The war for Yardfest opening act has been waged, and The Cantab Cowboys and Puttanesca have come out on top.

Last weekend at the Cambridge Queen's Head Pub, five student bands competed to earn a spot at this year's Yardfest.

So who of Harvard's own do we have to look forward to?

"The idea of the band is that we do interesting instrumentation on modern songs," said Nina L. Hooper '16, the harpist for Puttanesca. The band is an 11-piece ensemble that has everything from the drums to a harp to a yangqin, a Chinesen dulcimer. Hooper said she isn't sure as of yet what Puttanesca will be performing. "Were looking at maybe doing 'Sail' by Awolnation—something fun like that."

Matt R. Shuham '15, the drummer for The Cantab Cowboys, said the band plans to perform some of the songs that helped them win last weekend's battle of the bands. "We do a lot of classic country music, but also more modern stuff—a lot of indie rock and country rock mixes," he said. "We play some Mumford & Sons, some Black Keys, and a whole bunch of other stuff. We experiment with everything."

You can see both Puttanesca and The Cantab Cowboys at Yardfest in April.

CORRECTION: March 6, 2013

An earlier version of this article misspelled Cantab Cowboys drummer Matt R. Shuham's name.