Saturday - November 8, 2008 7:30pm
Fletcher Opera Theater, Progress Energy Center
Raleigh, NC
To purchase tickets for the Professional Showcase, please visit the Ticketspage.
Over the past five years, SoJam's Professional Showcase has attracted some of the most incredible a cappella talent from around the world! The experience is literally one-of-a-kind and is like no other vocal performance you will ever see. In the past, the showcase has included everything from french rapping to a vocal "muted trumpet" solo to aisle-dancing crowd members to a roof-shaking Finnish power metal ballad. Since we only get one opportunity every year to bring this level of talent together, we go all out!
This year we are more than excited to present the following bands:
FORK
Fork is back for SoJam 2008, after literally blowing the roof off at last year's Professional Showcase.When it comes to a cappella, Fork has always had a few tricks up their sleeve.As the band so elegantly puts it: Fork does to a cappella what Jimi Hendrix did to guitar music and what Viagra does to a man.They've been doing it since 1996, when the three actors and one police man were having a cup of tea in the kitchen of an apartment in Helsinki and decided to start a band.
Other a cappella groups can often be characterized as choirs who give concerts, but Fork is a band with four solo artists who put on a show.And what a show - skillful, glamorous, and full of humor!Once Mia Hafrén, Jonte Ramsten, Kasper Ramström and Mia Renwall take the stage, they are overtaken by their alter egos - Chiq LaDesire, Miles Precious, Winston Chill and Angel d'Ville.
After seeing Fork perform, you are likely to fall in love with them.Fork walks on stage like international divas, shakes their collective booty, and sings to amazing pyrotechnics.For a moment, the audience is totally astounded... only to be swept away the next moment.At Fork's gigs, both the audience and the band have fun!
The group has a diverse repertoire and have performed songs by Bon Jovi, Michael Jackson, Robbie Williams, U2 and Kylie Minogue, just to name a few...Their debut album, "Cover to Cover " was released in September 2005. Fork's second album "Games We Play" featuring mostly original music was released in September 2007.
Firedrill!
Firedrill! has made a name for themselves as a hilarious and fun-loving-- but seriously talented-- group of singers since their founding in 2004.This all-male band was formed by seven former members of the Hyannis Sound.The group has become a mainstay on the impressive Boston vocal music scene, regularly performing on WERS and WBOS radio and singing at venues as diverse as Fenway Park, Boston bars and clubs, and schools throughout the Northeast United States.
In 2005, Firedrill! won the Boston regional competition and made it to the finals of the Harmony Sweepstakes, a national vocal music competition, just a few short months after they were formed.This will be the band’s second appearance at SoJam-- since their headline performance at the 2006 festival, Firedrill! has been impressing audiences up and down the East Coast.The group received critical acclaim for its debut EP entitled "Rock Paper Scissors", including CARA nominations for best Contemporary Pop/Rock Album and best Contemporary Pop/Rock Cover for "Can't Stop Thinkin' Bout You".This track is also featured on the most recent installation of the Sing series, Sing IV: Good Medicine.
