Lion Ride roars, but Buzz was better, judges rule (41 photos)

Competition was fierce at the Canadian Night Club last night as 10 local bands vied for the opening time slot during the December 15 KISS concert at the Essar Centre.

Giving it their all in the hopes of winning the hearts of the Rock 101 judges were (in order of appearance) Blues Harvest, Nebraska Arms, Flat Stanley, Garden of Bedlam, Stifler's Mom, Nixxon Dixxon, Sense of Truth, G'sis Murphy, Wishbone, and Lion Ride.

Following the judge's final deliberation, radio personalities Mark SanAngelo and Brian Davie rambled on about how tough the final decision was, as the audience and band members, grew increasingly restless.

SanAngelo reassured attendees that he had indeed been in contact with the KISS management team regarding the competition, and announced that KISS had entrusted the opening band choice to the competition's judges.

With some extremely vocal goading from the anxious crowd, SanAngelo moved on and first announced the competition's runner-up - Lion Ride.

This was met with mighty cries of criticism from crestfallen Lion Ride fans.

But as Garden of Bedlam was pronounced the battle's grand prize winner, these criticisms were replaced by deafening screams of approval.

SanAngelo made sure to point out that Garden of Bedlam edged out Lion Ride for first place by only one point.

Sootoday.com met up with an emotional Erik Boissineau (AKA Buzz), front man for Garden of Bedlam, backstage shortly following the announcement.

"After I saw Lion Ride play, I knew that was something we really had to worry about," he told us. "They're some of my best friends."

Apparently, music has been a dream of Buzz's since he was in diapers and used to perform concerts for his mother.

"I've been dreaming about this moment all my life and we have the chance of a lifetime ahead of us," he continued. "We're going to represent the Sault the best we can."

In his words, in order to prepare for their upcoming KISS gig, the band is going to "jam their f*+king a$$es off."

"We're going to pull out some arsenal that we haven't shown the Sault yet, and we promise to deliver everything we've got," Buzz vowed. "Even if it doesn't go past this one show, even if this is our only couple minutes of fame, I'm going to thank KISS for every second they gave us."