And then there were fourteen. Well… almost. They say Milwaukee is a city with two seasons: Winter and Construction Season. While the blaze orange barrels littering Wisconsin Avenue and the Marquette Interchange reconstruction project choking off the city center''s traffic flow seemed to reinforce this jesting stereotype, still other Milwaukee institutions came to mind as the Spring leaves first started budding... This time of year in Wisconsin''s largest city means quite a few other things among its warmth-hungry citizens, such as: live music, festivals and…well, live music festivals. As the mercury finally rises, the barrels of beer eventually thaw into a consumable beverage, the wings of the art museum spread themselves wide and it becomes virtually impossible to ignore the impending season of celebration in this Great Lakes coastal metropolis. Milwaukee, home to Summerfest, the world''s largest music festival, is no stranger to live music en mass. But Summerfest is still a couple of months away and right now, the music festival rocking Brew City is spelled E-M-E-R-G-E-N-Z-A. It took a mere two weeks but the Emergenza International Music Festival Semifinals in Milwaukee have come and gone with a bang, a crash, a riff or two and two weeks'' worth of revelry, music, drinking and of course… drama. Bizarre, supernatural drama, that is, in the form of a stalemate standoff, a pool of fake blood, a waft of incense, vanishing cymbals and a bat… yes, a bat. Read on. Week 1 had a lot to live up to. Instead of taking place in the planned semifinal venue of the Rave Bar, due to other concerts in the building at the time, the first group of Emergenza semifinalists were offered the much roomier Rave II venue for their shows. This set the bar much higher for the evening affairs. The worry was that semifinal-sized crowds would make the room seem empty. But the encyclopedic quote from the Tim Burton film, Big Fish must hold true: “Kept in a small bowl, the goldfish will remain small. With more space, the fish can grow double, triple, or quadruple its size.” In a big way, Emergenza bands stepped up to the plate. Hundreds upon hundreds (indeed nearly a thousand people one night) showed up to watch great local musicians give their all on stage. Day one provided the strong showings of Spiral Trance, the unique vocals and audio effects of 9mm solution and the unforgettable and Halloween-esque stage antics of the ghoulishly face-painted Shallow Ground. The fake blood hadn''t even dried when Emergenza B.E.S.T. special guest, Band Called Pharisee took the stage. The Chicago group''s tasty morsels of rock n'' roll goodness left the crowd hungry for more. The unusual atmosphere of the evening prior must have carried over to Friday night, because the level of intrigue seemed to intensify exponentially. With talented rock bands Way to Fall and Myself Alone giving their very best efforts that night, many may have missed a peculiar event that took place during the set of another tremendously talented band. As the classic rock stylings of Cobalt Fur poured through the crowd and singer D''Wendt chilled the veins of those present with his Robert Plant-like vocals, a charcoal black bat swooped through the shadowy club, as if he were magically conjured by the trio of Cobalt Fur and shamelessly wing-dancing over the crowd. Luckily for the bat, Ozzy Osbourne was nowhere to be found that night and the furry chiroptera kept his head. Either way, the spell that brought our flying friend was probably broken by the thick clouds of incense present when the Pipe Circus took center stage. Their blend of rock and conga-based acoustics made the night truly one-of-a-kind. Saturday night and capacity was very nearly reached in the big fishbowl. Wall-to-wall fans witnessed the incredible performances of Edgerton and Defy as well as the unmistakably original hip-hop grinds of Milwaukee favourite, Ill Groove Movement. An evening wit