TNT's & 89X I'm With The Band V3.0 Weeks 1 & 2
The first two rounds of 89X's $10,000 I'm With The Band V3.0 contest held over at TNT's are in the can, with the first two semi-finalist having been crowned by winning their respective week. The contest put on by TNT's and sponsored by 89X, Metro Recording Studio, & Spec's Howard School of broadcasting has become all the rage as it enters it's 3rd year of existence. With 16 weekly preliminary rounds of up to 5 bands each, this contest is truly a winner take all with $10,000 in cold hard cash, 20 hrs of recording time at Metro Recording Studio, & enough plugs on the 89X airwaves to get your band noticed! There's still time to enter your own band in the contest, just head on over here to find out how!
Strange Habit's Drummer Playing Bass & Guitar!
With Week 1 came a lot of hype and an extremely close "On-Line" vote that counts as 10% of the overall tally with Half Light Music beating out one of last years finalists Lies Unknown by 12 votes! With less emphasis placed on the oft criticized on line vote, the bands would have to show up at TNT's with a house full of fans to win the 40% tally for the "at the door vote". This time there would be no question as to who won this phase as Lies Unknown packed the place with their devoted fans to take the lead in the night's competition over Half Life Music.
ILK Performs During The Contest
With version 3.0, this year's event now features 3 Judges who are indentified each night who will be scoring the performance phase of the night's competition. With 50% of the vote needed to win coming from this phase, tonight's bands would not only need to sound great (20%) but would also need to pull off a performance (30%) of a lifetime in order to secure a spot in the semi-finals. First band up was a newly formed young group called Strange Habits,
Half Light Music Sounded Great
certainly caught our ear with their catchy sound and a brilliant display that had the drummer playing the guitar and bass with his sticks as they were held up to his sides by his bandmates, pretty cool. The second band up was ILK, a rather hard band that just didn't seem to click up on stage; nonetheless they pulled through for their fans, rockin it out for 30 minutes.
On line vote winners Half Light Music hit the stage next in what was nothing short of an awesome sounding set. Comprised of 2 members of the Paper Street Saints, Cheyenne Goff (vox) & Donnie Patty (bass), Half Light Music proved that they were a band to contend with during this competition, just needed to get all those fans who voted on line out to the show! Making it to the finals of last year's I'm With The Band V2.0 Lies Unknown are well versed in
Core Effect @ I'm With The Band V3.0
what it takes to win this competition and on the top of their list is "Draw". These guys not only swamped TNT's doorman with paying customers, the put on a brilliant display of showmanship on stage that was second to none. The last band tonight, Discover The Season, may not of came out on top, but all in all for as young as a group that they are, I wouldn't be surprised to hear more from them as the grow into their sound. As the night wound down, the scores were tallied up and the winner for Round 1 was announced as Lies Unknown who is now the first semi-finalist in the 89X I'm With The Band V3.0 contest.
Mic Lordz & The Sauce Funk one of Windsor's best
Round 2 held last Thursday had a couple hiccups as 2 bands dropped out of the Live Performance segment leaving only 3 to contend for the night's spot in the semi-finals. I hope you bands out there realize that the On-Line segment accounts for only 10% of the total needed to win, which leaves the live segment as the one that really counts! Imindzi kicked off the late starting night with an action filled set with a dual singer format that would become the flavor of{mosimage} the night. Core Effect finished second in the on-line voting, but as with last weeks round brought the house down, winning the at the door vote while performing flawlessly in what was the tightest sounding set of the night. Mic Lordz and The Sauce Funky who hails from across the river in Windsor won the on-line vote by a good margin, but their foreign flair was lost as not many fans made the trek across the bridge with them. Continuing with the dual singer format, The Mic Lordz trade vicious rhymes while delivering a blazing hot show that was definitely the hottest of the night, but apparently wasn't enough to overcome the door vote as Core Effect as named the winner and moves into the semi-final rounds. Keep an eye out for the Mic Lordz as there will be a number of "Wild Cards" for the semi finals and these guys certainly will be in contention for one of them!
Make sure to head on over to the Dr2 Photo Gallery to check out all the photos from this event, then why not join us tonight for Round 3 of 89X's I'm With The Band V3.0 as Realm, Until Sunday, Mystery Key, The Vankles and the on-line vote winner Seven Year Reign battle it out on stage at TNT's! Hit up our earlier posting to find out how you can get in on the action with your band for a chance at $10,000 and a slew of free promotion! DetroitRockReview.com - The Only Place for Local Music News & Reviews!