Welcome to Pure America’s Got Talent

Here is the second group of twelve! Could they step up their game? How would they compare to that of last week’s group? Again, out of this twelve, four will be chosen to move on.

Feel free to leave your comments…

You are able to choose up to four acts.

Cheer SF
- Adam Lambert: For Your Entertainment

Alice Tan Ridley
- Gladys Knight And The Pips: Midnight Train To Georgia

Mona Sampath Dance Company
- Bombay Dreams: Bombay Dreams
- Black Eyed Peas: Pump It

Iron Horse
- Brad Paisley: American Saturday Night

The Strong Man
- ?

Ronith

Hannibal Means
- Lion King: Circle of Life
- Lion King: Can You Feel the Love Tonight

Wreckless
- Basement Jaxx: What’s a Girl Gotta Do
- Creme de la Crumb: Merry Go (Many thanks to JoJo for discovering this little gem)

Lil Chris
- Ne-Yo: Closer

AscenDance
- Snow Patrol: Chasing Cars

Antonio Restivo
- Ozzy Osbourne: Crazy Train (according to commentor R.J.)
- Ozzy Osbourne: Let Me Hear You Scream

Michael Grimm
- Al Green: Tired of Being Alone

There has been a lot of comments flying around in regards to several acts in the supposed “standby” group not really being in the “standby” group despite being televised as such.

One such group is Iron Horse. In the opening scenes they are plainly seen in Group A sitting in the lower right hand corner of the screen (two of the guys were wearing their blue “country-ish” shirts). If you look at the group carefully there are other acts that were in the “standby” show that were really in Group A.
- NU Covenant
- Cristina & Ali
- New Directions Choir
- Strange Familiar

So essentially the majority (if not all) of the Bands/Singing Duos, etc were in Group A rather than the “standby” group. As much as I wished they would not purposely rearrange people that way on television and were instead more straight up with their audience, I would have to suppose they did it this way to keep the audience on their feet in what I believe to be their version of drama.

At the same time, television (as a whole) and in particular reality television, I have found have been disrespecting their audience bit by bit with every passing year… particular when it comes to situations like these when they are trying to script a reality show and fall short because the audience could see which acts were really where and etc.

To me, if reality television producers truely trusted their audience and kept everything true instead of trying so hard to stick with a particular formula (it’s called thinking out of the box, all other industries are doing it) perhaps they will find that the audience they are trying so hard to entice to continue to watch television, will continue to do so.

It’s like any relationship… it starts with trust.

Well eleven spots are left the Group B “Stand bys” have a tough job to try to prove that they have what it takes to be part of the top 48.

Like in the Part Two post, I will have only the acts that made it through to Hollywood, with links so you could find more information about them. The acts will also be broken down into the groups as notated by the show…

Danger
- Kung Fu Heroes: Martial Artists (Los Angeles)
- Jeremy Vanschoonhoven: Bicyclist (Portland)

Dance Group
- Rated Next Generation aka RNG (Portland)

Male Singer
- Luigi Seno (Final Auditions)
- Nathaniel Kenyon (Orlando)
- Paul Safy Jr (Portland)

Comedian
- Ronith (Los Angeles)
- Airpocalypse (Portland)

Music Bands/Groups/Duo
- Iron Horse (Portland/Chicago)
- Strange Familiar (Portland)
- NU Covenant (Chicago)
- Cristina and Ali (Portland)

So there you have it:
- 10 acts that were guaranteed a spot in Hollywood and as thus didn’t need to audition in Vegas
- 27 acts that were guaranteed an audition in Las Vegas to prove their muttle and made it through.. also known as the Judges Favorites
- 11 acts that were “stand bys” and eventually were given a chance to shine and earn their spot for Hollywood

That leaves just ONE act left… which came from the YouTube Auditions. If you had forgotten, the producers of AGT chose forty acts for you to sift through and vote on. The YouTube act with the most votes is guaranteed a spot in the top 48 in Hollywood.

The voting phase has ended but the vids are still up, so head over to YouTube.com/AGT and look through the acts and see if you can guess you made it to the show.

The YouTube act will be revealed on the August 10th!

Portland auditions… this is new, isn’t it? It was an interesting show overall… I did notice that one of the acts that passed through to Vegas actually auditioned in Chicago (I would know, I was there)… so knowing that kind of makes me wonder how much editing is there over all?

Just some food for thoughts.

As always the acts below are the ones that passed on to Vegas with any links that I was able to find right off the bat. If you have any information to add to the below feel free to either leave a comment or contact us.

Portland Auditions Day One:

Jeremy Vanschoonhoven – Cyclist Stunt Man

Bhangra Empire – Indian Cultural Dance Group
- Facebook Page
- Twitter
- YouTube Channel
- LinkedIn

The Strange Familiar – Singing/Musical Duo
- Facebook Page
- MySpace Page
- YouTube Channel

Northwest Dance & Acro – Dance Group
- Facebook Page

Airpocalypse – Air Band
- Blogger
- Facebook Page

Iron Horse – Country Band
- PureAGT’s Page: This group actually auditioned in Chicago, so go to the PureAGT post for information about this group.

Connor Doran – Indoor Kite Flier

William Scott Anderson – Magician

Sally Cohn – Hand Whistler
Sally’s Book on Amazon: A Handwhistler: Memories of Creativity and Activism

Do you know how many bands are out there with the name Iron Horse? Let alone how many of those bands specialize in country music? Talk about finding a needle in a haystack!

Egah… so many days spent trying to find information about a band that this blogger knew virtually nothing of except the high amount of energy and enthusiasm this trio brought to the stage and the sheer number of fan that came with them.

Fortunately for you readers, she’s found them!

This band is comprised of identical twin brothers and a friend:
- Aaron Cyrus DaCorte: Vocals and Guitar
- Carl Edward DaCorte: Vocals and Bass
- Bill Suppes: Percussion

Iron Horse played Folsom Prison Blues made famous by Johnny Cash . Although it was hard to hear, you can tell that something special happened onstage. However, not being able to hear the lyrics of the song was a sore point for the judges… Would an obstacle like that be what ruins their chances for Las Vegas?

To learn more about this band just jump on over to their website, Facebook Page, or MySpace Page. They also have a YouTube Channel with videos of various performances and recordings.