After a six-month break from St. Louis, the Emergenza Music Festival returned last week with a new home for the Elimination Rounds and a fresh group of talented music makers. With the unfortunate closing of the High Pointe, one of my all-time favorite clubs in the St. Louis area, Emergenza took over the new location of the Creepy Crawl. Also a staple of the St. Louis music scene for many years, the new spot allows more people access to the bands, as well it removed the fence that used to separate the little ones from the liquor. Thursday got off to an extremely energetic start with Natalie Would, an emo band with a recently revised line-up that put on a great show for the early birds. With a synth and a female in the band, they are not your prototype emo group but they do share many similarities in show to the hundreds of kids playing this style of music across the country. Lafayette is a group of youngsters playing straight up rock. Nothing fancy about what these guys are doing, they just get on stage, play their songs and will entertain any crowd that chooses to listen to them. Highway Heat took the lead of the prior band and did much of the same. A bit more on the indie side of the rock, although I would not call them indie, they had great original songs and played them with passion like they felt every note. Burnt Ninja took the energy level back up with a very original sound that could be described as progressive. Up and down in dynamic and tempo, they took the crowd for a wild ride on the shoulders of their charismatic front man. The next band, Middlebrook, was the most interesting band of the night. To come up with a genre to throw them in would be impossible. Good instrumentation, including the fact that they are actually a two-guitar band that uses the guitars to play two different parts. They include very cool synth parts, as well as the first keytar that I have seen in the festival in two years. Their female front person has good stage presence and an intriguing voice that makes the band a great show to see. The night was finished off with Dilucid, a very tight metal band with a lunatic for a singer. After getting his shoe caught on the stage, he threw those off and just to show the stage whose boss, he ripped part of the stage up. This would prove to be a costly move later in the set as he, in his thrashing about, dropped the wireless mic through the hole in the stage. All in all, they were very entertaining to watch and the crowd loved them. Friday was a different night altogether, as the night started with Dark Aftermath. These guys lost half of their band to an alien abduction earlier in the week and took the stage anyway. After singing for five minutes about some girl who was obviously the biggest whore they have ever met, the drummer and guitarist, who both were singing changed placed and did their second masterpiece. This song consisted of playing two power chords and shouting obscenities at the 14-year-old girls up front. Honestly, I don’t remember anything after that. First Light came up and started the real show that would last the rest of the night. Amazing drummer and great musicianship throughout, they’ve got a style about them that the huge audience loved. Melody Grove & The Movement brought their rock’n’roll revival to the stage and captured the attention of everyone in the room. Imagine The Darkness but not so cheesy. Inspired by the likes of Slade and Cheap Trick and with a style that brings the 80’s into the 21st century, these guys and girl are a must see for every closet glam rocker. Johnny Chase, with an extremely tough act to follow, got up and played a great set of acoustic driven rock. Great song writing and fantastic musicians behind him, its easy to tell that they are a seasoned group that put in the time in the writing room and the rehearsal studio. Fowler Bro