Live | Tollrock 2024 – Nideggen [Ger]

13 July 2024

This year TollRock celebrated its 20th anniversary. This festival is located in the German Eifel region and to be very exact in the town of Nideggen. The festival site is located in a beautiful landscape and 100 m away you have a wonderful view of the reclaimed Ruhr Lake. Of course, most festival visitors do not come for that view. They are here for the bands, fun and 1 or 2 drinks. Or briefly described, for a party! Because that’s what TollRock absolutely is. I am pretty certain that on this 20th edition there were enough visitors who experienced just about all editions of the fest.

TollRock 2024 lasts three days, but I was only able to travel to this summit on the Saturday. On Thursday and Friday the program included H-Blockx, Clawfinger, U.D.O. and Bizkit Park amongst others. From the reactions from fellow press and visitors, those were already two memorable days. Despite the rain on Friday, which was pouring down from the sky. Something that apparently is part of the “summer” of 2024.

DEINE COUSINE

So I got ready on Saturday the 13^th to take in a day of this wonderful festival. Unfortunately, the journey  didn’t go very smooth and I didn’t arrive at the grounds until Deine Cousine was already banging away in full force. But that could not stop me from shooting some pictures of this energetic act. I first heard and saw Deine Cousine during the Wacken World Wide 2020 online event, which I covered for HBLS at the time. The band positively caught my eye even then, so I was curious to see if they still have this energy anno 2024.

The answer is yes. What a good energetic act. Front woman and figurehead of the band from Hamburg is Ina Bredehorn. Truly a whirlwind on stage and despite the fairly early 15:15 time, the field was packed to the rafters and you could see everyone hopping along and enjoying the German-language Rock, with a strong punky edge.

Musically , ,,Bang Bang (Mein Herz schlägt krass für dich)”, ,,Träume findet man im Dreck”, ,,St. Pauli” and ,,Attacke” came along. And since bassist of the band, Ziggy, also wanted to have a little carnival, they even started a polonaise, with him leading the way. This resulted in everyone on the field joining in. Wonderful when you manage that as a band. Clearly Deine Cousine was the first highlight of Saturday and the band fully lived up to my expectations.

ROGERS

After a short change over, it was then time for Rogers, unknown to me. Rogers are a punk rock band from Düsseldorf who reached No. 9 in the German charts with their album ‘Rambazamba & Randale’.  You’ll think that promises a lot. Well honestly I think this band could have played better before Deine Cousine, because they couldn’t match the party made. Not that they are a bad band. Far from it, but the spark just wasn’t there. On the positive site, every once in a while you need time to have a bite to eat and a drink and this was the perfect moment to do so.

BEYOND THE BLACK

The next band on the program was Beyond The Black. Somehow I had never managed to see this band around singer Jennifer Haben live until Saturday. Although they were very high on my ‘have to see’ list after the release of their awesome last album ‘Beyond The Black’. Meanwhile, this band has been building since 2014 and their lineup has been stable since 2016. During the intro of opening track ,,Dancing In The Dark” Jennifer enters the stage in front of the black front curtain, plays the drum and sings the first verse, after which the curtain drops and the song continues with the full band. Immediately it is clear that the band is tremendously in tune with each other and sounds like a well-oiled machine.

So the band is solid like a rock, the sound is good and sympho metal hearts are served with full devotion by Beyond The Black. Frau Haben is a frontwoman who knows the tricks of the trade and also how to impress with her stage presence. The show is simply top of the bill and is certainly not less to bands such as Within Temptation or Evanescence.

The songs are brought tight and full of conviction, like for example ,,Reincarnation”, ,,Songs of Love and Death” and ,,Anybody out There?”. So with Beyond The Black, TollRock 2024 has brought in its second highlight of the Saturday. Glad I finally got to witness that band live.

ROYAL REPUBLIC

And then it’s time for the band Royal Republic. Who? Yes indeed, I was not familiar with this band, but I am always up for a band that knows how to surprise me and these Swedes certainly did. Royal Republic has been around since 2007 and has managed to keep a stable lineup ever since. It shows when you see the band at work on stage. O far they made six albums of which ‘LoveCop’ [February 2024] is the latest.

And speaking of labels, this band really can’t be labelled. As singer/guitarist Adam Grahn himself said during the performance, ‘’we don’t even have a clue ourselves what kind of music we actually make’’.
Well, let me put it down to a mix of electronic 80s, disco, blues, hard rock and metal, with some boogie and country here and there. So, now you know.

BUT, the show they gave was bold!!! Entertaining, musically of a very high level and the result was that the TollRock audience went crazy.
Would you like to be in for a surprise? Listen to songs like ,,My House”, ,,LoveCop”, ,,Freakshow”, ,,Anna-Leigh” or ,,Wow! Wow! Wow!”.

During the little acoustic interlude where only singer Adam plays guitar and the rest of the band just does harmony vocals, it becomes very clear that Royal Republic are insanely good. What a performance.

Adam Grahn [v,g], Hannes Irengård [g], Jonas Almén [b] and Per Andreasson [d] managed to make 90 minutes fly by with their wonderful blend of music, musicality, art and skills. It was therefore a real pleasure for me to witness this party. Highlight #3!!!

CONCLUSION

After Royal Republic, it was time for this guy to go home, but the festivallers still got to close with Bonanska. Which probably also made for a cool party. In any case, TollRock is one of those festivals that you go to for the first time and fall in love with and then want to go again and again. Not just for the music, but especially for the great atmosphere that is everywhere on and around the festival grounds. This was my second time TollRock and definitely not the last. Thanks for the warm welcome and great hospitality.

TollRock ROCKS big time!!!

All photos by Raymond Helebrand