It''s been a great run at The 5 Spot. Bank St. has rocked for 5 weeks in a row. SUBPOENA kicked off the weekend with a great faux bathroom break during the middle of an instrumental track, and came back on stage just in time to "re-embrace" the Old City crowd. JADED SON made sure not to hit the audience with any "broken words." BLUE PHOENIX had a rock solid set, and INDEPENDENCE DRIVE followed with a skanked out finale to their set. CHRYSALIS came up from the nation''s capital on the B.E.S.T. of EMERGENZA tour, and gave everybody a taste of their powerful sound. RAVYN followed with a great set of all original tunes, and the VANITIES threw a little two-step out to the philly crowd, and even threatened to disrobe. MORNING SIDE''s set hit the crowd hard, and FORCE OF NATURE wrapped up the night. DAVID ZEE opened up Friday night with one of the biggest crowds EMERGENZA has seen in Philly. Channel 10 came out and did a piece on him, so make sure, if you want your 15 minutes of fame, to come out to the North Star for the 2nd round. STRAITLACED set the crowd up, and knocked ''em down, and the female-fronted act ...BUT NOT FORGOTTEN came all the way down from NY to rock the 5 Spot. GOLDDELUX wowed the crowd with their fusion of galloping blastbeat drums, and Chubby Checker piano pummelling. SIDESHOW put on a great vocal performance and brought out legions of South Jersey rock fans. POKER FACE threw an acoustic guitar into their mix of great vocals and heavy rockin'' riffs. THEODORE GRIMM played a bunch of songs that weren''t about drugs (just kidding), and left the stage riddled with saliva. THE 5% wrapped up the night by blending a ton a different musical styles into one cohesive 25 minute set. Saturday started off with the bass cabinet crooning of MIDDLESPRING. TREMOR followed with a set that registered a 9.0 on the richter scale. MOURNING ELECTRA reminded many in the crowd of one of the most influential 3 pieces in history. Just think back to the band with the really tall bassist, and the drummer with the backwards hat. UNDERSTATEMENT''s set was anything but an understatement. Punk is underrepresented Philly''s EMERGENZA, and these guys definitely represented. MORTALIS brought the thunder, and an amazingly supportive crowd all the way from Jersey. You''ll be seeing them at the North Star. PETE MOSS came down to Philly after playing in Boston the night before as part of the B.E.S.T. of EMERGENZA tour. You could tell right away why they made it all the way to Germany last year. THE SUPERSPECS brought down the house with their horn-infused rock, winning over the crowd, and advancing on to the 2nd round. CHEAP SHOT, another band out of the Big Apple, closed out the night with some awesome vocal back-and-forth... growls and an aggressive voice blending together in harmony. STRIKEOUT SEMESTER was the first band to play the last night of the first round of EMERGENZA in the city of brotherly love. They exercised "delicate restraint" during the first drum solo/acapella of the festival. EVER AND A DAY''s lead singer was found rooting around in the equipment looking for a backup axe. He didn''t skip a beat while he was throwing around guitar cases, and that other guitar sounded right nice on the next song. ORIGINAL SINZ, for such a young band, had it all... great songs, great presence, and the crowd in the palms of their hands. SETTLE, one of the most original acts to grace the stage this year, came all the way from the hometown of Crayola crayons and colored their set with a beautiful array of keys and vocal harmonies. The final act of the first round turned our to be the most visually impressive of the season. Combining bass cabinet go-go dancers and a down home rock''n''roll sound, ABE THE ROCKSTAR AND THE HAPPY HOUR BAND put a big fat exclamation point on the first round (you can check it out in living color at the top of this article). Be su