This Wednesday April 16, Kaneland High School held a battle of the bands in the KHS auditorium to raise money for the Kaneland Cares fund–a fund started by Kaneland Peer Leadership and Student Council for people in need within the community.

Holiday’s End, Business Casual and a jazz band named Soul Seven battled it out for the audience’s cheers and approval to win a gift certificate from Hix Bros in Batavia. Audience members could donate money in a bucket marked with the bands name to vote for the winner.

In the end, Business Casual (Alexander Buzenski, Maddie Heinzer, Mitch Bateman, Rachel Miller, Garret Patterson and James Tockstein) won the battle by earning the most money in their bucket. Overall, though, the battle of the bands generated $1,142 for the Kaneland Cares fund.

Audience member Terry Brennon said, “I thought all the bands were great.”

The  entire audience seemed to be enjoying the concert, often calling out the names of band members that they happened to know.

“There’s nothing like it [performing], everyone loves music and it’s nice,” Rachel Miller from Business Casual said, “You could tell there were a lot of family and friends–which is good because it’s always nice to have supporters.”

After the battle of the student bands math teacher Tim Larsen’s band, the Bare Hambones, played.

Larsen has been a part of the Bare Hambone for ten years along with his drummer Brad Riverdahl. The rest of the band is Michael Brown, on acoustic guitar; Mike Marshall, on mandolin and Tony Kubicek, on bass.

Larsen and his band played root and traditional irish music. The Bare Hambones also did covers of the songs “13” from Johnny Cash and “Atlantic City” by Bruce Springsteen.