With another week of bands passing through the Middle East in Boston, we finally had some serious winter weather to deal with. Not that I minded that it was 60 degrees in December, but it was getting a little unsettling. Apocalypses aside, we had a couple of great shows with a lot of people out regardless of the stray polar bears terrorizing the homeless in Central Square. Friday, February 2nd Friday the 2nd of February had six bands total ranging from folk-rock to metal. It was just another typical night for us really. Niji, a three piece played some country inspired folk-rock with a huge storytelling vibe infused into the songs. Geezer Kill played next in their second try at the Festival. Aside from the music, the antics of this band on and off stage are hysterical. The music is heavy and aggressive, but it totally changes when the singer starts chugging clam juice or chicken broth or whatever else pops into his twisted little brain. The Dig is a band that knows exactly what they want to sound like: that sound is the Revolver era of the Beatles to a “T”. With great vocal harmonies and intelligently written songs, they definitely have a very specific direction. Rise is a huge sounding hard-rock band from Providence. They did very well their night and showed that they even have quite a following in Boston as well. Good vocals and stage presence make this band. Discordia played last year as well. With a small line up change the heart of the band remained the same, and that heart certainly beats loudly. They have two drummers driving this percussive freight train of hardcore straight up somewhere that ain’t that comfortable. I’m not talking about the back of a Volkswagon either. Said in Stone is another hard-rock band with great tunes. Aside from small quarreling among members pre-show (that’s how you can tell their all real good friends) they pulled in together for one hell of a show in the end. We had everyone but Niji moving on to the next round on this night, due to a tie for 4th place. Saturday, February 3rd Saturday came up with several more bands, forming one of the more diverse nights I’ve seen in a while. Twists have a funky-rock-reggae sound that spills over into so many other genres at different points it’s almost impossible to classify them. Their guest drummer was a great sub as well. Wonderful Spells regardless to having no time to promote as a last minute addition, convinced one hell of a lot of people in the room to vote for their Beatlesque brand of Pop music. The Adrian Kelly Band is a great jazz-fusion act playing ambient harmonies led by a searing hot trumpet played by, you guessed it, Adrian Kelly. Dinij, an acronym for Drummer Is Not In Jail, had a great night playing in your face hardcore-metal. The peak of the set though was a little tangent they went off on covering Groundhog’s Day by Primus in lieu of the holiday. The Groggy Dogs, now known as Red Shift, played in incredibly mature sounding set despite their young ages. Most kids that young end up playing pop-punk or something of that nature, but these guys had a very theatrical brand of pop-rock going on that never betrayed their ages at any point. Into the Flood is what Nirvana would be today had Kurt not blown his head off. They lost a member and it’s not a bad thing. As a three piece they gel so well they don’t need anything else. Grilling Wilson is a great band in the pop region of music that is both solid and technical. The drummer leads the band through a landscape of breaks and rests, while the band follows impeccably with brilliantly harmonized vocals and holy crap is it all just soooo catchy. Graphite have a very modernized 80’s rock sound that reeks of glam and denim just under the surface. Blazing guitar licks from this brothers led band make you want to throw