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On Friday night I had the pleasure of kicking it at the 2nd Sydney semi-final of the worldwide Emergenza festival. It was a hella rocking line-up with alt rock, psych rock, hard, indie and funky rock! With the bands battling for a place in the Sydney final (and then the world final in Germany!) competition and sounds were running hot and loud.

This was my first visit to the spanky new Factory Theatre in Marrickville… and it sounded awesome. Changeover between bands was seamless (averaging five minutes instead of the usual thirty), guaranteeing maximum time for tunes. At the end of each set, bands were rated by crowd hand count with the top two bands making the final.

The quality across the night was superb, but the standouts and victors were most definitely Shape and Copal Deep, with close competition from Broken Toys. With two hands up for your favourite band, Shape topped out at 72 votes; Copal Deep next at 66; Broken Toys on 62. For full results head to http://www.emergenza.net/show.asp?dett=yes&res=232

Three piece Shape, plus magnetic LA-expat frontman Jonathon Abo, have finally brought back the badass to Sydney rock. Incredibly tight rhythm and catchy guitar riffs had more than a few feet on the dancefloor… and a few fanatics in their byo mosh. “You got your robots runnin’.. Like a fox on a stick!” We’re still not sure what it means, but the band assures me it’s good.

Copal Deep had some exceptionally tasty moments emphasizing the funk. Charismatic vocals, extreme funk bass damage and trumpet action make this band incredibly likeable, no matter your genre preferences. The recent success of the John Steel Singers and Kid Confucius suggests there is definitely a JJJ niche for this music.

But why wait?... If you want to check out the rad-tastic Shape and Copal Deep then get along to the Emergenza Sydney final, Sat, December 19 at the Metro Theatre. Till then, if you’ve not yet been to the Factory Theatre, SMP highly recommends The Basics (Wally deBacker aka Gotye) Fri Nov 20: http://www.factorytheatre.com.au/events/factory

Sit tight… We’ll have the Shape boys in soon to spruik their mighty fine debut!

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