On Labor Day, Greenport’s Mitchell Park will be transformed into a sonic battleground for the village’s first “Battle of the Bands.”
The high-energy musical showdown was the brainchild of “Dances in the Park” committee volunteer Mary Vines.
“I thought it would be so cool if we did something on Labor Day, because it’s always the unofficial end of the summer,” Ms. Vines said. “You always want to go out with a bang.”
On Monday evening from 6 to 9 p.m., four bands will play four songs each, with brief intermissions in between. To keep the energy buzzing, comedian Mike Keegan will MC the event — and keep the crowd engaged between sets. The audience will decide the winner of the “battle,” and the winning band will get to play one of next summer’s nine dances in Mitchell Park.
“It’s kind of like a throwback,” said Ms. Vines. “I’m 55, and I feel like battle of the bands were a staple when I was in high school. So I just thought it’d be really fun to bring it back. Plus, it’s a great way to just get more artists involved in the Monday night dances.”
Greenport’s American Legion Hall will serve as a green room for the bands if the evening’s weather is good, or as the back up venue for the battle if it rains.
Ms. Vines said the committee selected the participating bands in a variety of ways.
“A couple had done ‘Dances in the Park’ before and wanted to do it again. And there were some other bands that reached out to us who were interested in potentially playing at a Monday night dance. We already had our lineup, so we asked if they’d be interested in a battle of the bands, and they were. Then there were bands we just knew and liked.”
She said the vibes at this summer’s dances have been fantastic.
“For the bands — just having all those people dancing and that energy is really incredible. I think Monday night dances are just such a treasure,” Ms. Vines said. “It’s an amazing community event. I always describe it as ‘the best wedding you’ve ever been to,’ because absolutely everybody dances, and nobody is self-conscious or worrying, ‘Am I a good dancer?’ Everyone just lets loose, and there’s all this joy.”
The four bands facing off next week are as eclectic as the village itself. The roots, rock and Americana group Nina Et cetera will be up first, followed by psychedelic funk band Chow Funk. Next up are rock, country and blues artists Sweet Ride, then the all-girl funk band GUNK will wrap things up.
In the event that all four bands are equally popular with the audience, there’s a Plan B, according to Ms. Vines.
“Just in case, we’re going to have a backup panel of judges, which is basically the dance committee and our sound guys, so that if anything goes wrong, if there’s a huge downpour or something, we will still be able to award a winner and a slot in next year’s dances.”