The Date: July 8, 2006 The Place: The Metro The Occasion: The 2006 Emergenza Chicago National Final The Result: 16 bands put on a mind-blowing, balls to the wall musical event to be remembered for ages. Almost any band who has put together a tune and played it for anybody in the city of Chicago has dreamed of playing a show at the legendary Metro. On Saturday July 8th 2006 this dream swiftly became a reality of epic proportions for 16 bands in the windy city. Who knew at eleven o’clock in the morning, during the first sound checks, that in hours the Metro would be packed wall to wall almost to the ceiling for seven hours straight? Well…I did and I’ll tell you why. Never would you find a group of musicians more excited to have stepped on a particular stage in the world as we had at the Metro from the moment the club opened its doors. This excitement undoubtedly moved through the masses like a bad STD and created a buzz like no other in the city of Chicago. This buzz didn’t only bring out over 2000 people and create one of the most successful shows in Emergenza’s 15 year history. This buzz didn’t just put Chicago at the top of the charts for Emergenza for the 2006 season. This buzz did so much more and I daresay inspired the greatest performances to date of every band that stepped out on the stage that night. It was only fitting that the youngest band in the fest kick off the final in the first 18 and over show of the 2006 season for Chicago. Enter, The Ninjaviduals! I had to put an exclamation point because these boys brought out their serious A-game on Saturday night. From the arcade synth lines to the solid drumming of their 14 year old drummer these youngins proved once and for all that they have got what it takes to play with the big boys. The second band on Saturday night happened to be the band Saturday Morning. I always admire the acoustic bands that play right before a metal band. That’s always a tough task when faced with a discriminating crowd. Saturday Morning did just that and owned it in front of an already packed house. The crowds were already growing in size so we turned the volume up a couple thousand decibels. Just in time for one of this year’s urban metal bands Madrhymes. I’m pretty sure they were singing happy rhymes when they left the stage covered in sweat and glory. Their aggressive instrumentation and vocals had the crowd amped for the fourth band of the night, Ferdinand Fox. Watching Ferdinand Fox play is like watching some tripped out cartoon rock band. At the Metro they were super tight, super animated and super energized. Their lead singer Van even did a back flip off the drum riser. All of this convinced the other bands to vote Ferdinand Fox in first place for the band award, an award chosen by the bands for the bands. Besides winning a copy of the Indie Bible and The Musicians Atlas, Ferdinand Fox earned the respect and admiration of the other bands competing in the final. The fifth band of the evening was the Milwaukee regional final winners Sunshine Harrison. These guys handled their business last week in Milwaukee and continued to show the crowd this week their interesting brand of new school rock n roll. From the Rave in Milwaukee to the Metro in Chicago in just one week aint bad. When the drummer kicked off the set by playing the mandolin and their lead singer emerged with his bass, it was obvious that we had an eclectic bunch of bands representing the Midwest in this final. Interesting drum grooves helped Sunshine Harrison stand out as an excellent original rock band. The Crawpuppies started off the middle section of the evening with their acoustic flavored pop rock. Big things have been happening for these guys all season and the crowds have continued to grow for them. I heard this time they had five buses full of fans from Indiana come to support them at the Metro…The band played their tightest set to date and their lead guitar player Mike pla