27-03-2008 Emergenza Amstelveen

Venue: P60, Amstelveen (Netherlands)
By: Sabine van Gameren

After numerous emergenza first round reviews, we are now at the point that we go a step further. Semifinals are on and the battle is hot! Bands which survived the first rounds of emergenza in different places in the country are now trying to get a place in the finals, which take place in the Melkweg venue in Amsterdam.
As young band, this is definitely a place you want to play so the bands gave all their best to us.

First band in the seminfinals Amstelveen is Uncle Frankle. They are a typical Britpop/indie rock band. They play basic songs, not really standing out, but the performance was ok. I was slightly annoyed by the accent of the vocalist. Perhaps it supposes to be typical British, but for me it does not really sound right. When the band decided to play “Let’s dance to Joy Division” by The Wombats, I felt a little pain. The audience did dance, but I highly doubt that more than 20 percent of them actually know about Joy Division. The band played the song on such a way that there were really no emotions in the song. Does Joy Division deserve that? In my opinion they could leave this one out or do it with some more effort next time.

The second band was Question Mark. The make punk rock music, at an ordinary, maybe I could even say starters, level. Just a lot of noise and a lot of screaming, but I miss the real punk experience. Their songs are not really structured and I get the feeling that they are just playing whatever comes to mind. The vocals show less variation than I would expect and therefore this band did not satisfy me. I expected more from them.

Reggaestration is the first band that actually entertains me. As they name already tells you, the band makes reggae music. They band seem to know each other quite well, they know exactly how to respond on what the other does. I guess they did this already quite some times before. From the first second they entered the stage, there is party and show going on. Their music is very danceable and the audience danced a lot. They brought a lot of friends and fans and the whole venue was swinging.
My compliments to this band, I enjoyed it a lot.

The funky rock of Pangea is quite some difference with Reggaestration. It’s nice and ok music, but does not really get me that much. It is typical music I would hear somewhere on the radio for a few times and then still not remember what the name of the band was. It is recognizablemusic with pleasant vocals but not unique. Though, their performance is ok and definitely a nice band to see.

Hallon Driving School was announced as an Emo rock band. I expected Fall Out Boy like music with that announcement and therefore I was not really looking forward to this performance, since that type of music is not really my favorite genre. The band actually played quite different music. They gave us some calm, easy listening indie rock. Their songs are easy to pick up and with the performance they surprised me in a positive way.

Then the time came for us to see some metal. Taurus was there with their heavy metal. No harm to the others but Taurus blew them all of stage. They band gave a performance like they already did this at least 100 times before. The singer has a great charisma and the songs they played are all very well constructed. This was definitely my favorite band of the evening. Unfortunately they did not get enough votes to continue to the finals, but I think Taurus not really needs the finals of emergenza to make it to the Melkweg stage (Amsterdam). They will be there at some day anyway.

After Taurus, there was only metal left for this evening. U-kroyzz was up next. They make hardcore metal and did that quite well. They did not have the same impact as Taurus on me, but they did not too bad. The band is on their way, but I won’t see them coming that soon though. All together there was not much unique of them.

The last band of the evening was Bloid. Unfortunately I could not see all the songs of the band, since they started a little bit later than planned and I really needed to catch my last train home. Not a big problem, they made it to the finals so I’ll see them there.
From what I have seen of them I can tell you they make death/thrash metal like Hatebreed. I think I saw the first 3 songs and so far I liked the way they presented themselves.

Winners:
01. Bloid
02. Reggaestration

More pictures of this gig available at sabinevangameren.com

Links:
Question Mark MySpace
Reggaestration MySpace
Pangea MySpace
Hallon Driving school MySpace
Taurus MySpace
U-Kroyzz MySpace
Bloid MySpace