Here we go again, the second round of the quarter of finals took place two weekends ago in Toronto. The electric atmosphere at The Reverb hosts for the second year our shows, which turn out to be successfully attended by crowds of local fans, supportive and enthusiastic about the bands they came to see. Despite the fact that the heating in the venue broke down, our audience managed to light the room up and the bands brought it to a cooking boil. The sultry voice of NATASHA ALEXANDRA set up Wednesday night (March 31st), while our stage manager, Doug, had to cover for the drummer who was M.I.A., things got off to a nice start. Next up was energetic ska punksters, DOWNFLOW, who turned it on for a solid 25 minutes. Then it was time to bring on the ladies! Four piece band, MAGNETA LANE, proved that grrlls can rock as hard as the boys, despite their trailer park good looks, they turned The Reverb upside-down. SHARON’S FATE followed with a three piece assault of down and dirty punk rock T-dot style, supported by a tight bass and drum rhythm section and a dynamic guitarist/ singer. Crowd favourite AURAL SIX (no, not oral sex) kicked it up a notch (bam!) with their set of obscure cover songs. FRESHSMOKE picked it up and rolled some sweet blues tunes, bringing the audience higher. THE BETTER MACHINE (formerly known as DICKIE)got the girls going with the singer’s good looks and gritty voice. Fuelled by good song writing, they delivered a solid set of pop rock. Putting the night out of its misery was TEST MONKEY, their powerful voices and stage presence ended up the night keeping the people high. Although on Thursday show (April 1st) only five bands out of eight played, they managed to rock the night and they made their bodies sweat properly under The Reverb stage flashy light. CONSPIRACY, a band longer in set list than age, opened up the night with some Green Days’s covers and few original songs….audience started sweating too!!! THE NICK LEE BAND stepped on the stage as second band performing, their progressive instrumental performance heated up the room and the music flowed on. Playing next to the almost at capacity crowd was well polished cutie pies RUNNING AGAINST RADAR (look at them in the picture!), their brand of original hard rock kept the girls screaming and whipped them into a frenzy when the lead singer took his shirt off. Definitely, the crowd favourite. Gearing down into neutral came SCANDALNAVIA, their quirky brand of pop/ punk/ rap continued to owe the audience into enough votes to move on to the semi-finals at The Opera House and made an excellent closure. Friday night (April 2nd), the tubes amps were glowing, the bar was locked and loaded and HEAD DOWN, a powered trio mounted the stage. The bass player/singer had a powerful voice and led his band through a burning set of hard rock songs. WHATTEFUNK and their many fans continued the stage rampage with psychedelic guitar sounds and energetic stage presence. RECALL was total with a unique blend guitar virtuosity and dynamic vocals. MY OWN MACHINE got down and dirty with a back to basic rock groove. Then came MAHRU with a soaring female vocalist, which kept the audience enchanted and entertained. WYCH won the hearts and souls of a very willing audience by conjuring up a brew of surreal guitar rock and witchery vocals. SHEDD were next , their punk rock style got the audience drinking and dancing on the stage and kept the atmosphere high, even though the night was coming to an end. SALE played a quirky set of alternative music, their hyperactive singer brought the night to and end keeping the audience excited. Sunday night (April 4th) was baptized with ire reggae-punk-dob grooves, kicked out by BLISS. Power-trio KROME combined midi samples with live instruments, giving the show a rock flavour. All the girls loved the drummer’s hair! DECYPHER brought covers to the stage as well as an afro wig and a nasty funk jam. Capturing the night was DISTANT MINDS. Their han