Hailing from across the state of Mississippi — Clinton, Cleveland and Starkville —   the four members of indie rock band Fides came together Friday night to compete in MSU’s second Plazapalooza: A battle of the bands and took home first place, along with the opportunity to perform as the opening act at this year’s Bulldog Bash.
Dean Harrison, lead guitarist for Fides, said although he thought the band had a good chance to win going into the competition, he and his bandmates were wary of Oxford-based group The Red Thangs, who came in second place.
“I feel like we had a pretty good chance. We had played with The Red Thangs before, and we knew that they were really good,” he said. “But we had never really heard of any of the other bands. We felt really good about the actual show.”
Fides is composed of bassist and vocalist Tommy Bobo, drummer Cody Sparkman, guitarist and vocalist Reed Smith and guitarist Dean Harrison. 
Fides also competed in last year’s Plazapalooza, coming in third place in the public vote, but falling short of the final four who advanced to the last round of the competition. This year, Harrison said he felt the judging panel was more objective than last year’s panel which was comprised of members of The Weeks, a Mississippi-based Southern rock band. 
“I feel like having business owners judge it rather than just a band was probably a better idea,” he said. “Because obviously the band’s view on music would be more subjective on music than the other guys.’”
Marshall Scruggs, co-director of the event, said the switch from a band to Starkville locals as a judging panel this year was an effort to ensure a level playing field for bands of all genres in the competition. 
“If you get a band, let’s say a country band had entered andwe got The Weeks again, they could’ve been more inclined to choose somebody that was more that style of music,” he said. “So we just wanted to take that option out and make it more open to every kind of genre or songwriters, and we think the faculty helped better play that role than another band.”
This year’s event was held inside the Colvard Student Union instead of on the plaza outside of it primarily, Scruggs said, because of the heavy rain on Friday night. Despite the last-minute venue change, Scruggs said the competition generated a good crowd. 
“We were pleased with the turnout,” he said. “We had a lot of active fans in the audience, and the audience was really active in supporting all the bands.”
Scruggs also said he was impressed with the amount of talent the competition drew in. 
“I thought the talent was better than last year. I was talking to the judges at one point and they said, ‘Man why did you pick us for this? Because this is so hard to pick, all of these bands have so much talent,’” he said. “Everybody was professional and they all had extreme talent, both band-wise and vocals-wise.”
Harrison said he and his bandmates look forward to playing at Bulldog Bash, and after the gig he said hopes the band can garner more opportunities to play locally. 
“We’d love to play at Rick’s. We played there once, but he (Rick) said we kind of have to wait for a big band to come in that doesn’t have an opening act because most of them bring bands with them,” he said. 
Scruggs said he believes Fides will be an enjoyable complement to this year’s Bulldog Bash lineup. 
“I think they’ll be a good match with The Black Crowes. They put on a good show, so I think The Black Crowes will enjoy that,” he said. “And I think they’re just a good entertainer, and college students will like them. And even if there’s not college students that are there, they’re family-oriented, so they’ll put on a good show for everybody.”
Fides will open for The Black Crowes and Chris Young at Bulldog Bash Oct. 4 in the Cotton District. 
Fides’s self-titled EP is available on iTunes and Spotify.