First band to take the stage were KISStory. Now I have seen the band on a couple of occasions before today and their finest hour up until this very moment was when they opened the Strike Festival in Roeselare in September of last year. But I can safely say that they easily surpassed that particular performance (in spite of a few technical hick-ups) with a simply rock solid set consisting of Kiss classics such as “Deuce”, “Love Gun”, “Firehouse” and “Makin’ Love”.
A show by this bunch comes complete with a considerable amount of eye candy in the shape of a huge bulb eating Kiss logo, a blood spitting and fire breathing act, numerous explosions, sirens, confetti and lots of fire.
Much to the surprise of the band a few hundred people had bothered to show up at this early hour (the band took the stage around 11.30 AM) and it didn’t take the guys long to have a big part of the punters singing and clapping along. Biggest crowd response came when Ringmaster Alain asked the crowd if they were ready for something special and Roland “Ace” cranked out the riff to the masked marauders biggest hit to date “I Was Made For Lovin’. But also “ I Love It Loud” and set closer “Rock ’N Roll All Nite” were met with much enthusiasm.
Now while some people thoroughly enjoyed this little performance by one of Europe’s finest Kiss tribute bands, there were others that ditched the band by calling their act “childish” and built around the endless repetition of a couple of studied stage moves. I can’t say I agree with that but then again I’ve always had a soft spot for New York’s finest. Bottom line is that Kisstory were the perfect opener on this great day of rock ’n roll. (PS)


Up next was a band that solely counted on the strength of their music to get the message across: Europe’s number 1 groove rockers Cowboys & Aliens. Does that mean that these guys didn’t put on a great show? Hell, no! Cause the minute bass monster Kris walked onstage he made it clear that he was here to rock: dressed in a Mötley Crüe T-shirt featuring the cover of the band’s classic “Shout At The Devil” album and the accompanying Nikki Sixx make-up applied under both eyes, he simply demanded your attention. Add to that the powerful vocals of singer Henk Vanhee (who walked the stage like a cock in heat), the six string fireworks of founding member John Pollentier and newest member Peter Iterbeke and the solid drum work out of Marcus (who filled in for Hooverphonic/Triggerfigger drummer Mario Goossens) and you have a recipe for success.
The band had recently started introducing their latest effort “Language Of Superstars” to anyone who bothered to listen and today was no different. Just like at last week’s CD presentation their set list consisted of nothing but tracks from said album. There were however a few differences with last week’s event. This time around the guys were blessed with a great sound that allowed them to fully display the quality of their newly recorded stuff and they were obviously enjoying themselves a lot more. They kicked of their performance with “Moving Target” and closed it some 40 minutes later with “Time Caesar”. The band is still labelled by most as stoner rockers but their current material has a definite metallic edge to it. Perhaps the coming of former Channel Zero and Feed guitarist Peter has something to do with that. Fact remains however that these guys are a great live act and have both the musical and song writing talent to become Belgium’s hottest rock export product. (PS)

In 2001ex-Channel Zero frontman Franky Desmet-Vandamme decided to re-enter the music business with a new band named Skitsoy. However due to problems with record labels it would take four years before their debut finally saw the light of day earlier this year. I didn’t have the chance though to check it out prior to this event and so this gig was my first encounter with their music. And building a fair opinion on their musical exploits in this non-friendly acoustic hall wasn't ecaxtly an easy task. What I heard were a lot of heavy grooves with on top the raw vocals of Franky which gave their music an even more aggressive touch. The songs started with a lot of potential but just when you expected to get to the climax they failed to deliver, lacking in direction and melody. Now being a fan of classic rock where melody is an important factor, my opinion is perhaps biased but fact is that the music of Skitsoy didn’t move me. (FB)

Then Machiavel took the stage and immediately one thing became clear: the band fronted by Mario Guccio had the difficult task to bring their prog rock (EU-rock as they like to call it) to an audience that hardly knew or just forgot all about them. Also, in contrast to the French speaking south of Belgium-where these guys are still pretty famous and well-respected-most everybody was waiting for the rendition of their only hit single North of the language barrier: “Fly”, which got an airing pretty late in the set. The rest of their very adventurous music didn’t go down very well with a mostly very basic rock minded audience. Nice try, but a little out of place (& time).(KVK)

Being a big melodic rock I was asked to cover Soul SirkUS‘s performance at this year’s edition of the annual Schwung festival. Not surprisingly many of the people at hand were there to finally catch some live action by Journey guitarist Neal Schon. That being said though it can’t be denied that the as usual very energetic Jeff Scott Soto and the highly talented bass player Marc Mendoza are also stars in their own right. Drummer Virgil Donati may be the lesser known band member but he definitely possesses the same amount of talent as his fellow partners in musical crimes.
But as mentioned earlier most eyes were cast on mister Schon and he lived up to his reputation as a guitar hero, especially during the solos. His rhythm guitar parts however weren’t always that audible and they often got lost in the rest of the mix. Jeff Scoto covered every inch of the giant stage while delivering yet another top notch vocal performance. This guy is without a doubt one the genre’s top vocalists.
The band’s set list was made up of almost every track of their debut album “World Play”, a cover of Seal’s “Crazy”, “Stand Up And Shout” from the “Rock Star” soundtrack and some songs from mister Soto’s richly filled back catalogue.
Just like me many people were waiting for the band to serve up a little Journey tune but unfortunately that was not the case.
All in all a great, but nevertheless rather short, gig but with a line-up as talented as this one I had honestly expected something a bit more special. (AV)

