Kinetic Affect win ‘Kalamazoo Has Talent’ competion

By Teddy Rogge
Western Herald

(Chyn Wey Lee / Western Herald) WMU alumni Kirk Latimer, left, and Gabriel Giron, right, a WMU student majoring in film and creative writing, won the final stage of Kalamazoo Has Talent on Saturday at Wayside West.

The scene was relatively calm Sept. 27 at Wayside West as the Kalamazoo Has Talent competition got ready to commence.

This calm was about to be replaced by the sounds of 12 of the most talented acts in Kalamazoo competing for a chance to perform in Las Vegas or at South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas.

At 7 p.m. the event got underway with Matt Schwartz performing in front of a crowd of around 30 people.

“Are there any country lovers in the crowd?” said Schwartz, which was answered by an enthusiastic cheer from the audience.  Schwartz responded by playing a cover of Waylon Jennings’ “Stop the World (and Let Me Off)” as well as a song in which he showcased his vocal talents by yodeling.

“I grew up with yodeling,” Schwartz said.  “It’s been in [my family’s] blood growing up.”

The night’s competition proved to be quite formidable between the striking melodies of The Mickeys, the powerful story telling of Dooley Noted, Micaela Kingslight’s intricate guitar licks, the commanding performance of Kinetic Affect and the intensity of Wolfblitzer.  As the intensity built throughout the night, so did the crowds with upwards of 100 people at any time and a total attendance of somewhere around 300.

The Mickeys gave a rousing performance with each member playing several instruments between their three song set.  Their first song, “All I Ever Wanted Was You,” featured Bascom Peebles soloing on acoustic guitar along with Julie Peebles on mandolin.  “Smoke and Mirrors”, their self described “angry woman song,” had Julie replacing the mandolin with a finger-picked guitar.  Julie Sherman showed her musical prowess by switching between hand drums for the first song to playing a snare and hi-hat with sticks, while bassist Tom Rogers kept time with a device called the porchboard bass which acts as a bass drum.

By the end of the night it was apparent that each performer had earned their right to perform at the finals and did not make it an easy choice for the judges.

“We had to ask ourselves which act has a chance of making it to the next level and captivates an audience,” said Karyn Ryan, co-producer of the event.  “You don’t want to choose an act that is a cover band.”

The choice for the winning act came down to a tough decision between spoken word performers Kinetic Affect, and rock n’ roll band Wolfblitzer.  After a long period of deliberation the choice was for Kinetic Affect to receive the prize.  The rest of the performers did not go away empty handed as they were offered a spot at the upcoming Awesome Fest taking place in the spring at several different venues including Wayside and the Radisson Hotel.

Kinetic Affect plans on taking their unique performance to Las Vegas and collaborating with several artists from the competition.  In October they will perform at the Farmer’s Alley Theatre with Micaela Kingslight and hope to perform with Dooley Noted in November with future collaborations including Brian Koenigsknecht and beat boxer Michael Williams.

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Posted by HeraldAdmin on Sep 28 2008. Filed under A & E. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

Cody Kimball
Web Manager: I'm a Communication Student at WMU, a SCUBA Diver, Boater, Ordained Minister, Notary Public, Web Designer, Film Maker, DJ, and of course a Journalist. Born and raised in Port Huron, MI and a graduate of SC4. http://www.codykimball.com