In the face of heavy winds and fuzzy sound, nothing stopped Saturday’s ExTRAvaganza Battle of the Bands from delivering great live music. Five local/regional bands performed in the Towers courtyard to compete for $500 in prizes.

Omaha band Flurry took home $300 for first place and Hi Fi 90 from Lincoln, Neb. won second place prize of $150. Ames pop-punkers Far Cry won $50 for the third place award.

Snap Jaw took the stage at 5 p.m. to launch the concert. By this time massive winds had turned the band into what seemed like a bad ’80s-era heavy metal video, complete with the guitar solos and heavy distortion.

Beginning with a constant onslaught of gritty guitar riffs and grunting vocals, the band then moved onto a slower alternative-metal groove, in a vein similar to Staind.

Despite their powerful sound and stage presence, nothing could overcome the monster winds, which stayed strong throughout the night and plagued every band.

Up next was the Omaha-based punk group, Flurry. The band showed up to the Iowa State campus looking to dominate, and that’s exactly what they left doing. Coming in first in the battle, Flurry stepped up to the stage and released a ball of energy in the form of songs about past girlfriends, homosexual friends, and a curious cover of “Runaway” by Del Shannon.

The threesome stepped onto the stage and ruled it from the moment they were there. From sing-alongs, to all forms of humor, Flurry knew what it took to get the crowd rocking.

Flurry had to deal with another one of the ongoing problems of the night, loss of monitors. Despite the fact that the band members couldn’t hear themselves, they made sure everyone else heard them, eventually winning the crowd over.

“The crowd wasn’t into it when we started, but they got into it later on,” said guitarist Mikey about the slow crowd response.

Following Flurry was 2nd Best, an alternative band that represented the Ames music scene. Moving through a series of punk-influenced songs, the band displayed their knowledge gained through experience.

Next came the night’s second-place band, Hi Fi 90, an alternative group from Omaha. From beginning to end, the band showed vast amounts of energy through belting guitar riffs reminiscent of The Cure and Collective Soul. “It went really good, hard to hear vocals though, and it was cold,” said vocalist Gregg Witforth about his band’s set.

The final band to play at the battle was the crowd favorite, Far Cry. Despite their great showmanship and crowd response, the band only managed to get a third-place finish out of the night, but it was not lost. Packing their set with energetic songs and stories about passing out from drunkenness, Far Cry dominated the crowd.