Hard Rock Rising

Three rounds. Nine bands. Supporters going absolutely fucking mental. One pre-show withdrawal. Tight voting. A storm outside. A mosh pit inside. And now, after three weeks of noise, nerves and increasingly serious competition, Hard Rock Rising reaches the final at Hard Rock Cafe Valencia this Wednesday, 23 September and it has been one hell of a ride!

What started on September 2 with Nohe, Sita Rizzi and Jhay Onex immediately established that this wasn't going to be some polite battle-of-the-bands exercise where everybody gets a participation certificate and goes home. Jhay Onex pulled out before the first show, leaving Nohe and Sita Rizzi to face the pressure of opening the whole competition, and both delivered strongly in front of a crowd that had been handed the rather important job of deciding who moved forward. The audience chose Sita Rizzi.

Round Two brought Moscow, City Of Fury and Horrorwolf into the Hard Rock Cafe, and the musical spread became even wider. City Of Fury went down the acoustic Britpop route, Moscow brought hard-rock indie muscle, while Horrorwolf dragged the evening into darker goth-and-roll territory. The venue was packed with friends, supporters and curious punters, and once again the voting went right down to the wire. Moscow got the ticket.

Then came Round Three. Protocol Shift, Santonegro and Robert Grayd walked into the final qualifying battle knowing there was no safety net. No next Wednesday. No second chance. One band would join Sita Rizzi and Moscow in the final, while the other two would be watching from the other side of the barrier. And then Valencia decided to throw a biblical weather tantrum.

While torrential rain and flooding hammered the province, the crowd still turned up at Hard Rock Cafe Valencia. Inside, things got considerably wetter with sweat as the mosh pit kicked off and the three bands threw everything they had at the stage. Santonegro brought their heavy Valencian stoner-rock attack, Robert Grayd arrived with their own distinctive proposition, and Protocol Shift delivered the performance that finally pushed them over the line. The voting was brutally close. Protocol Shift won.

Now the three survivors are ready to settle it. Sita Rizzi enters the final having already demonstrated that she knows how to connect with a Hard Rock crowd. The Ibiza-born, Valencia-based alternative pop-rock singer-songwriter brings a mixture of rock and electronic influences to the competition, with direct songwriting and a style that refuses to sit comfortably inside one genre. Her Round One victory made her the first artist to book a place in the final, and she's had two weeks to watch the other contenders tear chunks out of each other.

Moscow earned their place in Round Two after arguably the most musically varied night of the qualifying stages. Their hard-rock indie sound brought attitude, guitar muscle and plenty of swagger to a packed Hard Rock Cafe, and they managed to edge City Of Fury and Horrorwolf when the audience votes were counted.

Then there's Protocol Shift, the last band through the door and therefore the only finalist who has had to survive the full three-act pressure cooker of Round Three. Their appearance in Valencia's alternative-metal circuit has already included a show at Peter Rock alongside We Exist Even Dead and Myseria earlier this year, and they now arrive at the Hard Rock final with momentum very much on their side.

And let's not forget the bands that got this far before the voting gods slammed the door. Nohe came within one round of the final. City Of Fury delivered that stripped-back Britpop attack before Moscow took the vote.

Horrorwolf brought the goth-and-roll darkness and made the second round anything but predictable. Santonegro, one of Valencia's established stoner-rock names, brought years of experience and a seriously heavy sound to Round Three, while Robert Grayd also pushed Protocol Shift all the way in a qualifying round decided by the audience.

And then there's Jhay Onex, whose Hard Rock Rising campaign ended before it had even started when nerves got the better of the situation and he withdrew from Round One.

That's the beauty and brutality of live competition. You don't get to edit the story afterwards. Hard Rock Cafe Valencia has been the perfect arena for the whole thing. The venue has hosted three battle nights packed with musicians, mates, supporters and people who simply turned up to see what was happening, while the audience voting has made every performance feel genuinely consequential. Hard Rock's own Valencia campaign put nine artists through three qualifying battles before the final, with the audience holding the voting power.

And now the big one and there is serious local hardware on the table. The Valencia winner will take home €500 cash from Hard Rock Cafe Valencia, an exclusive gig at Hard Rock Cafe Valencia, a professional photoshoot with rock photographer Rhyan Paul, and an exclusive interview and review in The Music Mole Magazine.

But the biggest prize sits beyond Valencia.

The winner will progress into the next stage of the international Hard Rock Rising competition, giving one of these three acts the chance to take their music beyond the city and into Hard Rock's global competition. The worldwide Hard Rock Rising programme is running live competition nights across participating Hard Rock Cafes, with artists competing for opportunities including a major-artist support slot at Hard Rock Live Orlando, a recording session at Coke Studio LA with distribution support and a $10,000 cash prize.

So, after three rounds of drama, one withdrawal, six eliminated acts, increasingly rabid supporters, close voting and one spectacularly wet night in Valencia, it comes down to three. Sita Rizzi. Moscow. Protocol Shift.

One stage. One audience. One winner. Hard Rock Cafe Valencia has provided the stage. The bands have supplied the noise. The supporters have supplied the madness. On Wednesday 23 September, Valencia gets to decide who rises.