Five phenomenal young bands battled it out in the competition at the Hard Rock Cafe in Patong – The Bayonets, Lost Soul, Notorious, Eye Forgot and Sicma.
Each of the five bands put in an incredible display of passion and technical ability, completely enthralling the capacity crowd.
Opening the proceedings was a short set by last year’s competition winners, Legends of Siam.
It was a bitter-sweet occasion as this line-up of the band were performing together for the last time, with several members leaving for university and to pursue other interests.
The competition was then kicked off by a thunderous performance by heavy metal band Notorious. They had stepped up their game since the first round heats, and were clearly there to win.
Playing second were Lost Soul, delivering two phenomenally technical rewordings of classic pop songs. Their young Thai vocalist engaged the largely expatriate crowd with confidence.
Third were Sicma with their wall of sound and powerhouse vocals, while the penultimate band were last year’s runners-up Eye Forgot. They had brought their A-game to the competition and stunned the crowd with their clever and cheeky theatrical performance.
Closing the competition were The Bayonets, also playing their last ever performance before losing members to higher education abroad. Their quirky and left-of-centre image and song choice was missed by some, but then again, real genius is often missed by the masses.
Highly entertaining, it is a shame that Phuket will not have the pleasure of seeing what this young band could have developed into.
The judges’ scorecards were then tallied and Sicma were crowned winners and awarded the prizes sponsored by Class Act Media, Legend Music and the Hard Rock Cafe.
Sicma will benefit from a Media Package sponsored by Class Act Media, which includes a music video filmed and produced by The Phuket News TV, radio coverage of their new single on Live 89.5FM and print coverage in The Phuket News and Novosti Phuketa.
Legend Music will record, mix and master the single for the band, and Hard Rock Cafe supplied a grand cash prize of B50,000 to help the band fund their projects.