It was a perfect world at the Opera House, there were thirteen royal rock bands, there were ministers of sound and security, and of course the good citizens, who walked, took transit, rode bicycles and cars, some even crawled, and a whole bunch of them caught a ride on the fourteen school busses booked especially for the show. There was even an official tour bus (with beds and toilet) for the band Running Against Radar, they must have had the fuzz buster turned up full blast because they won a pile of awards, including best band, so I hope that bus floats if there driving it to Germany. Big brother is dead, and we all get free food and money, here’s what we did with it: Wych broke the silence with glam, magic, spells, nasty guitar riffs, and a singer who is old enough to be some of the other bands grandmother. She teaches us a valuable lesson though, “you’re never to old to rock”. One of my favorite bands of the night came up next, Head Down, gave us heavy power trio hooks and an intense vocalist/bassist/front man. They also gave us a surprise mid set when they played their version of funk complete with a guest rapper; it was a bit out of place, but still cool. Let me make this perfectly clear, this next band is not a metal band, they play progressive rock, and Aural Six is their name. They set us up with cowbell and keyboards and played all covers, closing with an old Bowie song, but that doesn’t cut in a contest of originality. Freefall started off poorly with an out of tune acoustic guitar (Christ! These guys had all day to tune) but their singer quickly realized the problem and threw it away and continued with out it. I wonder why they thought they needed the third axe anyway; they already have two monster guitar players. From out of this sea of heavy rock emerged David Hien playing sweet acoustic guitar and singing not screaming, although his sideman guitarist gave us an occasional electric crunch. I thought it would be fun if they had a huge flaming pentagram behind the drum riser. These next guys look like extras from the “Sopranos” and their music sounds like something Roger Waters wrote and threw away. But still, you have to love Zeo for their rock star antics, big hair, cheese, and fine musicianship. Distant Minds should come a little closer and take a look at their guitarist’s wardrobe, the army fatigues are not working, but most every thing else is, including the front man’s vocals and the tightness of their playing. J’s Basement came out packing aviator shades, military threads, good songs, and tons of attitude. They also won the coveted band award (the twelve other bands voted them the best) as well as best song and best guitarist. I can tell you this writer agrees entirely. The winner of the Ottawa finals, Fluid, took to the stage with their heavy pop rock thing and showed Toronto you don’t have to be uptight and jaded to be really cool, but for some reason the electric guitar sound was too thin, they should fix this problem for next year. The singer from Us was dressed in a yellow fur hat and covered in gold glitter, he was escorted on stage by two young girls in tight shirts, but it was down hill from there because the performance was lacking and the songs were weak. When they finally got him off stage the place was littered with sparkles. Focal Point played a mean set, although not as good as previous shows, I really expected them to sound much better. I guess the “Beat It” cover was actually a crutch. Let’s hope they go to the wood shed and polish their originals. Where do we start with these guys? How about all their young female fans? No, let’s stick to the facts, Running Against Radar won best band (Germany), best rhythm guitarist, best bassist, best vocalist, best drummer (I’m getting dizzy) and be