Its sad to say goodbye to the Hi-Pointe for this year but the elimination rounds in St. Louis are now behind us. Not to worry, though, because the Emergenza Festival will definitely be returning next year. ROIDAE and ZAMUDIO were the stories of the Wednesday night show. ROIDAE made it through to the semis the smart way. They brought out a large following to help make sure they got the votes they needed. They put on a solid show and picked up a few new fans along the way. ZAMUDIO, however, brought just a small following and put the pressure on themselves to win over the crowd. They played an outstanding set of hard rock with a funky groove and tied for the second most votes of the night. STEREOTYPE and DRIVEN took the stage in the first two spots on Friday night. At least six people in the club must have thought they were pretty good since they left immediately after the two sets. That normally wouldn''t say much except for the fact that those six people were the members of the last band scheduled to play that night. Luckily ROADSIDE MEMORY wasn''t scared off. The crowd enjoyed their well put together songs filled with strong melodies and harmonies, not to mention the short skirt and huge lung capacity of their front girl. It didn''t hurt that the band put her clothes up for sale to the highest bidder after the set. Saturday night was led off by a very energetic set by POSTCARD, a pop/punk quartet with good vocal arrangements that add some musicality to a style that is often void of any. EISENBRAUN & THE GEIGER COUNTER may be a band that has lyrics that go over the top of a lot of heads but they bring lyric sheets to pass around to the crowd so they can take them home and try to figure it out later. They have a style that is very unique ranging from folk rock to almost crossing into country, but fortunately they never went that far. ELI-STONE finished off the night with a mix of good hard rock with tons of samples and just enough screaming to get the point across. The first band from Sunday night to capture the attention of the crowd was BLACKTOP KINGS who joked about changing their name to the Little Bunny Foo-Foos after taking the stage behind some screaming hardcore shit that scared everyone. Good solid vocals and nice guitar riffs put into songs with a solid rhythm section is the best way to describe this band. It''s definitely a well spent 25 minutes to see these guys play. GRAIN OF SAND got the distinct pleasure of playing the final spot of the preliminary round. Like so many young bands just starting to write their own stuff, they started out sounding a little too much like their obvious primary influence, Metallica. They started to move out on their own as they progressed through the set, though, and the last song had a very unique and interesting sound to it. Congratulations to all the bands in the semi-finals and to the bands that didn''t make the cut, don''t give up just work harder and we''ll see you next year.