Crowds fluctuated between large and small during the day, but they certainly proved to be an important part of Friday’s Veishea Battle of the Bands.

Punk band Argos won the title in the 2002 Veishea Battle of the Bands. 2nd Best ironically came in as the runner up, with Sadistic Kids taking third.

The white-capped stage by the clock tower on Welch Avenue played host to a bevy of bands, with styles running the gamut from punk to pop to rock and back.

The showcase started with pop-punk band Duck and Cover, a band Matt Treska, freshman in computer engineering, was pleasantly surprised by.

Up next was 4Below, who’s set consisted of straight-forward rock songs, including the ditty “And I Died,” a song its lead singer tried to convince the audience was really about love.

Mike Huston, freshman in pre-business, saw a few of the bands and thought the entire battle was a good aspect of Veishea.

“I was really pleased with the whole Battle of the Bands, or what I saw, anyway,” he said. “It was a lot of fun, and it’s good exposure for a lot of bands.”

Huston said he thought Eight Miles Out did the best overall, even though they didn’t place in the top three.

“They really got the crowd going, and I think that made it a more enjoyable experience,” he said. “It also appeared they were having a great time up there on stage during the whole thing. I enjoy their music quite a bit, also.”

2nd Best also displayed a particular talent for working the crowd.

“2nd Best got their friends up on stage, and that was fun, but they didn’t get the crowd going like Eight Miles Out,” Huston said. “Nevertheless, they did a good job.”

Huston said Argos brought interesting elements to its set, but didn’t have much in the way of crowd support.

“I thought they were pretty unique with their sound in comparison to some of the other bands,” he said. “They weren’t able to really get the crowd going, though. While they didn’t play music that I really liked a whole lot, I thought they were talented.”

Argos sets itself apart from most other bands by utilizing electric violins and cellos in its mix.

Huston said he believes bands should be judged by ability.

“I believe the most important aspect of the scoring should probably be from a technical standpoint, along with how the bands actually played their instruments – did they do a good job, bad job, etc.,” he said.

In that regard, Huston believed Argos deserved its first-place spot.

Catchpenny, another battle participant, tried to win the crowd’s support, beckoning the crowd closer to the stage.

“I won’t bite unless you want me to,” Lora Fields, lead singer, told the crowd.

During the course of Catchpenny’s set, all of the members except drummer Casey Jones had jumped off stage to play among the audience.

Third-place winners Sadistic Kids displayed a lot of energy as they brought their “fuck everything” punk to the Veishea stage.

The band seemed intent on mocking everyone it could think of, including Kid Rock.