Next in line was Manfred Mann's Earth Band, and for me & half the audience THE surprise of the day. With all due respect to Mr.Mann & his band, but practically everybody had by no coincidence planned a lunch break during the time him and his boys were to be on stage. Until they started playing, that is. This was totally unexpected one of the best shows I have seen the whole day. And after one look at the bill containing Saxon, Soul SirkUS, Scorpions, Europe, … that means something, don’t you think? With not one power chord, impressive backdrop or stage antic in sight this experienced band took the stage and the audience in the gentle palm of their hand and lead everybody from one great classic to another. “Blinded By The Light” & “The Mighty Quinn” (with pieces of “Smoke On the Water”), to name just a few, were played in a manner seldom seen on a stage these days. But what really blew me away was the soulful voice of Noel McCalla. A great man with an awesome voice. And that means something when you’re fronting a band that contains a drummer who played with everybody from Van Morrison to Sting, a guitar player that was in the touring band of Joan Armatrading’s last sell-out tour & of course Mr.Mann himself. ‘nuff said, I thoroughly enjoyed this band and so did Jeff Scott Soto who was standing next to me side-stage.(KVK)

Quite some years had past since I’d last seen Saxon in a live situation. At the start of the ’80’s Saxon were among the giants of rock and had no trouble in selling out large sized concert halls. Now, some 20 years later they may not be able to draw the same amount of people to their concerts but they still have what it takes to entertain their fans and have them singing along to a selection of their best known tracks. Among the songs aired were “Motorcycle Man”, “Princess Of The Night”, “Denim And Leather”, “The Eagle Has landed”, “Crusader” and last but no least and extra long version-which had a big part of the crowd singing at the top of their lungs-of “Wheels Of Steel”. The latter provided the band with some added stage time but that didn’t seem to bother anyone, especially not the many fans of the band. Only a couple of tracks were lifted from more recent albums but there really was no need for more recent work since biggest part of the crowd was there to exercise their set of tonsils on the band’s classic tracks and Saxon have plenty songs that fall in that exact category. (SDR)

For the third time in less than 12 months Belgian audiences were given the chance to spend a night in the company of Joey Tempest & C°. And make no mistake about it: these guys know how to rock!! Of all the melodic rock bands that graced the stage on this day, Europe were in my opinion the best. Joey Tempest is a worthy opponent of Jeff Scott Soto in both the vocal department and in stage presence. To be honest I thought the overall sound of the Swedish quintet was better than that of Jeff & C° and John Norum was an equal match for Neal Schon although there’s no denying that both have very different ways of attacking their weapon of choice.
To entertain their large number of fans, the band could fall back on many of their classic tracks and songs such as “Cherokee”, “Rock The Night” or even the from their debut lifted “Seven Doors Hotel” were met with huge cheers and much singing along from the crowd. One of the highlights of the show was without a doubt “Carrie”, played only by Joey on an acoustic guitar. Tracks from current release “Start From The Dark” such as “Got To Have Faith”, “Flames” and “Wake Up Call” fitted in perfectly amongst the older ones.
As usual they closed their set once more with a rousing version of “The Final Countdown” which had the crowd (especially those on the front row) going nuts.
Another excellent performance by IMO the best band of the day followed closely by Soul
SirkUS, not surprisingly the two bangs I had longed most to see. (AV)

The last time I saw the Scorpions was back in 1989 when they made a stopover at Forest National on their “Savage Amusement” tour. It was also my first encounter in a live situation with this German rock legend and I still recall it being a memorable evening.
Over the past 16 years things have changed a bit for the Scorpions though, not only in the line-up department but also musically the band has tried its hand at both an acoustic and a more modern sound.
With their latest offering “Unbreakable” however they made a return to their more traditional sound, much to the delight of their legion of fans and yours truly.
Opening with “New Generation” and “Love Or Leave ’Em” they delivered a double salvo of new stuff that sounded even more like their old songs live than on record. Two more new tracks were served up later in the set (”Blood Too Hot” and “Deep And Dark”) but everything else we were treated to came from the band’s extensive back catalogue of greatest hits. The Scorpions are best known by the general public for their ballads and so a show by these boys wouldn’t be complete without some of their finest laid back moments. Needless to say that the crowd response during “Still Loving You”, “Wind Of Change”, “Always Somewhere” and “Holliday” was huge but also harder edged tracks such as “Tease Me, Please Me”, “Big City Nights or “Bad Boys Running Wild” had the assembled throng on its feet.
For visual entertainment the band had brought along a predominantly white coloured stage set that depicted the band’s latest album cover on both sides and an impressive light show. Musically their weren’t any surprises (apart from drummer James Kottak taking up a big part of the spot light with his excellent drum work and energetic stage act, not to mention the fact that he handled almost all the backing vocals) but I don’t think any of the 8000 punters were their to be surprised. No, we all wanted a solid rock show filled with many of the band’s classic tracks and that’s exactly what we got. (PS)