We’d missed those rock n’ roll nights! We’d missed those events when all the hard rockers of town gathered together to party without any worries of covid, wars, energy crises etc. and we were just living for the moment. We needed a comeback; some sort of a reunion and Grand Slam 5 was the ideal event to kickstart our hearts (pun intended, of course)! But let’s start from the start…
The mood was perfectly set and…settled upon arriving at the Death Disco venue and DJ extraordinaire Johnny Morris was blasting out hard rock anthems right before the set of the opening act, Juicy Peach. And boy what an opening set that was! The guys delivered a set of quite fitting cover tunes that completed almost the entire hard rock puzzle of the 80s! Firehouse, Bonfire, Andy Taylor, Alice Cooper, Ratt, Dokken were only a few of the bands whose songs were featured on the Juicy Peach’s set and I gotta say with all honesty that their renditions were truthful and spot on. All in all, I couldn’t imagine a better headstart for the night.
Up next was the next big thing in rock n’ roll or more accurately Greece’s most promising and aspiring act since…well, since the late 80s! Rockpages has been right beside them since Day 1 and we had praised them so much that make any comparison with similar bands obsolete as we know that Bad Habits is the real deal. Personally, I am happy to report that every single time that I see those guys they are getting better and better, pushing the envelope even further with a heavy arsenal of hard hitting songs. But most importantly they always deliver a highly energetic and well-crafted show in the name of rock n’ roll. This time around they based their set on their upcoming debut record adding at the same time some of their most well-known songs like “Let It Roll” and “Not My Call” plus a cool rendition of “Cherry Bomb” (The Runaways). The night came to an end with a special guest appearance with the legendary Johnnie Holiday of the Start Star and Scream Idol fame. Beyond coolness! Bad Habits is the epitome of rock n’ roll and the question is: will you let the future of rock n’ roll pass you by or will you live it with them…now?
Last but certainly not least was Dr. Crue; a tribute band to…you guessed it…Motley Crue. With a set divided in two parts, the boys had the difficult task of following Bad Habits’ sensational show and they did a great job in paying homage to L.A.’s best hard rock band ever! The first part of the show were full of all those timeless anthems of the first five records of the Crue catalogue. The boys were well-rehearsed and their stage presence was mind-blowing. Special mention should be made to the band’s young drummer who has clearly lifted all his tricks from Tommy Lee’s book of “how to play drums and be cool at the same time”!
The second part was really moving and brought back lots of memories as we witnessed almost the entire sleaze hard rock scene of Athens getting up on stage and bringing the house down! I couldn’t be happier to see Johnny Hott (Wild Machine) covering L.A. Guns and Cinderella, the guys from Junkyard 69 and Adrenalize, Johnny Morris and Narkissa Fox (Thunderdolls) but also G.A. Sinn and Nasty from Cyanide 4 appearing again together on stage for a cool version of “Temptation Failed”. Brilliant!
This was definitely a night to remember and let’s hope that we will see more such events in the near future. Long Live Rock N’ Roll!
Sakis Nikas
