Messed!Up
I’ve always had a soft spot for artists who treat rock ’n’ roll as more than just a collection of riffs and choruses. Rock music is about attitude, swagger, a little theatrical madness, and using these abilities to fire up the room and make the audience go crazy. Just look at rock icons like Freddie Mercury, Jimi Hendrix, and the king himself, Elvis Presley – that’s what they did: made the room burst at its seams. Des Rocs has all of that in spades.
I discovered Des Rocs, or Danny Rocco as his real name is, at the Reeperbahn Festival in 2024 when he was squeezed into a fancy drink bar and not the sleazy rock club his music belongs to – and he knocked me off my feet with an epic show (although I only caught glimpses from my position behind a pole in the back of the venue). His amazing guitar work – hence the Jimi Hendrix reference – and his knack for turning venues of any size into arenas of pure rock spectacle made me curious to see how that larger-than-life persona would translate to Knust in Hamburg tonight. Finally, a chance to catch more rock action than a few glimpses.
Des Rocs arrived at Knust for the first of just two shows in Germany (Berlin tomorrow). Sadly, Knust wasn’t particularly full – at the beginning of the night. But after brilliant support act Finn Forster finished a great set, the venue started to fill up quickly, and it turned out to be quite an audience for being a rainy Tuesday in Hamburg. More encouragingly, the audience was a good mix of young students, people in their thirties who probably discovered him at the Reeperbahn Festival, and retired rock ‘n’ rollers who wanted to see a modern guitar magician on stage.
Rocco walks on stage after the rest of the band, and arrives like a king, fist-bumping people at the front – and then chaos ensues. The moment the first notes of “This Land” rang out, the room was set for a night of raw rock ’n’ roll swagger and fans screaming at the top of their voices (I will get back to this specifically). He wasted little time introducing himself, just letting his guitar steal the attention while moving around the stage like a modern rock version of Freddie Mercury. To be honest, he has the panache of Mercury and the finger dexterity of Jimi Hendrix – more than one shredding guitar solo had the front row mesmerized throughout the show. Yes, I know. I may take this too far, but Des Rocs is the closest you’ll ever get to those great role models, and if he gets more time to release more records (and financial support – all bands need that), I’m sure he will be up there among the great ones. He’s an undeniably charismatic performer with the musical chops to back it up.
“The Juice” cranked up the swagger, its riff-heavy attack giving Rocco plenty of room to show off his instrumental chops. There were flashes of the wild, instinctive spirit of Jimi Hendrix (yes, I can’stop comparing) in the way he approached the guitar. Hendrix had a remarkable ability to turn the guitar into an extension of his personality, and Rocco taps into that same tradition of showmanship, combining attitude and technique in his performance. Also add some epic hip moves a la Elvis Presley, and you’ll understand why he has been compared to these three legends several times. And believe me, it’s not to take it too far.
Hamburg’s Tuesday audience thrust themselves into the chaos from the start. Especially one young lady in the front who burst out in the highest screams I have ever heard. I thought it was one lucky shot the first time, but she continued throughout the whole show, and our photographer, who had the ‘fortune’ to hole up next to her while shooting photos, was happy that he had his best earplugs with him – ‘it wasn’t the music that was the loudest in the venue’. Bonus points to you, young lady, for setting the tone (no pun intended) for the rest of the audience, because people went nuts.
For someone like me who turned into a fan when he released Dream Machine in 2024 (epic album!) and who has this year’s release To Hell And Back on my Top10-list, it’s like watching a greatest hits show. Most of the set is from these two albums, and the last time I was at a show with a band that played all of my favorite songs was back in 1998 when Depeche Mode made their The Singles Tour. I can’t remember when I had this much fun the last time.
On top of all this, the showmanship is on another level. He wants interaction, participation, and a crowd willing to play along, and he knows exactly how to get it. Rocco throws lines out into the room, urging the audience to repeat his words, echo his shouts, and sing back whatever he delivers. It becomes a call-and-response game that adds a dose of humor to the set. There is definitely a touch of old-school arena-rock theatrics in how he interacts with the crowd (think Freddie Mercury at Live Aid in London 1985), and he knows when to stretch a moment, when to turn up the intensity and when to let the audience take over, feeding off their reactions and giving that energy straight back. It’s just one of those perfect performances you get to be part of once every third year.
Of course there’s an encore which never really ends. The last song, “Let Me Live / Let Me Die”, summarizes the whole show in one song – the band is presented, the song runs with several breaks, and no one really knows when it will end.
To anyone out there who hasn’t been to a Des Rocs show – you will get more than you pay for. He puts on a show like no other performer in his genre, and sold-out crowds are no less than what he’s deserved from putting in the work all these years. This is an artist who builds something bigger and should play arenas at some point in the near future.
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Photographer: Niko Schmuck
