JH Avilo, Affligem
2010-11-27

After a long drive and an early arrival (meaning: stuck in the cold until the owners arrived), we got in for a night of rock n' roll madness.

Roxx Action are becoming our local heroes with gig after gig. They got to open for Rosevalley Rebels, who played one of the Sleazenation gigs in the past and promised to be very entertaining.

The Antwerp glamsters of Roxx Action started the night off with fireworks and DIY confetti canons, to add excitement to an otherwise chaotic set.

I saw them better and more tight before, but I'm sure that this night was a one-off and does not represent what they have to give generally. Lack of rehearsal, bad sound engineering overall and just that missing lucky touch to get it all off... Not a bad gig, but not their best one so far.

I still stand to my words that these guys have it in them to make it bigger and better, which is backed by the fact that "Motorcycle Man" still rings through my head, days after the gig.

Rosevalley Rebels followed, showing a whole lot of technical rock n' roll, not hiding the fact that each member's background lies in different genres. Especially the solos came from a thrash background rather than the blues-oriented stuff I was expecting.

Unfortunately, this is the reason why the show didn't cling to me like the Roxx Action gig did. I quickly grew tired of the shredding parts, and even though they had it all together musically, I did not hear anything catchy.

The Rebels have all it takes to kick it up a notch and become an even better band than they are now, but need to find out how to make a catchy rock song.

I do have to compliment their singer, this guy has a voice that can move a crowd along, powerful in its monotony. I'd love to hear more from them.

Summing the night up, we had a blast and saw two decent shows, each with a bunch of pros and cons, but entertaining still. A good initiative from the people in Affligem!