The Cadence

This week for our MySpace Maestro, we're going to do you a favor. Remember that night you went to Icon Nightclub, and about halfway through the evening the lights went out? Then this fantastic beat started up, lights began flashing, and the crowd screamed? No recollection?

Well, lightweight, that sound you sort of remember was the Cadence Drum Show, Icon's "house band," making its nightly appearance. Cadence's MySpace page has sort of a funky design, and the recordings are a bit fuzzy due to crowd noise, but it's still pretty cool that they have one, and they're pretty relentless with their self-promotion. At least now you can watch a full show, unblemished by alcohol and your endless, desperate mission to grind on someone hot for once.

Congratulations, Cadence. You are GO Magazine's MySpace Maestro of the Week.

Matt Lemmon, editor

Posted on Tuesday, August 14, 2007 | Permalink - Go Magazine

It all started when one of our guys, Jason Eaton, decided on a whim to send NBC one of our videos via MySpace. We weren’t really expecting much, but a little while later we got a call from the show. All of us were kind of in shock, not really getting the full effect of what it meant. It was really sudden. It was like “pack your bags, we’re leaving.”

We got to auditions in Las Vegas, and it was overwhelming when we were put in a room with 100 other acts. We thought it was really cool to be there, but we were all prepared to play and go straight home.

The way they do the auditions is actually pretty dramatic, and happens pretty much as they show on TV. They kept us in suspense; we waited forever for them to tell us if we were going on. Then they tell you you’re moving on—but that there are more cuts tomorrow. When we finally got selected to go to L.A., it was life-changing; it turned everyone’s life upside down in the matter of a week. Guys put jobs, school and moving on hold.

As far as the live shows go, it’s a whole lot of production for the little bit you see. You interview for 30 or 40 minutes to show 45 seconds of each interview. We were always being hustled somewhere, had 8 a.m. wake-up calls every day; you have to be a lot of different places, but a lot of times you’re just sitting around at the studio. A lot of us got pretty close to the other acts. We all stayed in the same hotel, so we got to watch the show together. It was live in the Midwest, and then we’d all rush back for when it came on two hours later in L.A.

The judges were really nice. Sharon [Osbourne] came up to us after we were voted off and talked to us for a long time. Piers [Morgan] was really nice; we really appreciated his constructive criticism. David [Hasselhoff] came up to us several times and gave us suggestions… it seemed like he wanted good things to happen to us. [Host]Jerry Springer was one of the nicest, most down-to-earth people that we met. He always took time to talk to the acts and make them feel comfortable, and he was always in a positive, fun mood.

When we got kicked off, initially it was a big shock. After that performance we felt better than we ever had. Even Sharon said “I know we’ll see you next week.” When they didn’t call our name, it didn’t really sink in until we were on our way home. There were some tears shed, not only by us but some of the other contestants and people who work on the show. Everyone was surprised. You always question “How much of this is real?,” but it really did come down to America’s vote.

Brandon Alexander lives in Springfield, and has performed with The Cadence for five years. - Go Magazine