Northwestern and Dordt’s annual battle of the bands is rounding the corner rapidly. Campus musicians, AV and Student Activities Council are all preparing for the month-long event called NCDC, which stands for Northwestern College/ Dordt College. The title was created when Dordt had not yet become a university, and the school has opted not to update the name of the competition. Pre-COVID, it was a staple of the Sioux County collegiate experience, but after 2020, the tradition was put on pause for the sake of health and safety. In the spring of 2023, both schools decided to revive the tradition, and it instantly became a campus favorite.
The structure of the competition is a lot more complex than just your average concert. Any number of bands can audition at prelims, which took place on November 2. Students are invited to attend and vote for their favorite five bands to move forward into semifinals, where they will face off against Dordt’s top five bands. At semifinals, students vote once again for their three favorite bands for each school, who will compete in a finals round where each band has to play two songs. The students in attendance at finals vote for the winner, who receives a cash prize. Beyond that basic structure, there are new rules this year that allow just instrumental acts, whereas in the past, every group had to have a vocalist. Bands are also allowed to add members in between prelims and semifinals, but not between semifinals and finals, which will hopefully prevent a repeat of last year, when Dordt’s top band brought in an entire gospel choir to sing with them without permission.
The past two years, NW has conceded the first place victory to Dordt. A trend that has emerged is that Dordt has one exceptional band out of their three, whereas NW has three highly talented bands. Since NW’s votes are split, and more Dordt students attend the finals than NW, every Dordt student votes for the one top group and they end up winning. Interestingly enough, the past two years have had the exact same first and second place finishers: a Dordt band called Chopsticks n Soup took the top prize, with NW’s Just Jazz combo placing second in both the Spring and Fall of 2023. The rest of NW’s bands placed third and fourth, and the other two Dordt bands placed fifth and sixth. This suggests that NW has a higher quantity of skilled musicians, but less interested students that attend as audience members. This year, NW bands are hoping to keep the same standard of skill, but increase student attendance. Good sportsmanship was an issue last year, with Dordt bands booing NW bands during their performances, so this year, SAC hopes to create a more respectful playing field.
One of the most exciting parts about this event is that campus gets as competitive about a music event as they do a sporting event. Usually, NW’s music program attracts a few interested students to the audience every concert and many students would not even consider attending a traditional concert. NCDC, however, enjoys a packed house of students dressed in Raider Red that are fully invested in the competition and performances. NCDC veteran Olivia Lott echoes this, saying, “I’m just really excited for the vibe of the competition. When all of campus gets involved, it feels so fun and everyone is cheering for everyone, no matter the school, good music is good music.”
