To put it simply, I was not ready for Friday night’s Rock Hunt Semi-Finals at Club Hell.

The Intel started it off strong, with a mosh pit forming just minutes into their set. This was somewhat surprising considering the pop punk sound of their Rock Hunt submissions, but you have to give credit to a band that knows how to translate what sounds good on a recording to what works better in a live show. The energy bouncing back between the band and the audience was great. Their fans seemed to love the harder rock and many eagerly joined in on the “who can mosh the hardest” contest the lead singer proposed. If you missed this show, you can catch them at their next Club Hell show on April 14th.

The second band of the night, Girl Haggard, was truly unique among all of the Rock Hunt submissions. This country band had people do-si-do-ing throughout their whole set. The lead singer, a girl hailing from Tennessee, sang about things we can all relate to—just take one of their songs “You woke me up hung-over, and now I’m pissed off.” Don’t let their distinct country feel fool you though—the music was still hard-rocking. One listener even said, “I can definitely hear the punk in this band.”

For the Love of Sloane, the final band of the night, seemed to steal the show. Not only did their songs have some great hooks, but the lead singer (who looked a little like Liv Tyler) could really sing. She may not have used her range as much as she could have, but her voice was still one of the band’s best aspects (complemented well by the music being played by the band, of course). Apparently, the crowd and the judges were also smitten with this act. Though it was surely a tough choice with such different bands being pitted against each other, For the Love of Sloane won this Semi-Finals show and are now headed to the Rock Hunt Finals April 4th at Lupo’s. They’ll be matched up against last week’s winners Baylock and The [Viennagram:] and Saturday night’s winner Fairhaven. Stay tuned for more info on the Finals show!

Photo by modelinglightstudio