-EL GORE-

Last Saturday was an occasion for celebration in Tuntange: the 10th anniversary of the famous Rock De Stéier. This local concert has its origins in 2003 and was an annual gathering of local bands until 2006 when it went on an indefinite hiatus. The Club des Jeunes Tuntange decided to call the idea back to life this year however and put on quite a show, so it was clear that we had to make an appearance and see how it turned out.

When we arrived, The Lost Ways were already playing. This trio from Germany plays a never boring and groovy kind of rock, and managed to get us interested from the get-go. Regretfully the room was still quite empty and their main audience were the Dirty Crows. This didn’t make their performance less energetic however and it ended up being a nice gig, which would have deserved a later slot.

Sadly, we arrived a bit too late and missed the first band Weakonstruction, but after talking to their vocalist for a bit it seems that it went quite well, despite the lack of a crowd.

The next band was supposed to be All The Way Down but they had to cancel and were replaced by the mighty Los Duenos Del Ska, guess which type of music they play. The seven guys seemed a bit tired from their gig the day before which led to a slower performance than usual, at least at first. As the room started to fill up this changed however and the band regained their pace to deliver the expected goodness. One highlight during their show was the guest appearance by a random stranger (or at least we didn’t recognize him), who growled in the mic and the band played a short metal interlude. If it was unplanned, we tip our hats to them.

Quentin Lagonza, the well-known Luxembourgish rock quartet, hit the stage and opened the rush hour in Tuntange that evening. At this point the room really started to fill up but, unfortunately, nobody seemed very enthusiastic and most people just stood around having a chat. The band’s melodic stoner rock with a heavy classic rock base definately deserved more. Psychedelic parts followed  by heavier riffs, completed with a pinch of Led Zep topped off this performance, during which a glass of beer was certainly obligatory. After this was a good opportunity to grab a bite to eat however, but a small critique: the rather tasty hamburgers could have been a bit bigger though.

The fifth band were Thoughts Of The 4, a punk ensemble from the south, starting off with the words “rock’n roll!”, and that’s just what they did. A very solid performance based on alternative, pop rock and pop punk. Unfortunately the crowd didn’t really care about what was going on on stage, and a kind of fear emerged that the good old Rock de Stéier spirit had been lost over the years. Sum41 would have been proud of the four youngsters, at least.

As the evening progressed the Dirty Crows took the stage and managed to heat up the audience in a heartbeat, killing our fear about the old spirit’s destiny. People were dancing and screaming in the front rows and definitely seemed enthusiastic towards the four desert rockers, who rewarded them with a great rock’n’roll performance. Some technical difficulties with a guitar couldn’t interrupt the atmosphere either, although a bit of improvisation would have been fitting. But shit happens. As the Kalashnikov Blues led to pure madness, the action in the concert room was go!

The final band of the night was no one else but Scarred. What can we say except: perfect. The crowd was headbanging left and right, the devil horns were raised, the band killed it as always and the songs hammered everything down. The guest vocals during the song Idiosyncrasy by local superhero Boerdi were the icing on the cake.

The last two artists were Twisted Frequencies and Theodor but we decided to call it a night at that point and made room for the lovers of electronic parties.

All in all,  the organizers managed to successfully revive the spirit of the bull and we’re looking forward to next year’s edition…please change your beer though.

Report by Yannick and Denis