announced the winner. Barely Know Her claimed the prize, a gift certificate to Sam Ash Music, but Sharpe gave it to Brian Amato, the drummer for Columbus Avenue, who he said deserved it more.

“We came into [Battle of the Bands] not expecting how tough the competition was going to be, because they were pretty much all new bands,” Sharpe said. “But they were all such great bands, and they really made it such a fun night because of how close it was…”

Past Battle of the Bands competitors were in the crowd, as the event has given some of Oceanside’s most talented musicians a chance to show their stuff.

“The younger bands hopefully come back and wow the audience again,” Turk said. “[For] the older bands, hopefully we’ve given them the opportunity to practice enough to pursue this if that’s what they want.”