Because of the overwhelming support from our event sponsors, supporters, and attendees, we raised more than $275,000 and counting during the 2024 annual Corporate Battle of the Bands, exceeding last year’s total of $260,000! The funds raised translates to nearly $2 million in healthcare services for the more than 3,100 musicians HAAM serves annually. A special thanks to presenting sponsor Cirrus Logic with stage sponsors, H-E-B, PNC Bank, and SXSW.

This year’s Corporate Battle of the Bands also drew in a record crowd exceeding 1,000 attendees who were entertained by nine bands from local businesses who performed during the evening. This year’s “Band of the Year” was awarded to The Uncommon (Husch Blackwell), after an intense deliberation among this year’s judges. Other award winners include “Best Song” to ABC Anteaters (ABC Home and Commercial Services) for their rendition of Jimmy Eat World’s “The Middle,” “Best Stage Presence” to The Mag Stripes (Ouro); and the “Fan Favorite” and “Fan Club” awards went to The Haptics (Cirrus Logic) with a strong showing from new band, ABC Anteaters (ABC Home and Commercial Services), for second place.

The crowd, as always, loved a great set from PNC Bank’s C Notes , a soulful show from Ascension Seton’s The Defibrillators, some alt-rock and alt-country from Maxwell Locke & Ritter’s Bad Assets, and a stellar set to start the night from Epicor’s Cloud 9.

The evening’s emcees for the second year in a row were CBS Austin’s Trevor Scott and KVUE-TV’s Quita Culpepper, who did a fantastic job sharing our mission with a great crowd. The corporate bands aimed to impress a panel of celebrity and music industry judges, including public speaker, writer, and founder of the award-winning Antonelli’s Cheese, Kendall Antonelli; hosts of the award-winning, #1 Hip-Hop Show in Austin ‘The Breaks’, Aaron “Fresh” Knight and Confucius Jones, and SXSW’s Pixie Weyand.

DJ Shani set the vibe during our VIP Hour before the show started, and we enjoyed a surprise performance by La Murga de Austin while the judges deliberated after all bands performed. A big thank you to Music Advisory Committee member Thelonius Love for hyping the audience on HAAM to close out the night!

Thank you to our Suite Sponsor Austin Subaru, ACL Live for sponsoring our Best Song Award and our VIP Hour alongside Schlotzsky’s, our Pearl Society Committee for sponsoring our Best Band award, and finally, thank you to FVF Law for sponsoring our Appreciation Awards given to all nine bands who performed and for capturing the vibes from the night! A special thank you to Caitlyn Macaluso, Director of Marketing and Communications for FVF Law, for joining our CEO Paul Scott on We Are Austin!