Tonic Boom

Currently Tonic Boom, fronted by Ann Marie Akash, has a 60 minute show running on CTV (Staten Island Cable) and the duo plays live frequently at The Cup on VanDuzzer. Ann Marie also sings backup vocals for the Scott Magri Band, a songwriter/guitarist who performs in the New York City area.A professional vocalist, Ann Marie has been singing since she’s been talking and has been playing piano since she was 6 years old. Her first paying gig was touring Western New York with “The Young World Singers” during her summer breaks from high school. A few of the singers were also musicians, so a band formed with Ann Marie singing lead, and these are the guys who backed her up during the talent competition for “Tulip Queen” in Holland New York. She sang “Dreams” by Stevie Nicks, and not only did she win the talent portion of the competition, Ann Marie was also named Tulip Queen and then had the honor of riding the Tulip float in the parade!!While in college in Pennsylvania, Ann Marie fronted “T.C. Rye”, a pop/rock cover band and here she developed her strong style and 3-octive range. Relocating temporarily to the Twin Cities area, she became lead singer for “Fire Fly” singing the hits of Pat Benetar and going a bit more metal. In the mid-eighties, both singing lead and playing the keyboards, Ann Marie formed her own all-girl’s group called “Debutante”. Many great songs of Madonna, Debbie Harry, Cindi Lauper, and Stevie Nicks were covered, as well as classics from the girl groups of the 50’s and 60’s such as the Shangrilas and the Supremes. Debutante played several college homecoming dances and Octoberfests, complete with costume changes between sets.“Nous Resistance”, a Twincities band founded by Burr Baldwin (and including Todd Petterson on drums) invited Ann Marie to join as front person/lead vocalist to interpret, perform, and record their original music. For 3 fun-filled years many inspiring gigs were played in Minneapolis, including headlining in The Uptown Bar, The Caboose, and First Avenue.After taking a few years off to raise her kids, Ann Marie moved back East, and has been living in New York City since 1995. She is once again on the music scene, sometimes fronting a friend’s band, harmonizing on back-up vocals, or performing Karaoke at 20/20 in Manhattan. Her powerful vocals are better than ever and she can be seen on Saturday nights at Liedy’s, singing a song or two with Jimmy Mack’s All-Star Review and occasionally at the “Musician’s Ball”, produced by Silas International at The Cup.