Student bands Jamestown, The First Town in America, Gets the Girl and Sister Helen will open at Spring Fling.

Nine bands competed for the Fling spots in the 2011 Battle of the Bands, co-hosted by the WYBC and Yale College Council. The event, held in Becton Plaza, ran from 9pm until midnight and saw an average of about 45 students at any one time.

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“I was really impressed by the talent of Yale students,” said Jimmy Murphy ’13, who helped organize the event. “[The winners] totally deserved it.”

The groups, selected to compete based on demo tracks they submitted to the WYBC earlier this month, incorporated a variety of instruments, including violins, violas, trumpets and synthesizers along with more traditional band instruments. Not all of the contestants were students (Sister Helen’s only Yalie was Nathan Campbell ’14) but each group had to have at least one Yale-affiliated member.

Sister Helen, who characterizes its music as “experimental sex rock,” gave the audience a spectacle to behold as Campbell, the group’s frontman, stripped and did a headstand on stage. Both Jamestown and Gets the Girl focused on tight orchestrations that worked keyboards and trumpets into rock-style bands.

Oliver Hill ’12 and Eliza Bagg ’12, violist and violinist, for Plume Giant, a popular student folk group that also competed, joined Gets the Girl on stage as guest performers and will join the group at Spring Fling.

Spring Fling is Apr. 26.