Philly! Philly! Philly…………This was the chant we could hear backstage coming from the audience inside the 1200 packed Theatre of the living arts down South street……….and there was more love to come. Travelling around to see all the U.S. Emergenza finals is a joy for both eyes and ears even though the body suffers the following day from the too many drinks and cigarettes consumed at these gigs (more like great f*@*#! parties) but we should not be complaining…………..we give it all for the sake of rock and roll! The city of brotherly love was exactly that when we started with Enuom around 7 pm and this band showed us that rock in Philly is the main “substance” of consumption. Step up Helot’s Rebellion. A rebellion indeed. A funky ass bass player and a female guitarist with licks to make the little boys in the audience cream! (I see how long I can keep without making overexcited comments of all female musicians…). Bebek was totally different. A breath of fresh air. Both original and striking visually, with a female singer so good as well as cute the other musicians backstage were making comments like: “hotter than…”.all right, I want to keep my job so I am not going to print the unprintable (the editor will certainly kick my arse for trying!). Venus Fly Lounge was next and these guys were all dressed up with smooth apparel. So smooth in fact, was their music and so funky, people were grooving to every line he sang. At that time I thought: It would be fantastic if I could get a bunch of gorgeous girls, a bottle of Dom Perignon bubbly and a cigar to make me feel like a real pimp daddy! (As you can tell the music was putting me in a strange frame of mind). The bass player was playing piano and fretless bass simultaneously and by showing off like that, he got the award for best bass player for the night. Just before 9 o’clock Census were ready to rock and the crowd was beginning to give back the love they have being given up to that point (chants of Philly! Philly! would come later). The Nodd came on stage without any pretence and completely turned the place and hypnotized the crowd. The lead singer, who also doubles as the keyboard player, was like a man driven by pure adrenaline and with a voice capable of embarrassing any “Thom York” (basically more soul, anger, intensity and hi pitch notes). After that we thought that we might as well pack up and go home but we were in for a little surprise. A five piece called Glasshouse walked on stage and put on a show that the Australian MC backstage described to me as: “more energy than a nuclear plant!” my reply was: yes, with a very British sound to match (I would say that as a Londoner, wouldn’t I). I think you can sum it up for yourselves. Glasshouse my dear readers, was the winner for tonight voted by a panel of industry experts, and rightly so. The Van Randalls were up next and these guys were probably the youngest of all groups and they showed that they could rock the pants off anyone! 20 minutes of pure rock with a lot of sweating ‘cause that’s the way rock has to feel. The Winner from Washington D.C was up next. Mason Dixon and the Coalition was so tight that the other bands were dumbstruck and voted them “best band”. D.C was certainly well represented in this case. An interesting note was the Australian MC walking on stage after their set, giving one of the female backing singers a flower… I told him that he would have to fight with me for that one! By now we could safely say that by now the people of Philadelphia were ready to give their love. At exactly 10:45 Phillytoboggan walked on stage. There were more girls pushing to get close to the stage than to buy “Victoria’s secret “ underwear at 90% off. As soon as the they started playing all sorts of garments started flying! Now, I am not a man that is easily impressed with any rock shows but this very exciting demonstration of Philly love was really un