*Photography: Sharon ShapiraThe evening kicked off with local punk-rock act BRYAN THE MAGE storming the stage and their trustee horde of fans and friends roaming the club. Unfortunately, for the most part of the evening the club was barely half packed and it seemed Haifa's Rock-enthusiasts found a better entertainment for the evening.
Anyhow, BTM is one of those bands that immediately sends listeners flashing back to when they were sappy teenagers hoping that the AMERICAN PIE atmosphere and goods would become the engines of their youth. It's fun, loud, blasting Punk tunes that'll keep your head banging and your body twisting. The musicianship was extremely well and it's obvious the guys spend extra hours in the garage practicing. Vocals were good; shouting and preaching anthem-like prayers for a crowd that just kept on moshing.
On came the headliner, OZZY ZOLTAK and her band. At times they sound like 90's best alternative rock acts, straight from the cannons of the era. And they'll often remind you a heavier style of pop-rock bands, much like a fusion of DIE HAPPY meeting GARBAGE.
OZZY herself is a majestic vocalist and her voice is very deep and haunting, with the ability to reach higher notes kept only for those rare crescendo moments at the peak of certain songs. The band's quite fantastic and extra praises should go to the guitarist, delivering more-than solid backbone-like structures and rhythm sections while most of their song compositions rely heavily on that. The bass was thumping and banging along with the drums to overall coalesce to a very groovy sound that's quite dark but still very energetic.
OZZY ZOLTAK's lyrics are in Hebrew! It's refreshing the band doesn't trying to wink its way into the great West at such an early point and they seem sincere enough to play their natural grounds and local spirit. The basic verse-chorus-verse-chorus-chorus structure seems to be dominant in their style and writing but they avoid sounding like a cliché for the most part. Mainly thanks to the mature writing and overall entertaining music.
That alone does much justice to the general Israeli rock scene that's usually too busy sounding pretty much the same all around.
They ended with a mesmerizing cover of
MADONNAS' "Frozen" and absolutely rocked the place; before going into a short but provoking encore. They left when the crowd was cheering and screaming and with an obvious hunger for more. Overall, a great show.
Full song: OZZY ZOLTAK- LOADED GUN
