Heroes in the House

The Altar Bar, at 1620 Penn Avenue in the Strip District of Pittsburgh, held its second week of a five-week-long stretch of Battle of the Bands shows on Thursday, December 2.

Photo is credited to Angie Fec and altarbarpittsburgh.com.

The show started at 7 p.m. with bands from Pittsburgh and surrounding areas in the lineup.

Bands that participated in the battle were of genres such as metal, ska, rock, and indie rock.

Metalcore band Oh No! the Afterlife was the first band of the evening to play. Next was Havoc Theory, Reel-A-Peel, and fourth, the Cascade Atlantic.

Last, but not least, came Hard Luck Heroes, hailing from Steubenville, Ohio.

View Hard Luck Heroes in a larger map

In 2003, Hard Luck Heroes started out in New Cumberland, WV with the name “Rock Radio Allstars.” Shortly after their formation, the band lost their lead guitarist, leaving four members.

In 2005, the band was set to record a four-song demo at Innovation Studios in Steubenville, OH. The week before the recording date, the bassist resigned for unknown reasons. Then, in 2007, the band went on hiatus due to the inability to find a steady bassist.

According to the band's website, the original members Todd Staley and Matt Cochran decided to bring the three remaining members back together in 2008, naming the new and improved product “Hard Luck Heroes.”

Todd Staley, the guitarist and lead vocalist of Hard Luck Heroes.

The band came across an online ad in 2009. The ad was posted by Kyle Batting, a bassist in search of a band. Staley and Cochran sealed the deal with Batting and the Hard Luck Heroes were back on track with playing shows and gathering support.

Bassist Kyle Batting, the most recent addition to the band's lineup.

The Hard Luck Heroes are currently made up of a guitarist, a bassist, and a drummer. However, the sound that their simplistic band lineup produces is full enough that the lack of a fourth person isn't too apparent, says Batting.

“I like the dynamic of 3 of us,” he said. “I've grown very close to them in the last year and a half, and I consider them brothers above band mates.”

With Todd Staley as the vocalist on lead guitar, Kyle Batting on bass, and Matt Cochran providing the background vocals as the drummer, the Hard Luck Heroes are a trio that fuses a “powerpop” rock style with 90’s rock influences.

"I couldn't have lucked into a better group of people or a more talented group of musicians,” said Batting. “Hard Luck Heroes had a pretty decent local following before I joined, and we're hoping to build that up again in the coming months. Altar Bar's battle of the bands was a good start, and that's the kind of exposure we need.”

Batting playing bass during the third song of their set, called "These Childish Things."

Even though the Hard Luck Heroes didn’t win the Battle of the Bands, they aren’t (pardon the pun) completely out of luck.

“It doesn't hurt that the winning band, Reel-A-Peel, asked us after the set to do a show with them in the future,” said Batting. “That's proof right there that people like what they hear."

The Hard Luck Heroes are anticipating heading into the studio in early 2011 to begin work on their first full-length album.