Melbourne rock fans who bang on about preferring live bands over the DJs who “destroyed live music” will definitely want to check out House of Rock’s Rocknrolla show on Friday the 25th of February at the Palace Theatre. Not to make you think that the place is full of Pommy gangsters who think they’re “Rocknrolla” (i.e. top shit) like those in the Guy Ritchie film of the same name, the House of Rock has got a huge line up of 14 different bands and the House of Rock’s own DJs that will be playing for six whole hours on three different stages. I think it is safe to say that Rocknrolla has left rock fans spoiled for choice!
The three headlining acts are The Scarlets, Kingswood and Barbarion, all very different rock acts that makes it strange that they are each headlining, which will surely attract very different types of rock fans to the show.
The Scarlets are perhaps the most notable of the headlining bands performing, as they supported Bon Jovi during their 2010 Australian tour. A four-piece band with a female singer in skimpy black and red clothes, they were ill-received to say the least by the thousands of Bon Jovi fans waiting for the main act they paid to see (I remember when The Scarlets singer said to the crowd “This is our last song”, the crowd wildly cheered; I really felt bad for them!). However, perhaps they just weren’t appropriate for the Bon Jovi crowd (I think people would’ve taking a better liking to them had they supported someone like Evanescence), or they just weren’t ready for a stadium crowd at that point, having just come out of obscurity thanks to the Triple M contest they won that got them such a huge gig, and have probably better harnessed their talents since then.
Kingswood are a whole other breed of rocker, of the indie rock breed to be exact. Perhaps mostly known for having supported British India, hipsters and those who enjoy the more traditional image of pub rock will be cheering on Kingswood. Their website says the band’s name refers to a mythical place, a forest utopia where free thought and pure music flow amongst the trees. I personally thought of the classic Australian car, but whatever.
There’s also the hardcore metal band Barbarion, full of big hairy Viking-like men who will yell in that deep grunt yelling that makes you feel they would squash you like a bug if you got on their bad side and go all Hulk on you and go “Barbarion mad! Barbarion smash!” Watch their music video for ‘My Rock’ below, it’s bloody hilarious (for the right reasons). The band obvious have a very theatrical take on rock the likes of KISS, and the music video is like a modern Aussie version of the cheesy music videos Twisted Sister did in the ’80s where evil authority figures ban a young boy (in an Angus Young-like school uniform no less) from playing rock music and the band comes to teach the uptight dickheads a lesson about the sheer power of rock n roll.
$15 at the doors that open at 5:30pm, Rocknrolla will give Melbournians the chance to check out some new, up-and-coming rock groups they haven’t heard a million times on the radio.
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