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System of a Down, Accept & Toxic Order: NRW's loudest summer week, from mega open air to youth centre
NRW goes all in this week: 42 shows spanning a stadium, festival fields and a youth centre. A sold-out mega open air for 80,000, a club warm-up that shouldn't even exist, three festivals — and a Saturday where the local scene plays the biggest and the smallest room at the same time.
The bangers of the week
Friday brings the concert event of the summer: System of a Down play Open Air Park Düsseldorf in front of around 80,000 people — completely sold out. Desert-rock institution Queens of the Stone Age joins as special guest, with sludge cultists Acid Bath opening. A bill you would normally have to travel to a festival for.
Thursday serves two heavyweights at once: Böhse Onkelz play an exclusive warm-up for their stadium tour at Turbinenhalle Oberhausen — tickets were lottery-only, so expect the room to be electric. The same night, shock-rock godfather Alice Cooper brings "Alice's Attic" to the Amphitheater Nordsternpark in Gelsenkirchen — goosebumps under the open sky.
And then Saturday: Broilers celebrate their Ultrabowl at Merkur Spiel-Arena — the biggest concert of their career, in their hometown. Joining them: Donots from Ibbenbüren and New York hardcore legends Agnostic Front. You cannot fit more punk-rock heart into an arena.
Local heroes everywhere you listen
If you want that Saturday smaller but no less loud: Metal Bash at ND Jugendzentrum Dinslaken features Toxic Order (Oberhausen), My Dominion (Essen), Crash Pilots (Moers) and Displit — free entry, hat donations welcome. Support your local scene, taken literally.
On Thursday, Duisburg's Butterwegge brings his Ruhrpott punk songbook to the Vierlinden Open Air in Düsseldorf's Südpark. Sunday winds down with HACK MACK JACKSON at Pitcher Düsseldorf and Bottrop's A Mournful Experience at Krachgarten Wesel.
From festival field to club basement
Tollrock Festival at the Rursee brings Solingen's metal export Accept as Friday headliner, plus Life Of Agony and Die Happy; Saturday belongs to Münster's H-Blockx, Thundermother and From Zero. It gets harder at Summerbrawl, AJZ Lüdenscheid: youth-crew legends Bold, Shai Hulud and locals Passed Out — twelve bands, donation-based entry. Across the border in Weert, Bospop stacks Volbeat, Within Temptation, Airbourne and Biohazard on Friday and ZZ Top on Saturday.
The club front holds its own: celtic punks The Rumjacks at Die Trompete Bochum (Wednesday), NYHC steamroller Pro-Pain at MTC Cologne (Friday), then Saturday's punk-rock double strike: Zeke at Kulturrampe Krefeld and The Dwarves at Don't Panic Essen. On Sunday, Steel Panther glam up Fabrik Coesfeld while Royal Republic rock the Junkyard open air in Dortmund. The start of the week belongs to the clubs too: Arrested Denial (Monday, Don't Panic) and garage-rock dervishes The Schizophonics (Tuesday, Sonic Ballroom). And if Kölsch rock is your thing: Niedeckens BAP celebrate 50 years of the band at a sold-out RheinEnergieStadion.
Never miss out with KRACH!
42 shows in one week — from an 80,000-cap open air to a youth centre with a donation hat. All dates, tickets and details in the KRACH app. See you in the pit! 🤘
