Emergenza Live Festival Highlights Up and Coming Bands

BOSTON/Allston – With over 50,000 bands booked for 8,000 shows on two continents in this year’s competition, the Emergenza European and North American Live Festival for Up and Coming Bands is now making an appearance in the Boston area. The 9 area bands that made it through the first two rounds competed in the semifinal round Tuesday night at the Paradise Rock Club.

The victors of the first three rounds have been more or less democratically picked by the audience - who voted by raising their hands after each band finished. Whichever band got the most votes moved on. The problem with that system is that winners are often determined by how many people each band brings. Not necessarily on how good each band sounds.

However, judges will determine the winners for the bands moving on to the final local round. The winning band of the Boston finals will get six weeks of fully paid production in a professional studio, and will be flown to Germany for the international finals at the Taubertal Open Air Festival alongside major global acts.

The bands in the semifinal round were Substance D, Gnorfy, Dominguez, Aquell, To The Masquerade, Televandals, Last Cigarette, Ralph Eats Dynamite, and Charlie River Band. With over 200 people in the audience by 10:30, and with about 300 by the last band playing at 12:30, it was a very lively crowd for a Tuesday night. “The atmosphere here is chill,” said John Richards, a listener in the crowd. “It’s a Tuesday night and people are rocking out, that’s a good thing.”

But there was a bit of conflict behind the scenes at the otherwise relaxed event. Promoters attempted to raise ticket prices at the last moment, prompting a strong reaction from a number of musicians.

“Emergenza, in theory, is a good opportunity for bands to network,” said Jay Restless of the Televandals. “But we want to make sure the fans are treated well. We want them to look at us as people, not just as names on a piece of paper.” Jay helped to create a petition along with the rest of his band to lower the prices from 15 dollars prepaid and 20 dollars at the door to 12 and 18 dollars respectively.

“At first it was 12 and 18, then after they gave us the tickets they raised the prices. I’ve paid 12 or 18 for national acts—we don’t want them taking advantage of needy local bands.” About half of the participating bands signed the petition, and the reaction from Emergenza was almost immediate. “We told them, it was either lower the prices to what the tickets had on them, or we’d be accused of scalping,” said Nico Televandal. After a couple of hours, the tickets were brought back to their original prices.

Logistics aside, the crowd seemed to be enjoying themselves. Many attendees showed up to support a specific band but ended up enjoying alot of the other bands as well.

“I came to support the band To The Masquerade,” said Claire Meyers, “But I ended up liking a lot of other bands too, and I got a lot of new CDs. It’s great to see new bands coming out of Boston.”

Jeffrey Garner was another satisfied listener, “I don’t normally go to concerts, or if I do I don’t get that into them. But tonight Last Cigarette got me moving.”

A tie allowed four of the bands to move on: Gnorfy, To The Masquerade, Televandals, and Charlie River Band.

The New England regional final round is happening Sunday, June 22nd also at the Paradise Rock Club.