Last night, students and guests filled the Annex Gym in anticipation of seeing eight bands — Three Unassisted, Ako, Eye & i, Bear In Mind, TableForFour,  The Red Flags, Brave You and Ben Wagner — battle it out to see who would be crowned the Battle of the Bands victor. The bands varied in genre from reggae to indie to rock to even some rap.

Judges Matt Mueller from OnMilwaukee, Lex Allen from music collective New Age Narcissism, Allen Halas and Patrick Caroll from Breaking and Entering and myself deliberated and eventually came to the final conclusion.

All of the bands impressed the audience and judges, but only one came out on top. Ako, featuring band members Gabrielle Powell, Mark Soriano, Carlos Vindel and Joe Joe Scott won the fan and judge vote. They sang their upbeat rock song “Madrid” as well as their intimate, softer song “Colorado,” getting everyone hooked to their beat, lyrics and stage presence.

You can check out Katelyn Stamas’s Recap on the event here:

You can check out their set along with everyone else’s here in the full video of the night: