On Friday, Pittsburgh band Kill the Drama will hit the stage just before Joe Grushecky at the Three Rivers Arts Festival. It's part of the prize of winning Pittsburgh Rocks, the Post-Gazette's first online battle of the bands. Kill the Drama was one of 12 finalists from the 134 entries. Taking second place was Donora, followed by The Will Kills. Those bands will play Sunday at 2 p.m. on the Market Square stage, along with Justin Morris, of fourth-place finishers Mercury.

Here is a closer look:

Kill the Drama's winning song, "Close Friends With Sharp Knives," jumps out of the speakers with a snarling guitar riff before hitting you with the full force of the band. Then, singer Bryan Laskey shows off the kind of pipes that might take this band to great heights.

It's the recipe that powered Kill the Drama to win the Graffiti Rock Challenge in February 2006, just a month after the band formed. Laskey, Steve Stiller (guitar), Skinny (bass) and Jason Godek (drums) used the Rock Challenge prize of studio time to record their first studio album, "Close Friends With Sharp Knives," released in February 2007.

On winning Pittsburgh Rocks, Stiller said, "All of the bands were really good in this contest, and it's amazing that our fans came to the forefront for us."

The band plays at 6:30 p.m. on the Main Stage.

The band's bio starts ... at the beginning:

"Jake Hanner met Casey a few hours after she was born. He was disappointed she was a girl and cried. Eighteen years later, he got over it, and they started a band. A few years after that, they suckered another kid named Jake into playing bass. After shooting down Casey's idea to name the band Casey and the Jakes, they became Donora. Together they play melodic, dance-worthy, garage rock."

Donora has had songs in the MTV mini-series "I Remember Chloe" and "Gimmie Sugar." Donora's song "Shhh" was featured in the PostSecret Valentine's Day video and the week the video debuted, it reached more than 770,000 hits on YouTube and 400,000 hits on MySpace.

2-5 p.m. Sunday, Market Square Stage.

The female-fronted indie-punk band was formed in May 2007 "to defeat the rival school in a classic battle of the bands."

As for the gory details, "A typical band practice starts with putting extra hair onto the house cats, playing some 'Guitar Hero,' and then fighting with various types of balls. Then sometimes they play music. They dream of someday being the greatest surf rock band ever."

2-5 p.m. Sunday, Market Square Stage.

Mercury singer Justin Morris will represent the band, which placed fourth in Pittsburgh Rocks. Mercury, eight-year veterans of the Pittsburgh scene, won the 2001 Graffiti Rock Challenge and have shared stages with such national acts as Live, Puddle of Mudd and Seether. The band has released a self-titled album, the EP "Automatic Savior" and is currently in pre-production of a third studio recording.

2-5 p.m. Sunday, Market Square Stage.