by TRACY MOORE

THE MOST RAPTUROUS APPLAUSE when House of Soca judged for Party Monarch on Wednesday night was reserved for God.

Hee-Haw and Dragon Slayer were the performers who brought the applause for Him.

The two got the most response from the packed Queen's College auditorium when they performed their duet Praise.

Not only did they have tremendous stage presence, but the song was lyrical and melodic.

And if the judges were as impressed as the people who were dancing in the aisles, in front of the stage or on the balcony, then there is no stopping the message from reaching the Mount Gay and Cable & Wireless Party Monarch Finals.

They were two of the few who stood out as real competitors vying for spots at Party Monarch.

But with the good came a few factors which, when combined, complicated judging night.

Poor performances

Some performers demonstrated poor microphone techniques, causing their sound to be a bit muffled and hard to understand. Others perhaps had too few rehearsals with the sound technician, resulting in various sonic levels so that the music was sometimes too loud and overpowering the singers' voices.

Popsicle had to redo his entire song De Right after the band could not hear the entire performance and thought it only fair for the artiste to start all over again.

It could not have been an easy task to come back out with all his presentation, in full costume, dancers and stilts man in tow.

Not only did the song have a nice melody with a great message but it also showed much preparation. It was nice seeing it twice; too bad he wasn't judged the second time.

Others like Shawnie and Starr Perez stood out among those who could very well emerge from The House Of Soca.

Shawnie showed off his versatility from being a traditional social commentator to wukking up his Love Muscle and Perez relied less on flash and more on her vocals with Get Out De Way for that East Coast taste once again.

Gorg seemed a little too full of aggression, screaming Tipsy instead of singing the melody and making a promising song lose some of its effect.

Then there were some elements onstage that left many with eyes wide open and mouths to match, like Verseewild and his three dancers who showed a brand new dance called the Azham Wine and CZA Maurice who had a new style of soca that sounded very similar to reggae called Keep On Searching.

Other contenders

Also being judged for the Party Monarch were newcomer Danielle who showed potential and with more experience could move forward.

Jimmy Dan was another one with a real chance to move on with De Session. Having been in the business for the past five years, he smartly infused steel pan into De Session and improved the melody with a strong presentation of masqueraders, stilt-walkers, a "king" and "queen", and a Mother Sally to boot.

The Original Duck had some success getting the crowd into his Kill Me Wid Wuk but it was hard to tell if he was successful with the judges since he sounded like he was singing a bit ahead of the band.

Flexi, Psycho & Fresh, Baje, Pypa, Jael and Termite, the last of whom sang Wuk Da Waist, were also vying for the opportunity to make it to the Ermie Bourne Highway.

The emceeing was shared between Admiral Nelson and Sim Simma, both of whom, along with the swift judging led by chief judge Rasheed Boodhoo, kept a tight show with 17 performances under three hours. *tracymoore@ nationnews.com