We made it through the halfway point of the first round of the Emergenza festival at the Middle East. It was a week full of madness and rock''n''roll. The bands kicked "butt" and so did some of the bouncers. Regardless, it was a great week of music. Thursday kicked off with some hip hop by Sister Domatilla,followed by 48 rooms, and Fistagon. Clarias played a tight set followed by My First Handgun and Cryptonym. The fans got a nice change of pace at the end of the night with the hard hitting Blues of Black Betty and the Bad Habits and the "Zoograss" jams of Hot Day at the Zoo. The Fellas started off friday night. 8 piece Shango Axe got the room a little irie before The John Gorey Band got the room going with their rock ballads. Melt, Better Left Unsaid, and Tester played solid sets while Salacious Crumb brought a little Boston Irish Punk to the table. The crowd loved it. Saturday night was another busy one. Cause of Insanity, The brightside, and Skin started the night off with some loud, hardcore tunes. Sin City Chainsaw shook the room. The Void, The Fair Enough, and Fuzbuni ripped through the later half of the evening while we got another solid taste of some Boston Irish punk with tunes with the McGunks. Sunday finally arrived and went off without a hitch. Twitch 27 was the perfect band to start of the night. These guys were young but I''d bet money that you''ll see a lot of them in the future. Motherseat and It''s Alright Nightingale kept the energy up while Space''n blew the doors off the Middle East. The Andres Wilson Band and Stone Blue displayed some of the most impressive guitar playing we have seen all year while Becky Make Believe ended the night with some straight up energetic rock ''n'' roll. The perfect word to describe the week would be "craziness". It was a hectic 4 days of shows but the bands were great and the music was solid. Keep an eye out for the bands coming in week 5. We are on the home stretch now headed for the Paradise.