Multimedia Reporting (Adler-Noland)

In living rooms across the country, kids, teens and adults alike hold plastic guitars with little colored buttons and play some of the greatest tunes of all time. These people are playing the now hugely successful videogame “Guitar Hero,” but several area Lawrence bands were playing the real thing in lawrence.com’s annual Deadwood Derby competition.

The finals for this battle of the bands took place May 4 and the event was founded last year. The semifinals took place in April. Each week, several bands competed in a round of competition, with one moving onto the finale. The judges picked a wildcard, which rounded out the final group. The bands in the finale were Sterilize Stereo, The Old Black, Dead Girls Ruin Everything, Kaw Valley Project and Left on Northwood. Before these groups competed though, there was an online competition. Bands for the semifinal rounds were chosen by a fan vote.

“We wanted it to be as open as possible,” said Phil Cauthon, lawrence.com’s editor. “It’s up to the bands to get their fans on there and vote like crazy for a couple of weeks. There’s no wondering why this band gets in.”

The winner this year was Dead Girls Ruin Everything and the members walked out the door with thousands of dollars in prizes, something that the bands were pining for. The prizes included free studio time, a music video, press kit and merchandise.

“There are ridiculous prizes as far as recording goes,” said Travis Hare, singer and guitarist for Kaw Valley Project. “Last time recording cost us $800 out of pocket, so $1500 for free was just to good of an opportunity to pass up.”

In addition to the monetary prizes, the Deadwood Derby also gave the bands exposure that is often hard to get in a local music scene.

“The grand prize is great, but it’s really the exposure,” said JC Cirese, guitarist for The Old Black.

It is that exposure that Cauthon had in mind when his friend, Jay Brown, came to him with the idea. Brown is a musician and works in entertainment law.

“It’s a rock show organized into a tournament that showcases local music,” Cauthon said. “We can cross-pollinate existing fan bases with others and mix up different types of bands.”

The judges were made up of area musicians and people who work in the industry, but the scoring was set up by Lawrence.com. The judging categories were crowd reaction, musicality, song selection, appearance and stage presence. While each judge comes from a different background, they said they wanted the winning band to have similar qualities and they all expressed how important Lawrence’s local music scene is.

“[I’m looking for] a band that has a good sound, plays well together and has a good stage presence,” said Ryan Pope, former Get-Up Kid and current part owner of Black Lodge Studios. “Local music is part of the history of Lawrence.”

However, judge Steve Wilson, who manages Keifs, writes reviews for the Kansas City Star and is a musician, say a key element is the quality of the actual songs.

“Songs [are an important element.] Without songs, you don’t have anything,” Wilson said. “And, you need the musicianship to execute those songs.”

Ultimately it is the fans who make the Deadwood Derby successful, from their initial votes to their support during the finale.

“We heard about the show because our friend is in The Old Black and we’re here to support the group,” said Cassie Pahcoddy. “Local music builds character to our little town and supporting local music is like supporting family and friends. Maybe someday they’ll be a little bigger.”

Those fans and the music are what keep most of the member of these bands going. A far cry from the superstars on MTV, the member of these bands have extra job and actually pay a lot of money out of their own pocket to get their music to the public.

“We all work two to three jobs and then we play our music,” Hare said. “We work 12 hour days and then come to practice. We take it seriously. The music is what allows us to do the other stuff. We work all day and have relationships and it all builds up every single day. It’s an extremely important outlet and it’s also extremely fun.”

All of the bands received a 30-minute free legal consultation and Lawrence.com will post a compilation CD of all 16 bands that competed, which will become available as a free download.

Photos of the event are available at our flickr site.

The Competitors