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June 18-20
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Azkena Rock Festival: just rock and roll, but we like it

On Thursday, in Vitoria-Gasteiz, the annual rendezvous of the Basque rockers will begin, in classic fashion, with Alice Cooper, The Adicts, Circle jerks, Evaristo, Superchunk, Therapy? and Social Distortion, but also with current bands like Carpenter Brut, Hallas, despite the echoes of the 1970s, Alcalá Norte and Sleaford Mods.
Alice Cooper ARF 2026
Alice Cooper to perform at the Azkena Rock Festival on Friday

Now that certainties are costly, in the hazy times, the Azkena Rock Festival is a safe gamble: distortion, intense rhythms, punk, hard rock, American roots music, and the eternal hymns of living folk music will be picked up by anyone who goes beyond the gates of the Mendizabala field; more, surely, by chance, his curiosity for a band that was out ofthe radar, but certainly because of rock and roll.

Three days of programming will begin on Thursday, and the Swedish live-action band The Hives will head the poster for the first day; a band that brings together beer, rock and memorable melodies from singer Pelle Almqvist will not give much surprise, but it will be difficult for even the slowest festival to keep up with their rhythm and the strength of songs like "Hate To Say I Told You So."

 

Irish singer Imelda May, for her part, will perform rockabilly, blues and soul wind rock and roll, with her usual force, alongside guitarist Darrel Higham; the most classical ones, as promised in the first paragraph, will certainly have something to enjoy: the farewell tour of punk myths The Adicts arrives in Vitoria, and the stone metal of Corrosion of Conformity will court Mendizabala.

Friday's main name will be Alice Cooper's; in the performance of one of the kings of American hard rock, there will be no shortage of yes, of performances, of spectacularity, and of throats singing, for example, the classic "Poison" and others.

Along with Cooper, Sugar, Circle jerks and Evaristo, punk symbols, and the elegant American folk band Old Crow Medicine Show, will perform on Friday at the Azkena Rock Festival, but don't forget the dirtier rock proposal in the Trashville tent or enjoy the Swedish Hällas' 1970s revised progressive rock.

On Saturday, Mike Nessen will have to use an Excel sheet for anyone who wants to see everything to see. And in that picture, of course, thename of Social Distortion will be highlighted in bold and yellow. Mike Nessen also played in Mendizabala in 2022, but this time, if the nearly 50 years of journey from punk rock to more resting American rock are not enough.

The new album breaks fifteen years of record silence, and some of its songs will surely sound ("No way out" or "Born to kill" are not bad choices), along with "Reach for the sky", "Don't drag me down" and "Story of my life".  

In addition to this essential concert, however, on the last day of the ARF festival there will be the Dark Neck, the Rodeo stoner, both Basques, the Superchunk power pop, the English electronic post Sleaford Mods, the emotional Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit, the historic band at the crossroads of punk and thrashing Discharge, the delightful synthpop of Carpenter Brut, the Irish Therapy playing the album Troublegum in its entre and the Madrileños Alcalá Norte.

Just rock and roll, but no less.

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