File photo. Torn From Flames frontman Josh Hildebrandt at The Zoo Night Club in Winnipeg. (Facebook / Torn From Flames)
On Friday, March 22nd, the Students’ Union Drinking Spot (SUDS) is hosting a “Beer vs Beer Finale Party” to crown either Keith’s Pale or Labatt Blue as this year’s most popular ale. Featured at “the Superbowl of Beers” are local band No Teddy, progressive metal/hardcore group Torn From Flames and cover band Out F’Sync. To spice things up, 2012 Battle of the Bands finalists Torn From Flames and Out F’Sync are prepared for a night of musical war.
Reuniting for the first time since TFF annihilated Sync nearly a year ago at the Brandon Summer Fair Battle of the Bands Competition, both groups are eagerly anticipating the social with tempers flaring and little room for friendly exchanges.
“We haven’t had to share oxygen with those guys in a while,” shot Donovan Reimer, one of TFF’s two lead guitarists. “It’s been a good time.”
The feud seemed to rise out of the blue, and the mystery behind their increasingly-bitter contention has only been partially unveiled. Sync originally declined to comment, and TFF was initially tight-lipped about the incidents that transpired between the two once-friendly groups but eventually opened up.
“The dispute began ever since we’ve been better than them,” TFF frontman Josh Hildebrandt stated bluntly, while Reimer attributed their heated rivalry to Sync cheating their way “into the final round of Battle of the Bands, while the rest of us actually had to play in the first round.” He later clarified that Sync received a free pass through the first round of the competition due to unfavorably rainy weather conditions that prohibited their performing.
However, now renowned within Brandon, Sync is confident in their superiority, and they are certain they would have fared equally as well had they competed in all rounds of the competition. Since their formation in August 2010, Sync has called their time together “the greatest two and a half years in showbiz history.”
“It’s the fact that it’s all original,” reported the Sync P.R. Team. “I mean, what doesn’t keep the fans hooked?”
“They couldn’t write an original song to save their lives,” scoffed Reimer, adding, “[I’m] pretty sure they don’t even lift.” Hildebrandt commented similarly, crediting his band’s success last summer “to our far superior original song-writing abilities.”
In response to multiple attacks on their song-writing inability, Sync countered, “Who is Torn From Flames? Whoever this anonymous band is, we’d like to remind them that lowly opening bands can inquire about scheduling a meeting to obtain [Out F’Sync’s] autograph after the show.”
With TFF promising a brand new experimental song allegedly written to their rivals, and Sync hinting at the addition of some fresh, undisclosed components to their performance (stating they are “contractually obligated to do so by [their] agent,”), plus the uncertainty surrounding the actual source of their mutual loathing, fans can only hold their breath on Friday night and see how the Brandon music scene’s most cataclysmic rivalry unravels.
The Friday night social begins at 9:30 pm at SUDS, and admission is $3 at the door.