03-04-2008 Emergenza Amstelveen

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

This night of Emergenza, was suppose to have seven bands, but since one cancelled, we got only six.

The first band of this evening was Indian Askin, a band from Amsterdam. They make alternative rock music. The music was quite ok, but did not make a huge impression on me. Actually, when writing this I notice that I first had to check which guys were in this band again to remember them.

Second band, Damage Done, stuck some more in mind. This pop rock band, female fronted, was better. Their songs are arranged very nice. I did miss a little fire in their music. They could have brought it with more energy. Their singer tried to get the audience to step a little closer to the stage and talked to the crowd. They did not get that much votes and did not made it to the finals.

Permanent Marker was up next. Their music is just plain ordinary rock. They actually quite bored me and I felt the need to hang at the bar getting some drinks, while having their music in the background. It’s not really unique music and the stage act did not have too much action either. I am lucky they did not bring that much friends with them, so I don’t have to see them again in the finals.

As only metal band of the evening, you are not lucky when playing at Emergenza. Metal is usually not a genre what will be liked by anyone who is not into metal. While being a pop rock band have more changes that people from other genres will like it. Dark roses came from Rotterdam area so they did not have too much fans with them either. Pantera married with Meshuggah and their baby is Dark Roses. Within a few minutes they managed to get most of the not-metal-likers out of the venue. Too bad for them, because they better had to stay and learn. It’s not because I like metal, but this band played the best of the whole evening. Instrumentally, the musicians all had their personal ego moments by showing their skills. As it comes with metal, their stage act was quite active. The band seemed actually to enjoy playing a gig and that is something I had not seen before this evening.

Up next was the band Sound Asleep. Maybe it is like walking into to an open door, but I more or less fell asleep when seeing this band. Their music is pop rock without anything original in it. They did have a small group of friends with them which voted for them and they actually made it to the finals, but seeing they only got 33 votes and compare that with other bands on other days which got to the finals this is just peanuts.

Last band Onesixtyone woke me up from my dreams. Some steady rock music which finally had something unique: A very nice (female) vocalist. She walks on the stage on bare feet in a blue dress producing a nice sound. They got many votes and got the first place tonight. What they did was right and although it is not really my favorite type of music, this band deserved to be in the finals so I voted for them as well.

More pictures of this gig available at sabinevangameren.com

Links:
Indian Askin MySpace
Damage Done MySpace
Dark Roses MySpace
Sound Asleep MySpace