Massive music events in Lovech, Bulgaria do not surprise anybody nowadays. They only become bigger, more special and tend to attract even more people. This year's Lovech Party Fest started on May 6 and went for no less than six days with names on the bill like Dr. Alban, Ja Rule and Maxy Jazz of Faithless. It was the last couple of days (Saturday and Sunday) though, when the town became a real center of the rock’ n’ roll culture. Legendary acts Twisted Sister and W.A.S.P. were about to take the stage by storm.

Saturday in Lovech (which otherwise was a normal working day for the most people) was dimmed by the smoke from grills, considerably cold because of the rainy weather and fully packed with leather clad motley crowd. People were drinking and laughing the whole afternoon, while waiting for the concert. Long-lost friends and mates were sharing memories and having festival food. And this is as important as the music, as you all know. Somebody tells me that last night Twisted Sister (without their exotic front man though) have had a great party at a local pub.

When Renegat take the stage, there’s a lot of people in front of it already, but most of the fans are still too lazy to quit their drinking habits in the pubs. The Bulgarian band has a great and absolutely fit set. Also they know exactly how much to play. It seemed part of the fans enjoyed the unannounced before Russians Sixth Sense too. Their frequent visits in Bulgaria finally seem to give real results.

I’m quite sure that pauses between the acts could have been managed much better. Instead of listening to 5 advertisements for 120 times, we could have a bit of AC/DC for example, which is always great. I just have this idea. There wasn’t really any need to turn the audience into imbeciles.

After a couple of sound checks, some more delay and my personal problems with my full bladder, finally the show began. Beacause it was a show, nothing else. If you close your eyes, it’s just the good old rock’n’roll. But once you open them, you are pretty sure, that there are not many bands left in the world like Twisted Sister. Concerts can not be told like stories. You can say about your impressions.  And my personal impression is that Dee Snider can never get old. I personally don’t think that somebody who can run, talk and sing like that, can get old. The opening song “You Can’t Stop Rock’ n’ Roll and “The Kids Are Back” and “Stay Hungry” right after that made it crystal clear that Twisted  are going to make a “best of”concert. That perfectly fit what the band members said last night that they have no intent to record a new album, because “it’s expensive and no one really wants to listen to a new album as long as they can get the classics’. It was a smashing gig! Of course we had “We’re Not Gonna Take It”. We also had “The Price”- a beautiful ballad over which you could exercise you lighter. And of course there were a couple of grandiose encores “Come Out and Play” and the infamous “S.M.F.”.

Unfortunately, like on all open-air events, there were people who did not really knew why they had come. Hour and a half after the end of the concert we went to the hotel to say good bye to Twisted Sister and they had already packed their luggage. By the way Blackie Lawless had arrived at the hotel in the meanwhile.

The weather is quite ugly on Sunday. While on Saturday it was pissing only from time to time, now it was pissing the whole time. On the press conference Blackie Lawless says it doesn’t bother him and even promises “a Californian sunshine tonight”. Believe it or not, it really happened like that.

Honestly, I would skip the next several hours and especially the appearance of Solaris and their prog metal which surely wasn’t the best choice for tonight.

After a half an hour of the same-advertisement-dish from yesterday, suddenly we heard “The End” of The Doors. That was actually W.A.S.P.’s introduction. I can say it again; I can not re-rell concerts. It’s not a book, neither it’s a movie. It’s emotion and sound. And Blackie is just great! After so many ups and downs, he has gathered a band that ticks like a Swiss watch. There wasn’t even a fake note or an irrelevant move. There weren’t any guitar solo interpretations in the classic songs like “L.O.V.E. Machine”, “Wild Child” and “Sleeping in the Fire”. Personally I was surprised “Widowmaker” from “The Last Command”. It’s a song that doesn’t appear very often in the band’s set.

Beyond doubt, we witnessed a professional and a very emotional concert of a band that has proved a long time ago their survivalist nature, rooted in the one-man-show-formula, for which Blackie was much criticized in the beginning of the 90’s. There were 4 songs from the most egocentric W.A.S.P. album “The Crimson Idol” and even two numbers from the last year masterpiece “Dominator”. Even if he wasn’t very talkative to the audience, Blackie didn’t miss to mention something he already told us at the press conference. He said that the audience in Bulgaria is the best audience in the entire world. Blackie still remembers the first ever concert in Sofia in 2004 and considers it one of the best shows he’s ever done. And, of course, there’s no way for this band to go before playing “I Wanna Be Somebody” and the thunderous rock’ n’ roll storm “Blind in Texas”. Then came the massive fire works. It was probably very beautiful to watch down the endless cue of cars that leave Lovech in the dark misty May night. ‘Coz we are wild children…

Words: Stefan Yordanov

Photos: A TeamВ & LovechPartyFest.com