The Darkside Scouts TNL Onstage Round 4

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about how I had got selected to sing for the preliminaries of the TNL Onstage Solo competition this year. Much has happened since then, and as I publish this post I will have 5 days before it's my turn to get up on stage! Like I mentioned in my earlier post, I had to make a few trips down to Colombo where I met the girl-with-the-nice-voice that I had mentioned, who promptly informed me that she had read my blog! Yes, apparently a friend of hers had read my earlier post about being selected for the Onstage gig, and had been kind enough to forward the link to her, thus leaving me with no choice but to be terribly biased in all my TNL-related posts from now on (whoever you are, many thanks).


Soon after that embarrassing revelation, the fabulous people of TNL radio (too obvious?) interviewed me not just once but twice (the sound quality in the first interview wasn't too good apparently), as well as made me fill out a questionnaire and pose for photos! Now, those of you that know me personally know that I'm as photogenic as Gollum's left butt cheek, so I'm just grateful that it turned out the way it did. Click here if you want to check out my profile page on the TNL Onstage site (the audio hasn't been uploaded yet, but I've been told it will be done during this week).


There are 16 singers in the preliminaries, and 8 of them sang last Saturday at the Zouk Galadari. Now, while I am blessed with a lack of stage fright (traumatic school performances may have deadened my sense of shame) I was still rather uncertain about the talent level I would be faced off with. So, after making a few travel arrangements (nothing new when you live in Kandy, unfortunately) I turned up all alert and attentive with my pen and notebook ready to scout out the competition. As soon as I got there, it became evident that I wasn't the only competitor to come up with this novel idea, as right outside the entrance I spotted two singers from my group buying tickets as well. I tried to hover around them for a few minutes, in case they suddenly decided to burst into song, but when they didn't I gave up and entered the venue.


The venue turned out to be pretty tiny, but when the competition (finally) got started, the small area made the crowd look much larger than it probably was. Either way, the atmosphere was pretty charged up and it started off on the right foot with a solid performance. One thing I noticed throughout the evening, and that was the broad choice in song selection. There was Billy Joel ("Piano man"), Oasis ("Don't look back in anger"), Amy Winehouse ("Valerie"), Sarah McLachlan ("Angel"), Faith Hill ("Breathe"), Ne-Yo ("Miss Independant"), Jeremiah ("Birthday Sex"), System Of A Down ("Toxicity"), Pixie Lott ("Mama Do") and even my beloved Shinedown ("45"). While they are all fantastic songs, perhaps some were a bit of a stretch, and if American Idol has taught us anything in the last 10 years, we should know that it's "all about song choice".


All in all, an interesting night. While I was there purely on research purposes, I must say I had a good time, and not because I ran into some fabulously mysterious girl in a dark corner of the club. The vocalists were good but they were really outdone by The ReBels, the band that was backing them up. They handled the wide musical demands extremely well, the highlight being "Toxicity" which came out pretty near perfect! While I won't be attempting anything that brave, after seeing them perform I'm pretty eager to get my practice under way this week.


So yes, it's all about song choice - and crowd support! Each singer seemed to have brought their only little contingent for support, almost like a small army of personal Paula Abdul's, and I suppose that goes a long way with the judges too, who I am sure give out marks on crowd reaction as well. So, if anyone happens to be in the vicinity of the Holiday Inn this Saturday around 730pm, please do drop by! While I can't arrange free passes, or promise a stellar performance, or promise to perform with a paper bag on my head (har har) - actually come to think of it, I can't promise anything at all! But do drop by anyway, perhaps we can all go for a "blogger meet-up" and be featured in one of those A-Day-In-The-Life-Of-Jerry posts.