Well Wednesday with off without a hitch. Out of 20 bands, 10 made it into IUP's Live and Loud Competition. We went up against some tough acts! I was geniunely surprised as to how great all the bands sounded.

Hexen played the best I've ever heard them to date. They threw down with a fist full of attitude, and came out in the top 5. My congrats to you guys for a hell of a show.

Every band on stage seemed to have been together at least a year, there was a lot of good chemistry and confidance in pretty much every act. Of course you had your usual stage gimmicks and antics; everything that encompasses a handful of college bands.

Philly St. Junction ended the night with 2nd place. Beat out by a band who's been together since 1991 if I'm not mistaken. They definatelly rocked the house with a cocky, brutal assualt of in-your-face-metal. Everything about the band screamed attitude, and thier stage prescence as overwhelming. These guys are surely vetrians of the stage, and were deserving of thier honors.

My only point of criticisim is the fact they started and ended with the same song.

Philly's set was a little shaky at 1st, once again it was hard to hear the mix, and being presse for time we just rolled with it to get more material out there. We thought we would barley cram both songs in, but we ended up getting 3! We played over our time, but didn't really realize it...they never faded us out like they said they would, so we must have did something right. I had to rely on the echos from the speakers rather than the monitors on stage...I sounded in key, so I just went for it. My solo singing spot went off spendid, I just put some backbone into it, and didn't falter or sound timid like I thought I would.

Overall for only 3months old, I think we've kicked a lot of ass and came a long way quicklly. We still have a long road to go, but I'm excited to travel!

I also had a 'Bass-Off!' with a 6 string player. We tied for the title of best bassist, so I had to run out to the van, and pop out a solo on stage, which was really fun! It was an honor to be asked to do that. Even more so to have like 70 people screaming for you alone on stage it's like 'Wow! I don't deserve this, but I love it!!!'

We walked away with 2nd place, enough to get new banjo, mandolin, and a decent set of bass strings. We're not disappointed in the least for not winning. In fact, we're now stronger as a band, and more confidant overall. This was an honor, and we're reaffirmed in what we're doing. I'm so glad for all of those who believe in us!

Tonight we play another Battle of the bands at Boomerangs, we have to play acoustic, so we'll see how that goes. Hopefully we wimn Sean that guitar! Next Saturday is our 3rd battle of the bands in Scottdale. This'll be the big daddy of them all with a $2000 pot on the line.

All I can do is hope for good things, and keep pushing our music.

Thank you all again!

         -LouDog