Last Saturday, May 12, 100th Green Butterfly hosted its 15th annual Battle of the Bands to earn money for environmental causes, with the profits going to the Sierra Club. The night was full of talent, anarchy, and loud music that wasn’t nearly chill enough. In preparing for this big night, a lot of work goes on behind the scenes for 100th Green Butterfly and their president, senior Joey Dobson. “Members of 100th Green Butterfly put in many, many hours during the weeks leading up to the big night in order to make it a success,” Dobson said. “A big part of what we do is auditioning all the bands who express interest in playing. At these auditions we judge for quality, but a big part of it is checking reliability. It’s sort of a check along the way to make sure each band is serious enough about doing this that they’ll follow through.” Out of the 12 bands that were slated to perform, two dropped out (The Preeminents and Derek Siedelmann/Chris Perkins). Luckily, the void created by these two bands was not large enough to ruin the night. In addition to finding bands to perform, 100th Green Butterfly had to find judges and emcees. This year, the judges were substitute teacher Chaz Inglekiss and teachers James Webb and Chuck Ripley, who graded bands on audience appeal, originality, sound and balance, and musical talent. The emcees were juniors Patrick Snell and Conrad Luecke, who entertained the crowd with knee-slapping funny jokes. In the midst of all of the musical talent, one band certainly stood out, although this had nothing to do with their musical talent. J.J. Thomson played a set that was characterized by violent anarchic chaos, something the Battle of the Bands has certainly never seen before. It featured members of the audience jumping on the stage and banging a huge metal sheet (homemade gong?) back and forth. While this was happening, juniors Sam Van Fleet and Wyatt Miller were wailing on the drums and guitar, respectively. “Our influences include Mom and Dad, Ludaraecifer, and Rheys Chatum,” Van Fleet said. When the night was over, J.J. Thomson had won the People’s Choice Award, which was based on whichever band had the most money donated to it over the course of the night. The band Soap won 1st place by the judges vote, with Scenic Route and Atombender finishing in 2nd and 3rd. However, in a way, everybody won, with a total of over 900 dollars raised for the Iowa Chapter of the Sierra Club. The Sierra Club not only preserves and protects natural habitats; they make sure lawmakers pay attention to the needs of the environment.