Fire Club: where we all grew up, 11.10.2024, Arenele Romane

Fire Club: where we all grew up was the start of a new festival, created as tribute to one of the first (and few) rock and metal clubs in the Bucharest of the early 2000 decade. It really was a place for most of us to grow up in, to bind friendships and to learn about good music. The first edition of the show was the rockers’ equivalent for Nostalgia, featuring some of the most popular alternative rock bands of that era.

Although there obviously was an order for the bands to play in, they each had the same alloted time, they invited each other on stage to perform together, hyped each other and there generally was a wonderful sense of camaraderie and, of course, nostalgia. For me it started as just another show, but seeing the guys I grew up with go old(er) and be all flustered on stage, remembering how they started out timidly 25 years ago in a basement that was about the size of the moshpit we had just created (Catalin’s words, not mine), made me a bit flustered myself. And it was a very cool night.

It all started with Omul cu sobolani, who did a great job animating the crowd with their now famous Mainile sus, Razna or Cine e de vina. They were a lot of fun and as we stayed right in the front row, we quickly connected with them and got into the atmosphere.

Luna Amara were by far my favourite act. I just adore these guys, they are one of the Romanian bands I love the most and the combination between Nick’s soaring vocals and Mihnea’s iconic trumpet and roaring vocals was just perfect. Nick was beyond nervous, fidgeting around when giving his “look where we are now” speech, but his voice was hypnotic as always. Between the angry Ego nr 4 and the gut-wrenching Pietre in alb, I was up there in my happy place and I wasn’t the only one. The crowd gave me chills as they sang along on Pietre in alb.

Implant pentru refuz were their regular full of attitude selves, sharing the stage with a number of guests, including Dora Gaitanovici, Catalin from Coma and Nick from Luna Amara. I think they suffered the most in terms of sound issues and it was a bit difficult to understand them at times, but they compensated with their energy and again, the crowd loved them.

E.M.I.L. are not my favourites, to put it mildly. I hate punk with a passion, I’m really not a fan of silly repetitive tunes (da da da da, copacii infloriti….) and that bear doing things on stage was just… odd. Sorin mentioned at one point that they never did drugs, and all I could think of was “thank God, if this is what you come up without drugs, I can only imagine what being roasted would to do you”. But as the setlist progressed and they went into their reggae-ish tracks, I started enjoying them a bit more and it ended up being relatively decent. And they had Mihnea Blidariu on stage with them at some point, Mihnea always makes me happy.

The evening was closed by rain and Coma. I was shocked to realise that the guy that sang with IPR was Catalin from Coma. My friend had asked me who he was and I had no idea. I didn’t recognise him even when he went up on stage with his own band, it was only when I heard his voice that I realised that omg, it’s the same guy. It was one of those “oh, we’re actually going old” moments (not that Catalin is old, he looks great. He’s just extremely changed). Anyway, enough rambling, back to the band. Coma were awesome, they inspired a big mosh pit (just about the size of Fire’s basement, as I mentioned in the beginning), got everyone to sing along and had the most memorable moment of the evening when they closed out with an acoustic version of Canta-mi povestea that was sung with passion by thousands of ecstatic voices.

As I said, it was a really fun night. The atmosphere was super friendly, radiating joy from the stage and between the audience members. The average age was a lot lower than I had expected, seeing how this was a festival dedicated to a club and to bands that are around 25 years old. There were a lot of kids and teenagers and it made me really happy to see that alternative rock is still alive and well, even if you don’t hear it on radio and tv as we used to when these bands first started playing.

There were so many small cute moments that contributed to that feeling of familiarity and friendship. There was a very young child next to us (around 2 or 3), her dad put her on the fence during OCS and the bassist (who was otherwise very somber and serious) sent the security guard to personally give the little girl a pick. E.M.I.L gave the guy next to us their setlist and it was written in marker on the back of a bank account statement (and the balance was zero). The bassist from Coma kept throwing water bottles into the audience and came and shook hands with us at the end of the show. At one point, the stand up comedian Costel came to the front and left his kid with us (us being strangers, to clarify) so he can go mosh or something.

My friend is not into rock and metal all that much, but she came to keep me company (and also, I like to think, because she got the bug during Artmania) and while she was a bit skeptical and contained at first, by the end of the show she was dancing and cheering along with the rest of us. She said she had fun, even though she recognised only like one song from Coma. It was such a chill and joyful atmosphere, I also had a lot of fun and left full of energy and positivity. Also left humming Ego nr 4 and with the resolution to go to a proper Luna Amara show, because I remembered how much I love those guys. It’s funny that we have these great local bands, and I always go “not this time, I can see them anytime” and yet I never do. This evening reminded me that the Romanian alternative rock stage is quite awesome and I’m really missing out by not going to their shows more often. Yes, I am proud of our artists.