The Stone Pony in Asbury Park held The BREAK Contest Finals, where 21 bands vied for a spot in the 2011 Bamboozle lineup.
Audio Insight, a progressive rock band from Woodbridge, N.J., was announced as one of the seven winners of the Contest and will play at Bamboozle.
Drummer Dan Sullivan, guitarist and vocalist Anthony Celi and bassist Mike Deverin all attend college in North Jersey— Sullivan at Ramapo College and Celi and Deverin at Montclair State University.
In 2008, while in high school, the trio began playing when they met in their friend's basement. Now in college, they go home every weekend to practice.
Celi said they got to where they are today because "we played hard, had a lot of people for us and did a lot of promoting."
As they started to play "Dimensions (Part I)," an intense sound amplified throughout the room. For a small group, they delivered a loud and powerful performance.
Audio Insight played three songs from their album "Dimensions," including their cover of "The Spirit of Radio" by Rush.
When they finished their set with "For the Corporations," the trio stood before a panel of three judges, who evaluated the band's previous-to-current promotions, instrumentals and stage performance.
Matt Farrell, head of social networking and marketing for Bamboozle, praised the band's online work in promoting themselves with pictures and videos. He called them models to their competitors.
"I thought the performance was great. The guitars were shredding--bass too. Drums were awesome," said Brett Romnes, drum instructor from Waldwick, N.J.'s School of Rock.
Ryan Soroka, from the music booking agency, Soroka Agency, said that he could tell the band practiced for hours every day.
"I feel like the crowd got into it most when they saw the passion in you guys and you guys were feeling it," Soroka said to the group.
However, Soroka added that the band members needed to work on their stage presence.
Afterwards, the members of Audio Insight reflected positively on their performance.
Bamboozle frequenters that want to check out up-and-coming bands that might make the big stage can listen to Audio Insight's album "Dimensions" on their Myspace and Facebook pages. "Dimensions" is also available via iTunes.
Patrice Kubik can be reached at patrice.kubik@student.shu.edu.
