Anyone looking to discover a few new up-and-coming bands for a cheap price should look no further than Crowbar, 420 E. College Ave., tonight.

Newly established rockers Strike.Fire.Fall, winners of the Takeover Records' Sign My Band contest, will be taking the stage along with Kairos and Cordova for a night where the only thing that matters is bringing a few relatively obscure bands into the State College rock limelight.

Strike.Fire.Fall vocalist and guitarist Shawn Harrington said that since his band officially formed in State College a few years ago and won the Sign My Band contest, the band has been touring nationally. Strike.Fire.Fall has been readying its debut album, due out in January 2006, and hitting as many East Coast venues as possible.

There was one tour the band fell just short of doing this year, though -- the VANS Warped Tour.

"Our label was trying to get us on for the East Coast leg of it, but we were recording [for the new album] the whole time, so we weren't able to do it this year," Harrington said, adding that the band's pop-rock sound mixes influences including U2 and Thrice.

Strike.Fire.Fall has been looking forward to not only playing with Kairos and Cordova, but also to returning to their old stomping grounds of State College.

Local hard-rockers Kairos, who are influenced by such bands as Dredg and Pink Floyd, are also pumped for tonight's show.

"We're excited to see our friends again since we lived in State College for three years; it should be pretty cool," guitarist and vocalist Josh Sturm said.

Aside from its major influences, Sturm said his fellow band members have a varied taste in music -- even some not so predictable ones.

"My brother [guitarist and vocalist Jason Sturm], he likes Justin Timberlake," Sturm joked.

Kairos also enjoys getting compared to such rockers as Muse, a band Sturm said fans have drawn comparisons to.

"Lots of people say that we sound like Muse, which is cool since we recorded before we'd even heard of them," Sturm said. "I would say [our favorite influence] is Muse, because their live performance is incredible."

The final band on the set list is Cordova, based out of Catasauqua, which is going into tonight's performance with a fresh new EP titled Lie Until It Becomes the Truth on Limekiln Records, not to mention an upbeat attitude about gaining new fans at Crowbar.

"If we get one kind word from somebody [at the show], that's enough for us to consider it successful," guitarist and vocalist James Alex Snyder said.

Described by www.smother.net as "cerebral garage rock at its very finest," Snyder said the band plays "romantic rock 'n' roll, with intellectualism ... but at the same time accessible."

Cordova's influences include the Pixies, The Police and others that should help round out the evening with a more indie sound to add to the eclectic mix of rock on tap tonight.