The Soo's Got Talent 2023 Auditions Recap!!

As you may know, The Soo's Got Talent has returned for its fourth annual installment, and like in past years, there are aspects of this local talent competition that cross our metal/hard rock/punk radar! Just as a note of clarification, whereas the recent Talent Quest competition at Shooters Downstairs Lounge was 100% karaoke (thusly why we didn't cover it here), The Soo's Got Talent is open to all kinds of artistic performers. The late stages of last year's competition did only have singers (albeit with one also playing guitar), but that's just how the judging went for the performers who passed the auditions. Speaking of which, auditions for this year's T.S.G.T. took place at Wacky Wings on Great Northern Road from September 8th-10th, and videos from that weekend were shared to the competition's Facebook page, so what can you see there? As it turns out, the first audition video posted there is both hard rock and not a singer!

This has young local drummer Teagan Krauter Maki covering Hoobastank's "The Reason" on September 9th, and while I don't think a ballad is the best choice of song for a drummer to show his stuff with, perhaps this is just the warm-up before he headed to Soo Blaster for round #1 this past weekend? I'm curious to hear more from him, especially as drummers are not common on their own at The Soo's Got Talent! The 30 second video isn't ideally shot, with the vertical angle, accidental shot of a woman's face, and seeing more of the backs of the judges' heads than Teagan, but kinks will be ironed out as the month rolls along. Check it out below!

Follow-up videos from the auditions include three singers, including Celeste Rector covering Jo Dee Messina's "Bring On The Rain", an uncredited singer covering Olivia Rodrigo's "Vampire", and Demoy MacSamuels doing an original song (possibly named "Pray No More"?), before we see a familiar face around these parts, namely ex-Re:Born singer Elly McWatters, who actually won the aforementioned Talent Quest at Shooters last month! If you know her well, you'll know that heavy music isn't her thing first & foremost, so keep that in mind when checking out her audition cover of Reba McEntire's "Turn On The Radio". Now, for this year's T.S.G.T., organizers took a page from America's Got Talent by introducing "golden buzzers" that will allow judges to automatically send select auditioning contestants straight through to the semifinals, and they did just that for Elly!

Post-performance remarks are included after some of the uploaded audition videos, for the record, with Elly noting that she just got back from Sudbury the day prior and wasn't as dressed up as she would have liked. Given that, extra kudos for impressing the judges this much! While not live-streamed, two more audition videos were posted after the fact, including this one of dancer Jophin Shaju performing to Imagine Dragons and Jibbs songs, and Clusterfolk Music Festival performer Storm Rausch covering Billie Eilish's "No Time To Die" (and getting the golden buzzer for it!). That's it for the audition videos, with this year's event not having the same level of video coverage that last year's got, but the other first round qualifiers include Arin Karki, Brooklyn Coghill, Christopher Halliday, Elizabeth Budge, Greg McLeod, Raedyn Matechuck Levesque, Stan Fera, and Steven Jensen.

Of them, you may recognize Christopher, Elizabeth, Greg, Stan, and Steven as competitors in The Soo's Got Talent last year. Two more golden buzzers were given out to Kristina Sagrak and 2022 finalist Xavier Pelletier LeBoeuf, so they'll 100% join Elly and Storm in the semifinals, and all can perform in the prior rounds without fear of elimination. In terms of scheduling, round #1 took place at Soo Blaster this past Friday, with the sixteen qualified contestants competing and being reduced down to twelve, who return to Soo Blaster on Friday the 29th. The semifinals and finals take place on Saturdays (October 21st & November 4th) with a special guest who will definitely intrigue many, but we'll leave things to the audition level for this post. However, I'd be remiss if I didn't note that proceeds of this year's T.S.G.T. will go to the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Unit at Sault Area Hospital.

Each installment of The Soo's Got Talent has benefited a different local charity, and hopefully this means of spreading the wealth proves advantageous for the C.A.P. unit! If you want to attend round #2 next week (or beyond), admission is $22 for adults or $12 for children, and each show starts at 6:00 PM. We'll have more from The Soo's Got Talent (including round #1) in the near future, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews on the site next! Thanks everyone!