Last night, a Columbia band called The Stolen Cars played a show at the Lower East Side bar Fontana’s. Bwog ventured 45 minutes south-east to catch them play with five other bands as part of a larger battle of the bands-type competition. The all-Columbia, all-Beta Theta Pi band is composed of John Luna (SEAS ’08),  Matt Pruznick (CC ’09), Taylor Eichenseer (SEAS ’09), and Danny Ferarro (CC ’09).

    They specialize in catchy alt-rock, and Luna’s idiosyncratic and poppy vocals engender comparisons to Something Corporate. The Stolen Cars played a handful of songs, the best of which was “Home Run”, a crescendoing homage to ska that features a clever mix of electric guitar (Luna played both electric and acoustic at the show) and electric piano. The band ended with “Abbey and Audrey”—at which point, Matt Pruznick had removed his shirt that helpfully read “Matt”—a favorite among the growing group of CU students in the crowd, many of who started singing along. 

    The Stolen Cars were followed by a band called Cocaine, the members of which resembled a terrifying cross-pollination  between Don Johnson circa 1989 and Perez Hilton (see documentation at left). The lead singer began throwing baby powder at the audience, at which point Bwog left. Later that night, The Stolen Cars were announced as the winners of the competition and they were invited to play again in the next round of the contest.

           – JNW