Local Musicians Impress Crowd at Townsquare Media Talent Showcase in Bangor [VIDEO]

Five local performers became among the first to take the Cross Insurance Center arena stage Saturday afternoon as part of the Townsquare Media Talent Showcase.

Abby Hannington, Erika Olver, Mark Gentle, Anna Roman and Lily Muscatell put on a great show at the $65-million Cross Center, which held its community open house on Sept. 14. Hundreds of people streamed into the new arena to tour the facility and watch the five showcase finalists.

The five were selected to perform in an online poll, which drew thousands of votes from 42 states and five countries.

Ten-year-old Abby Hannington of Bucksport started off the show with a soulful version of Aretha Franklin's "Respect" that left the other finalists, the Cross Center crowd (and all of us here at Townsquare) impressed. Erika Olver, a talented young musician from Hampden Academy, broke out her 12-string guitar to perform an amazing version of Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead or Alive." Mark Gentle of Farmington lent his powerful voice to Tyler Farr's "Redneck Crazy," which had the crowd and some of the Cross Center staff singing along.

Anna Roman from Bradford delivered a stirring version of "If I Could Change the World," by Eric Clapton, and Lily Muscatell, a junior at John Bapst Memorial High School, closed the show with her original song, "I Just Thought You Should Know."

Muscatell's performance earned her the judges's award, which came with four hours of studio time at Main Street Music in Bangor, a professional photo shoot at Monty Rand Photography and tickets to upcoming events at the Cross Center.

Before our finalists took the stage, psychological magician Logan Rouse entertained the crowd with by reading the mind of one of our celebrity judges. We still don't know how he did it, but it was very cool!