Friday, January 12th Another Friday and Saturday weekend saw 11 bands rock out at The Note. It started Friday night with six bands lined up to compete for the evening. From Isis, The John Doe Project and Aggressor all participated last year in the fest and were set to take on Jack Pine Savage, What Killed Ruthie Jane and The Burning Hearts Society, three newbies to the festival. An unfortunate medical emergency forced Jack Pine Savage to have to drop for the night at the last minute but they will be playing in a couple weeks instead. As a result, What Killed Ruthie Jane started out the evening. Now, I'm still not sure who the hell Ruthie Jane is but i can tell you the four young men in this group kicked off the night solidly. While it was apparent these boys were a bit nervous at the very beginning they definitely got into their groove by the second song and held it down with some catchy songwriting and tight rhythm section. Next up were one of the three veteran bands for the night The John Doe Project. A solid group of fans tipping them back combined with John Doe's political punk-rock helped these guys take second place for the evening. The main highlights of their set was the hilarious big box call out “Fu@! Wal-Mart” and the guest drummer “Joe” who was actually a fan for the next band who emerged from the crowd to sit in with JDP while their drummer grabbed a mic. Another band from last year, Aggressor, hit next. Their speed-metal guitar licks helped them grab a slot at the Double Door last season and I think this year they may have a shot as well. From Isis was next and had everything from acoustic guitar to clarinet in their set. Having two members in the band that just moved to the USA four weeks ago, it was easy to see this band had an eclectic mix of musicians in the band. A combination of songwriting, musicianship and harmonies helped From Isis take it home for first place of the night. The Burning Hearts Society finished off the night by tieing Aggressor for fourth place. Don't let their position in the night fool you though, these guys could have competed with their set on any given night. Thanks to a great show full of energy and comradely all these bands will travel to the quarterfinals together. Saturday, January 13th Saturday was similar to Friday since we only had six bands but still managed to pull off a killer show. The second place band of the night, Dead Stock Audio, kicked things off for us. Strong lead vox mixed with some blazing keyboards stick out when you see Dead Stock Audio take the stage. Although they played a couple covers these guys shine through when they play their originals. After Dead Stock was Calls for Comfort, a pop punk band, trying to gain some fans in the Chicagoland area. I''m sure if the fans were paying attention they noticed the stage presence and effort these guys put into entertaining the audience. Turning the volume up a notch was For Every Setting Sun. If you like genuine hard-core stuff this is a band for you. I''m not talking about post-anything, I''m talking about wailing vocals chunky guitars for any true metal head. A band with a bit more of grungy sound, Triumph and Parade was next. Polished musicianship is the name of the game with this band. Hands down their main guitar player with his Fender Mustang put the most teeth behind the Genz Benz half stack rig with the kind of tone you''d expect from someone who plays the thing everyday. Cosmic Slop benefited from that a bit when their guitar player broke a string and had to borrow the same Mustang for their set. Cosmic Slop kept the energy up though and brought the metal back for the end of the evening. They took third place for the evening. According to the audience we saved the best for last Saturday night. Bruce''s Red Rocket did the honors of clos