Eight bands. Three days. One winner. SJHHS’s Battle of the Bands kicked off the week of March 20 resulting in a huge win for the band, The Taco Truck.

7 student bands participated, which included The Lavender Club (Audrey Schreiner, Shannon Tilley, and Emma Law), The Rizz Works (Thomas Ngoy, Cameron Rizzi, Konrad McKeague, Justin Jeon, and Palmer McKeague), Zion (Grace McCurdy and Dylan Alvarado), The Deplorables (Lindsay MacDonald, Luke Pugliese, David Duplissey, and Kameron Tyler), The Chunky  Dunks, and the winner, The Taco Truck (Sid Piravi, Alex Soto, Cesar Landa, and Emma Hattesohl).

Each day at lunch, the competition showcased one or two performances, with their choice of setlists with at least three songs per band. Some bands merely covered songs while some integrated original compositions as well.

Audrey Schreiner, guitar player and front woman for The Lavender Club, said about their setlist, “Every song had a special meaning to us, and it was really fun to recreate that sound from our favorite artists into our own songs.”

Even though The Lavender Club is a fairly new band, they were invited to open at a festival hosted by Capistrano Valley High School’s ASB called “Quadchella” on April 21.

While the actual performances for Battle of the Bands seemed fun and free-spirited, the preparation for each band relentlessly consumed a lot of time and effort.

Regarding preparation, Thomas Ngoy of The Rizz Works said, “Konrad and I had the idea to enter Battle of the Bands, and everyone just kind of jumped in. It was a good thing they extended the deadline to prepare, because we really needed the extra two weeks to practice.”

While some bands came for the experience, others, like The Taco Truck, came to take the prize.  The acclaimed local band has already played major venues with a multitude of people and has released two albums (South County and Lexell’s Guide) entirely on major music sharing platforms since their formation three years ago.

“We’ve played a bunch of really big shows before, but I don’t think I’ve ever been more nervous. It’s so different playing for your math class,” said lead singer and guitarist Sid Piravi.  “I knew almost everyone in the crowd, and that was what made it so scary.”

They created an all new setlist for their exclusive prize lunch performance on the amphitheater lawn Friday, March 31, solely focusing on songs from their newest album.