Punk chaos and groovy jazz: Battle of The Bands offers an expansive experience with Heat Two

Copper Rooms 2, University of Warwick Campus, 29 January 2026

Five excellent bands played in Heat One; Heat Two was supposed to have six bands performing but, with two drop-outs – one on the day, according to Onur, BandSoc’s President, with someone shouting “that’s fine!” in response to this news –  we have four: Crack Bears, Slow Bus, Burgundy Rush, and Sonora.

Crack Bears come on first and explode onto the stage. The crowd – despite not being warmed up – are excited before they start, and it’s no wonder – this is unfettered punk chaos. The whole band, barring their bassist Gabriel,  are shirtless, and a mosh pit starts very soon into the first song. Halfway through the set Ish (frontperson) downs a pint at the front of the stage, before attempting to down a second, which is more sipped than anything. The band are very tight and work well together, with Sammy (guitarist) handling a punch to the face from Ish very well, in what I presumed was a moment of full punk rage. As a band, they clearly understand and respect the genre of punk, and the crowd love it.

Slow Bus create some fantastic post-punk indie-rock sounds

Following the borderline anarchy of Crack Bears comes something more relaxing in the form of Slow Bus. Their first song has the chorus “just another slow bus” and is apparently about Leamington buses, which I’m sure many can relate to. Following the first two songs, William (frontperson) informs us that “we couldn’t get an amazing bassist for this, so I’m filling in on it” after introducing the rest of the band. He shouldn’t sell himself short, though – Slow Bus create some fantastic post-punk indie-rock sounds, and the crowd are very into it. Someone else who’s into it is Harry (drummer) whose facial expressions speak to the passion put behind their drumming. Their influences are audible – James, Blur, Radiohead – and they do what they do very well.

With half the bands done, we get Burgundy Rush with some groovy jazz music. Every band member is introduced after the first song – it seems the bands have learnt from Heat One – with only Josh Island being first and last-named. Paying homage to their namesake, they are all dressed in burgundy, with the frontperson’s furry hat and glasses being standout pieces on the stage. Each band member is given a solo which truly showcases their individual talents, and they’re all very talented, clearly passionate musicians who work well together as a unit. Their professionalism has its limits, though, as they struggle to get the crowd involved in music that they clearly all love. Nonetheless, it is a fascinating watch.

With their own material, you can hear their influences clearly – The Wombats and The Killers come to mind

The final band of the night is Sonora, who placed second at Battle of the Cover Bands with an excellent Nirvana cover. With their own material, you can hear their influences clearly – The Wombats and The Killers come to mind – but they struggle to find their own sound, which is normal for a band of freshers; kudos to them for performing so early into their Warwick careers as that takes confidence! They announce that it’s their bassist’s birthday (happy belated birthday Vicky!) which gets the crowd involved in wishing her a good one. With some polish, their original material will be as good as, if not better than, what they can do with their covers.

After the final band the judges’ scores are quickly revealed. To the delight of some, there were no speeches this heat, straight into the scores – 4th Sonora, 3rd Burgundy Rush, 2nd Slow Bus, and 1st place Crack Bears, to the clear joy of the crowd. Another fantastic heat, and I am looking forward to seeing Slow Bus in the semis and Crack Bears in the final!