Concert review: Des Rocs w/ Romes & King Falcon | 04.15.26, Delmar Hall (with photo gallery)

Photo of Daniel Rocco of Des Rocs by Laura Jerele

There was a moment walking into Delmar Hall where we were checking our phones, seeing a stack of increasingly unhinged weather alerts, and thinking… alright, maybe this is gonna be a light crowd or a really bad idea. Yeah, no. Place was packed, and it was worth trekking out despite the shitty forecast.

Des Rocs steamrolled the room. What a blaze of energy and confidence with in-your-face rock n’ roll! This band is so damn good! Front man Daniel Rocco, backed by bassist Eric Mendelsohn and drummer William Tully, came out swinging with that gritty, glammy, blown-out rock chaos that makes them beyond memorable. And yeah, that East Coast accent? Alive and well, Daniel is as fun to listen to whether he’s riffing on the guitar or with the crowd. Early in the set, a guitar gave up on life. Just completely tapped out. Did it slow anything down? Not even a little. Rocco shrugged it off and joked, “This is the part of the tour where everything starts to break down,” since they’re pushing into the final stretch of shows. If anything, it made the whole thing feel more alive as he entertained and chatted us up whilst the guitar was fixed and then in a quick blast, it was back to the grit and electric fizz. A little messier, a little louder, a little more real—and Rocco just shook it off with ease.

Musically, Des Rocs is that perfect collision of throwback and now. You can hear flashes of the weirdness of David Bowie and Queen-level theatrics, but dragged through a fuzzed-out, modern filter with really catchy-as-hell songs. Des Rocs dropped a new one, “Fall Together,” and it hit me immediately! It’s a fabulous song, heavy and catchy as hell, big ’80s energy with massive vocals. It’s polished but still dangerous. This song stuck with me and is all over their IG as the first single from their upcoming album.

The whole set felt like controlled chaos in the best way. Loud, unpredictable, completely locked in. The crowd was right there with them too, packed tight, yelling back lyrics, fully ignoring the fact that the sky outside was apparently trying to end us.

Rock ‘n’ roll is not dead. Not even close. And Des Rocs is making sure of it.

Romes brought something completely different and honestly kind of perfect as a setup. Two guys, a wall of synth, bass, drums, and just enough menace to make it interesting. It’s hard to pin them down without sounding ridiculous, but here we go. Think Devo colliding with Nine Inch Nails, add a little Ministry grime, some Oingo Boingo weirdness, and that scrappy Beastie Boys attitude. Somehow that all lands. I was totally hooked and I found their entire set to be one of the best opening sets I’ve seen in a long time. Dark, foggy, super atmospheric. The kind of set that feels like it belongs in a neon-lit vampire club movie scene where something sketchy is definitely about to happen. But also… you can dance to it. And people did. A lot. And I was one of them. I thought Romes were inventive, catchy, and just different enough to make you pay attention the whole time. I was all in by the second song and yeah, I’m gonna need more of that.

Openers King Falcon kicked off the show with straight up rock, including big riffs, clean hooks, and just a ton of confidence. I felt flashes of The Strokes and even New Order in there, with their straightforward rock grit that was tight and sharp. Their songs were bouncy and raucous, but not sloppy! They opened the show with a song titled “Ready Set Go” and that’s how they punched us into the night with three bands, zero drop-off, diversity in sounds and a crowd that showed up despite every weather and buckets of rain alert trying to tell us to stay the hell home! King Falcon is a power trio of alt rock with big hooks if ever there was one, complete with savagely cool gear. The simple touch of the vertical light bars flanking the drumkit and a heavy drench of haze somehow magnified their sound, and I loved that visual element. Frontman Michael Rubin takes the lead with guitar and all the vocal heft, backed by bassist Joe Conserva and very talented drummer Dipayan Chakraborty. 

That’s the headline. That’s my takeaway. Rock isn’t going anywhere and shows with talent like this make that very obvious. | Laura Jerele