TANGRA MEGA ROCK Fourth Anniversary Bash
THE EXPLOITED, LAST HOPE, BICHETO,В A-MORAL
08.04.2010, 'Blue Box' club, Sofia - Bulgaria

words by Jason Petrov, photo:В Elena Nenkova

When it's a birthday, it's a birthday! And when it's Tangra Mega Rock's birthday, it's even more so - mohawks, steel toe cap shoes, people of all shape, size, and color, festival beverages (so fuck*** what if it's Thursday), all in all - a crowd prepared for all night of R&B and hits!

Jingle Bottles all the way, and since the doors have been opened early, entering is fast and easy. Though the sight of 100+ kilos guards with rubber gloves is kind of boggling - please, do conceal weapons in visible places :P



We go to the bar and begin relentlessly to kill braincells and while doing that our very own A-Moral hit the stage. The guys from Varna are the real deal - fast-pace riffs and countless kicks and knees to the nuts of all the bastards that were in charge, and some still are, of the country during the past 20 years. It's strange how all that time the social aspect in the music here has been so little.

Well, better late than never and better loud than not, so I am glad to say that the set resulted in a lot of R&B and hits and an audience ready for the next portion.



After a sort break the Patriarch of the Bulgarian R&B-and-hits walks on the stage, accompanied by his orchestra from the motley village of Kravoderr (Cowskinning).

To describe the indescribable is hard and pointless, but who said that life is easy and has a point? So, here we go - take and aerobics instructor chick from a some magical and effective exercise product, and put a star-wars-like helmet on her head; next add a all blond with pigtails and go easy on the clothes; pinch of a dancer dressed like a dervish in restraint shirt, serve with a bunch of terrorists from Counter Strike, and put a lazy middle-class intellectual in dirty tank in front.

Bicheto started with N1 and didn't slow down the whole set. There was pogo, there was moshing, there was a short fight, but the security reacted quickly to that. The whole 9 yards and the extra mile.

Beer reload and gear shift - Last Hope. I am on the balcony because there are kind of R&B and hits that I'm just not build for. And the moshing broke out with the first hit of the drum and didn't stop untill the end. Chicko, regardless of his obscenely healthy way of life, is indeed a cool guy and a great frontman who conducted the mass of bodies with nothing more than a finger.

Quite a sight, especially from above. Circle pits + stage diving and "Fuck Police" is for dessert and to make sure that there will be no head left unbroken.

Pause, beer, and the good news that The Exploited's instruments have finally arrived and there will be no need to borrow air guitars from audience members. Speaking of audience, one would think that the people will be tired already - not a chance!

"Exploited punish hard!" a fan says to no-one in particular in the short pause between the machine gun riffs of R&B and hits.

The hall below looks like a boiling bowl of spaghetti - black spaghetti with steel toe cap boots. Strike after strike and no mercy, not for the bastards, not for the system, sex and violence - punk's not dead, we all know.

It's maybe just for tonight, but the bastards are beaten and the system is fucked. The rest is slight hangover and scratches of unknown origin.



When it's a birthday, it's a birthday!
В 
*The extensive use of the phrase "R&B and hits" is not accidental, but you want to know why, you have to bribe me.

THE EXPLOITED GALLERY

LAST HOPE GALLERYВ 

BICHETO GALLERY

A-MORAL GALLERY