Michael Monroe
Sweden Stage
When Hanoi Rocks split up last year, Michael Monroe wasted no time getting a new band together and neither did he waste any time getting out on a tour as soon as the band were complete. That meant that when he and his band hit the stage at SRF, they were already a tight unit ready to kick some serious ass. Even though his band includes some well-known names such as Steve Conte (New York Dolls) and Ginger (The Wildhearts) on guitars, Sami Yaffa (New York Dolls, ex Hanoi Rocks) on bass and ex Danzig drummer Karl Rockfist, you hardly noticed their presence. Monroe is a born frontman that doesn’t stand still for a second, running around, climbing stage way up to the lights and always challenging his audience to go apeshit. The guy has some kind of letter disorder, no doubt. The material played tonight, apart for some new numbers were of course old Hanoi stuff like “Boulevard Of Broken Dreams”, “Tragedy” and “Back To Mystery City”, but also songs from his ill-fated Demolition 23, the band he had with Steve Stevens and some solo stuff like “Dead, Jail Or Rock ‘n’ Roll”. The band put up a good show, but the crap weather made it hard to appreciate it to the full. I would love to see this band in action in a small club instead of standing in the rain (which after half the show became watching it from the bar) doing it.
Jon Wilmenius (7/10)
The Quireboys
Dio Stage
Here’s the deal. If you like rock ‘n’ roll and have never seen The Quireboys live, I guess you either never heard of these guys or you don’t like rock ‘n’ roll enough. Because a rock show doesn’t get much better than this. Last time the guys played SRF they played the tent. A tent that were so full that you couldn’t get another person in there with a shoehorn. The fact that they were booked on a bigger stage this year was a no brainer, but it was very surprising that they were booked to play the first night of the festival. They should have been playing one of the other days when more people had arrived to the festival. Ok, so they also played the day after, but that was an acoustic set. In the tent. That were so full that… well, you get the idea. The songs played this night were, as usual, a lot from their debut and big seller A Bit Of What You Fancy and their latest, brilliant studio album Homewreckers And Heartbreakers. Stuff like “Roses & Rings”, “Misled”, “There She Goes Again”, “Seven O’Clock”, “Hey You” and “Sex Party” made us act like raving lunatics, but even newer stuff like “I Love This Town” and “Mona Lisa Smiled” went down like a storm. Hey, they even managed to get us jump around to the groove of their huge ballad hit “I Don’t Love You Anymore”. And just to watch Spike’s ear to ear smile after the ovations after each song gave you a warm felling inside. The guy was so touched by the punters reaction I thought the guy were about to start crying. My first thought after the gig was; “How is anyone gonna top this?”. Well, the answer is, not many did. Easily one of the best concerts of the festival.
Jon Wilmenius (9/10)
CD & Festival reviews 