Emergenza Music Festival makes its way to the southern business district just across the highway from CamdenYards in good old Balti. The first evening smacked of the things to come as ‘Eye Cry Fire’ took to the stage and in teenage angst fashion proceeded to play through their punk rock set. ‘Romulus’ melted faces once again with death metal sounds. The gears got changed and the light brite was brought out to accompany ‘Elise major’. Cyndi, Elise and Travis played to crowd fanfare, despite being a slow starter. The Evening was brought into full swing for B.E.S.T. and international finalists of lasts years festival ‘Natives of the New Dawn’ took the stage for their first set in Baltimore on their National tour with Emergenza. An audience member decided to drunkenly hop on stage and to his dismay ended up almost taking out the keyboard player as his foot caught one of the monitors. He suddenly wiped out and thudded to the floor. Easy on the cocktails folks! The crowd at the 8x10 were markedly over the head of emo rock’s‘Away from Amyclae’ but they played a remarkable set none the less. ‘Unannounced’ were a bit slow to start but finally put it in gear for their alt. rock set. Metal band ‘Lowpoint’ took the stage next and laid down some memorable riffs. ‘165 1/2’ brought out their most popular songs thursday night and had the crowd excited. The venue was strained and could barely contain the raw power and sound of the death core sounds of ‘Vemorrah’ as they rounded out the night. . The antics continued with wildness friday evening almost immediately after ‘Cryptic Warning’ hit their first note. Thrash metal sound filled the venue and the crowd began to become heated. ‘Empty Gratitude’, and ‘Taken’ played through their sets which led the way for hood rockers ‘209’ to blaze on the stage and on the floor. The heavy sounds were well extended by ‘Epic Harvest’ and ‘Angel Fallen’. ‘Fistbox’ with metal core strength proceeded to throw down a harsh and grinding set to whip the audience to a frenzy. ‘Count Your Blessings’ made their way to town with a handful of emo core songs which led to the room coming to a head for ‘Crimson Orchid’ who supplied the metal deconstruction of the evening and ended on stage to roars of appreciation. Young guns ‘A Certain High’ began the proceedings with alt metal fashion. ‘XDWELLX’ had the audience mesmerised with another metal set and their female bassist got big shouts from the audience. A fire breather started off the set for the southern rock band ‘The Perfect Poor’ to an already frenzied audience. ‘Second Class Citizen’ put together an eclectic set and did the old stage cd distribution to lead into ‘7 Days Torn’ alternative rock set. The audience gathered for a psychedelic hard rock set with heavy bass and effects by ‘NIL’ for the middle slot of the night. If ever there were a band that had more of a female presence in their audience than ‘Outreach’ I''ve yet to see it on an Emergenza stage. They played a really impressive rock line up and the audience responded with chanting and waving of Outreach signage. Saturday wouldn''t be the same without something completely danceable, ‘Dark Matter’ provided that in spades. Brian Depristo brought his crew from Portland and the surrounding Baltimore area to lay down some stylish turntablism and the mix mastery was accompanied with an equally talented M.C. . The soul was thrust back into the house with ‘LA and the Unusual Suspects’ at the helm for a funky, bluesy set. Sunday was unique in its own right placing ‘FUTHAMUCKA’ first on stage with their short hard core set. ‘Parking Lot Nights’ battled through their emo pop punk list of songs seeming a little short of energy. ‘John Kennelly and the Chocolate Factory’ laid out some chocolate funk for the people and ‘Celia Kipp and the Last Ditch’ continued the night with a short set of driven acoustic rock. ‘Be(lie)ve’ split the night down the middle with metal straight through to the heart. ‘Martini Henry