Spring Break?!? We’re UMass Boston students, where the hell can we afford to go?

I think that’s the feeling we had when the idea started-if we can’t get to a party, we’ll make our own party here in Boston We called it “Spring Break Redux – A UMB Battle-of-the-Bands.”

Spring Break Redux?!? Where did we get that idea, some drunk in a bar?

(I think we did. And then a semi-sober young lady said, why don’t you have some bands?)

So Jason, our sports editor pulled a few bands together, I borrowed a mixer board and rented some space, and we had an actual Battle-of-the-Bands.

I was starting to wonder, but, sure enough, there’s plenty of UMB students in bands. Heck, Jason ended up with five applications for only four slots.

So, this past Friday, March 29, over at the Emerald Isle in Dorchester, an Irish bar with a nice stage space, we found out who can rock at UMB.

Rozzi Rocks!

Yeap. One of the bands, Rozzi, was declared a winner and will soon be playing at an End-of-the-Semester-Party near you!

The four bands that played were Rozzi, the Simoniacs, DePulso and the Stairs, and they all have at least one UMB student who plays with them. (Tony Issa is the full-time UMB student who plays guitar for Rozzi.)

So we drank some beer, listened to some bands, and picked a winner. And now we’ve got to start planning an End-of-the-Semester-Party so Rozzi can play at it.

It’s the prize, it has to be done, to give everyone who wasn’t at the Battle-of-the-Bands to hear that Rozzi rocks! (This job is actually harder than it looks at first glance, see my boring page one story!)

Oh, there were three actual judges, by the way: me, from The Mass Media, Matt, a soundman from the Avalon, and Mark, the manager at the Emerald Isle Friday night.

And, we had food brought over from the Blarney Stone, which is conveniently right next door to the Emerald Isle.

The night started off stressfully, but turned out fine. And I’m sure I’ll feel as much stress right before our End-of-the-Semester-Party, which should be coming up soon…