Mon General, this “recent” (publicity wise) small events location which LebMetal hosted the “Beer Rocks” event earlier this year, is a cozy pub/restaurant with a capacity of almost 40 people. Everyone sat around the tables, ordered their meals, pondered about the impressive collection of Beer (although eventually everyone know they’ll go for Almaza) and waited for the band to presumably start at 9:30 (do they ever start on time?). After the place filled up with musicians, some supportive family members and the ever-so-popular girls’ scout squad cheering to their definition of a rock star, like young groupies waiting for attention and time to pay them a visit, the band kicked off the night with the time-defeating Hotel California, which melted the hearts of the elderly along with the youngsters as well. Aside from small remarks we had concerning the vocalist’s skills, I found the band to be enjoyable to listen to, especially in this “have a meal and listen to a band pub” atmosphere where one wouldn’t be just standing there watching a show and potentially getting bored. The next few songs took us through the 70’s and 80’s with acceptable Pink Floyd covers (we couldn’t hear some solos, along with the vocalist missing the ever-so important scream in “Comfortably Numb”).
A number of breaks were spread throughout the show, with the cheering squad electrifying our ears with each one, and we found ourselves in the late 20th century again, with Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters” and Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life” which showed improvement in the band’s performance as we moved to more modern rock territories with Placebo, Limp Bizkit and 3 Doors Down covers which appealed to the crowd as they rested their bellies after the satisfying meals.
And after the band finished their set, there was a really unexpected and unplanned surprise! It turned out that Frozen Flames, the neighboring Iron Maiden cover band were watching the show and were allowed to entertain the crowd with some Maiden classics. Honestly, I just saw some people leaving at that point, others cheering Frozen Flames regardless of their unimpressive performance (the drummer needs tons of work you guys, and the vocalist should take a step back from the microphone and spare our ears from loud volume ear damage!). Sometimes you feel like rock / metal music has become a fake business when you hear average performers with an above average ego as they ignore their poor performance to settle for some applauding hands that don’t know any better.
