Abigail Hebert

On Friday, the Bowdoin Music Collective (BMC) hosted the annual Battle of the Bands competition to determine the student opener for the upcoming Spring Concert. Far from Juno, composed of five musicians— Courtney Burnett ’26, Jacob Goodman ’26, Joseph Gordon ’26, Ainsley Morrison ’26 and Annabella Williams ’26—took first place, followed by Pariah in second. Far from Juno will open for Peach Pit and MGNA Crrrta tonight.

Mason Kahn ’28, co-leader of the BMC, highlighted the importance of Battle of the Bands in introducing a broader audience to Bowdoin’s music scene.

“Battle of the Bands is something that’s really well known,” he said. “It’s also something that adults and parents can come to, and it’s exposing people who might not always go to those kinds of concerts to something that they might not have seen. And then when we do have those shows at [MacMillan House] or [Boody-Johnson House], then people will hopefully have seen Battle of the Bands and come to those as well, growing the scene overall.”

The competition also provides high visibility for any musical group on campus trying to break into the musical scene, Kahn explained. He applauded the two first-year bands, Blume and Rat Cabinet, for their performances.

“The goal is that every band who wants to can perform, because it’s essentially a guaranteed large audience, and people are always excited about it, and [Jack Magee’s Pub] is always packed,” Kahn said. “And we hope that every band sounds their best and is really happy with their performance. That’s the goal.”

Khan also appreciated the variety in musical styles of the winning bands over the years.

“Last year, you saw Pariah, and they were a little bit more hardcore versus this year, Far from Juno, way more on that pop end. And they do originals. So it’s cool to see that each year, the band that’s performing is different, and every band has the equal opportunity to be able to perform at this huge show,” Kahn said.

Kahn performed in the competition as a member of Super Quack and Rules of Attraction. As bands were limited to 12-minute sets, he highlighted the difficulty in preparing for an abbreviated performance.

“Battle of the Bands is kind of an interesting space … because it’s that hard, 12-minute music cut off. Song choice is huge. So, we focused a little more on, ‘what can we do as performers to make the crowd really excited?’” Kahn said.

Morrison, a singer in Far from Juno, emphasized both the constraints and innovation that can come from the shortened act.

“We did have to do a lot of workshopping in terms of getting everything to fit in that amount of time,” Morrison said. “What a lot of other bands did is just play two or three full songs. And we decided to do—I wouldn’t really call it a mash up, but parts or excerpts.… We did five in total. Even our original song, we cut down, so that was a lot of work, getting it really tight and crisp and ready to be performed and judged.”

Far from Juno is no stranger to the student body. Coming together their first year, the group of seniors has become a consistent piece of the music community at Bowdoin, performing on campus several times a year. After members were abroad last year and coming in second place their sophomore year, Morrison emphasized the playfulness in their preparation for their final Battle of the Bands appearance.

“This year was our final chance to make it happen,” she said. “We weren’t really able to be all back together before spring break for a little bit. So, it was a bit of a crunch. Going into spring break, we  landed on rehearsing and just jamming around and [choosing] these songs because they’re fun and good energy.”

As Far from Juno looks ahead to the Spring Concert, Morrison is grateful for the strong bonds between her bandmates that have been fostered over their years at Bowdoin.

“We were rehearsing at like 11 p.m. last night because all of our schedules are just so wild, but we just have so much fun playing together, and everybody just brings such a unique and great energy to rehearsal. I think it’s really special that we’ve been playing together for so long, because we have very close friendships and relationships with each other that I think makes what we’re able to do with music very special,” she said.