TNL Onstage as many young fans will know has completed its preliminary round of judging which finished recently. Here’s a look back at the round and some of the stand out performances of the preliminaries.
The judges Annesley Gunawardena (owner of Marlin record company), Pabalu Wijeygoonewardena (founder member of Thriloka), Chrisantha ‘CC’ De Silva (last year’s winner in the solo category and lead singer for the band Salvage) and A. H. S. Smythe (Head of Music at the British School in Colombo) were charged with the difficult task of narrowing down the list of nearly thirty participants.
The soloists that broke through into the first round of semi-finals (on which you’ll hear more from us next week) were Andre, Taariq, Shehara, Nigel, Harshana, Steffan and Shevon. They’re all either in their late teens or early twenties, and have had at least a few year’s musical experience. Though styles were mostly limited to alternative and pop, some of the vocalists really showed off some skills which are definitely worth catching! The music was thoroughly enjoyable, and the audience experience fully worth the time, some of the performers came across as fully confident before a crowd.
The second round of semi-finals scheduled to be held in July 9 will feature the bands Chord of Major, Fourth Legacy, White Living Grave, Zilch, Acid, Torn, Ethereal, CryWolf and Roadkill. Most of these bands have played together, the individual musicians having a few years of experience under their belts. While most of the bands played alternative and pop music, some dared to step out into heavy-metal and reggae, popular but tough genres to master.
The audience really enjoyed themselves over the past three weekends, though a spectator remarked that “we didn’t see any Sri Lankan originality blooming on stage.”
Considering though that most of the acts are just breaking into the local music scene and that many seem to be still looking for a foothold, there’s definitely many potential futures in the making at TNL Onstage this year . |
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