It’s a battle of the battle of the bands.

Two separate battles of bands will take place Friday, one sponsored by the WSU Student Entertainment Board and one by the Pullman Moose Lodge. My vote goes to the Moose Lodge, where the fun starts at 7 p.m. at 150 SE Kamiaken St.

At least one band there will not let you down – Stupid in Stereo, a three-piece horror punk-psychobilly group that covered a few months ago for another battle of the bands.

Stupid in Stereo consists of guitarist Yotes, bassist BJ, and “Half-Wrack” Ronnie on drums.

Yotes and BJ are WSU alumni. They always wanted to form a band while they were students, and after graduating and finding a drummer, they came back to Pullman to play locally and achieve their goal.

If you think Eastern Washington doesn’t really seem like a hotbed for punk bands, you’d be wrong.

This town alone has dozens of unique punk bands. Stupid in Stereo stands out. I’m not quite sure why, but they just seem to get it right. They understand and know something about punk music that’s extremely difficult to articulate.

When I saw them play, I immediately drew a comparison between them and the Dropkick Murphys. There’s not at all any Celt-punk in Stupid in Stereo’s sound, but they share that seem exuberance of loud fun energy. They genuinely enjoy playing and give the audience respect by sounding as good as they possibly can in such a small venue.

When I spoke to Yotes, I wasn’t surprised when he named DKM as his favorite band.

“We really like Copycats,” he said. “They’re a psychobilly band from Detroit we played with once. We also really like bands like No Means No, Dropkick Murphys, The Necromantics and Street Dogs ... I could go on and on all night listing favorites and influences.” One big aid to their stage presence is a huge flag bearing their eye-grabbing band logo, a screaming mohawked skull.

“Ronnie does all of our logos,” Yotes said. “He’s a fantastic artist. He helps us a lot.” Of course, it wouldn’t be fair to flaunt only one band for a BOB. You can expect a great rowdy show with tons of bands and a passionate crowd.

“People should come because there are so many good bands playing,” Yotes said. “We’ve played with Random Noise countless times, and they always put on a good show. Dead Ones USA will be there too. They’re great.” The Moose Lodge is a great venue for this type of music. The CUB might be fun too, but if you want to see some high-octane punk, you can take a 15 minute walk downtown to see some dedicated bands play to a dedicated crowd.