Hello all. We once again had another round of shows here at The Middle East in Cambridge, and once again, this music lover was utterly impressed with the caliber of bands that made a go of it in the first round of Emergenza. Saturday, November 18th We had a shortened weekend with only two shows and we’re going to start on Saturday the 18th of November. Eulogy XL was a tight band with obvious influences from the likes of Trent Reznor and NIN. Double bass driven, gut wrenching slaughter-house chords and melodic, and rhythmic vocals filled the room with a cold sort of dread that that kind of music needs to inspire to be considered a success. Lost Project hailing from the Gloucester area certainly didn’t sound mellow enough for the once heroin capital of the world. They were aggressive, angular and full with dripping distortion from both bass and guitar and a rap/metal vocalist fronting. The Phil Good band was a great R&B act wrought with beautiful vocals and the always necessary hip-hop breakdown just to get the ladies moving a little. I always wonder how these bands don’t get rushed by a throng of women in the middle of their set. One Fine Morning had a great bass player that brought together all the interwoven riffs from the rest of the band and a great acoustic guitarist/vocalist belting out the songs for this funky, pop act. Ten Percent should have been call a Hundred and Ten Percent judging by the energy they and the crowd had for there hard rocking sound that reminded me of too many different styles to list. The Necrowafers certainly nailed the whole punk rock genre down while baking a big batch of death cookies on stage. Simple 4/4 beats and a Johnny Rotten singer minus the annoying British accent gave the group a generally likeable tone and based on the votes they brought in, the crowd liked them too. Shades of Skin came all the way from Wocester and brought a hell of a following too. There hard pop rock sound was surprising to me since they missed their sound check and I hadn’t heard them yet. An energetic singer flailed around stage while hitting perfect harmonies with the warm melodic distortions from the guitars and one hell of a solid rhythm section kicked out technically unique time changes that broke up the shape of the songs into catchy chunks. Pericles came out with one of the fastest, hardest hitting drummers this boy has seen in a while. Take the entire Fat Wreck Chords catalogue, throw it in a pot, mix in some talent, and you have this band. Now for the real surprise, I like all kinds of music, so long as it’s done well. I have seen some real bad bands, and some real good bands. Mortis Deveia is one of the top bands in the latter category. Not only were they the heaviest band of the night, hailing from the metalist of metal you can imagine melting faces with killer solos and blast beats, but the singer was really a treat. What I saw made every metal singer look like a wimp, and their singer was a girl. Nothing against girls, but she was truly the most badass singer I’ve every seen. Check them out, seriously. And in the end as usual, there were four bands passed on. They were Necrowafers, Shades of Skin, Pericles, and no duh, Mortis Deveia, who for the record, had everyone including the bartender vote for them. Sunday, November 19th On to Sunday the 19th of November which regardless of the night had a really decent crowd. Suburban Freak Show could have powered a small town were their hair windmills actually connected to a generator. Drum machine blast beats layered with crazily distorted guitars were enough to even get Grandma rocking. Rift opened with an Offspring cover, which was strange because they then moved onto brilliantly written jams with great creativity and talent for such a young band. Lose the cover guys you rock enough on your own! No Action was a simple p