Six of New York’s talented, up-and-coming bands will hit the stage in Flushing with the chance to be named the Queens Library’s Battle of the Bands champion on Thursday.
Rapper, radio personality and actor, Torae will host and emcee the third annual Queens Library’s Battle of the Bands which will showcase six bands from Ridgewood, Bayside, Long Island and Brooklyn in a head-to-head contest to see who can rock the hardest.
On Thursday, July 27, the six bands will delight the audience with their musical stylings ranging from heavy metal, to punk rock, to a wide array of different sounds at the 2,100-seat Colden Auditorium at Queens College’s Kupferberg Center for the Arts as they compete for a total of $850 in gift cards and a chance to perform at an upcoming concert at Forest Park.
The bands performing at this year’s Battle of the Bands are Apollo 4, Dirty Spoons, Global Warming, Metal Hawks, Raging Phoenix and Summer Haze.
This year’s first contestants are Metal Hawks, a heavy metal band from Long Island. Metal Hawks — which consists of guitarist John Barry, drummer Alex Hertler, and bass player and vocalist Ryan Daversa — has been playing live performances since 2014 and are veterans of the teen live music scene.
Joining Metal Hawks on the stage will be Bayside’s own Apollo 4. Band members David Landau and guitarist Christian Merano met at a spring concert at Bayside High School and quickly teamed with a second guitarist, Ian Musfid, and a drummer, Daniel Cruz, to bring Apollo 4 to life.
The Long Island punk band Summer Haze will be rocking out to try and win the Battle of the Bands as singer, guitarist and songwriter Jack Turner, lead guitarist Clark Adomaitis, bassist Tim Cartmell and drummer Evan Declemente play their favorite original songs.
Veterans of the Battle of the Bands contest, Global Warming has participated in the contest since its inception three years ago look to avenge their third place finish last year and end up on top this time. Global Warming started in 2012 at Grover Cleveland High School in Ridgewood.
The metal band Raging Phoenix was founded in 2015 by singer and guitarist Jordan Beloosesky, Ilan Kogan on the drums, guitarist Yoel Dusi and bassist Serena Vanchiro, and they continue to evolve their sound, influenced by metal pioneers such as Metallica, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and more.
Filling out the final spot in the contest is Dirty Spoons from Brooklyn. Dirty Spoons has a unique sound thanks to its 10 members. The group consists of vocalists Chris Torres and Kiara Price, drummer Carlyle Clark, guitarist Leonard Campbell, keyboard players Collins Eze and Mary Kareem, saxophonists Noah Idowu and Queda Martin, and trumpeters Jennifer Akpofure and Trevis Clarke.
There is still time to get free tickets for the third annual Queens Library’s Battle of the Bands, which kicks off at 7 p.m. on July 27 at Colden Auditorium Kupferberg Center for the Arts at Queens College, located at 65-30 Kissena Blvd. in Flushing.
