I was introduced to Nathan Gray as the vocalist of Nathan Gray & The Iron Roses a couple of years ago (Nathan Gray and the Iron Roses, Hardcore with a Lot of Love). We covered the band’s fabulous album ‘Rebel Songs’ during the pandemic, which ended up being the final album for the band as Nathan Gray & The Iron Roses.
Since that interview, in which we discussed the singer’s pansexuality, punk, and their general compassion for humanity (and a deep love of The Clash), Nathan has come out as non-binary as well.
In that time, Nathan has also relinquished the name of the band, losing their name as part of the identity and the band is now just known as The Iron Roses (we cover why in the interview below).
The Iron Roses – Concert Review
Event: The Iron Roses
Supporting Act: Shoreline
Date: December 10, 2023
Venue: Schlacthof
City: Wiesbaden Germany
I got to finally see The Iron Roses in Wiesbaden, Germany, which is one of Nathan’s fave haunts, as the band has a HUGE fanbase in Germany. I had a great interview with Nathan, and the band’s co-vocalist Becky, where I got to know two people who I am a huge fan of already.
The show kicked off with a German band called Shoreline. They are a punk act from Essen, Germany and were out having a great time with The Iron Roses.
Shoreline tore it up on stage and touted a message of sheer love, acceptance, and an avid hatred for racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and all the things we are hoping to bring an end to. The singer is of Asian descent and had a rainbow guitar strap, their message was clear. By the third song, they let us all know they are full of all the original punk ideals and delivered quite a great performance. I would describe them musically as if Green Day had the best drummer in the world. (yeah, that guy was AWESOME). They finished their set chanting “Kein Platz fur Hass” which in meaning “No Place for Hate.” While the placards on the walls of the venue also stated in German “This is no place for hate, homophobia, transphobia, sexism, or racism,” this venue made its policy of inclusivity known as you walked in the door.
When The Iron Roses took the stage sporting hours fresh newly inked “Iron Roses” tattoos, the punters were already loud, rude, obnoxious, and a LOT OF FUN.
Nathan and Becky were playing off each other, and it was then, that I noticed Nathan was wearing high heels, almost platforms, and with their hair standing up, they were almost as tall as Becky.
They were bringing down the house with the new work “Screaming for a Change”, showing us that the new formation of the band had not changed the punk attitude of positive change and hope based on anger. I had listened to and enjoyed the new album before the concert, but wished I had more time to let the songs take on a life of their own. This happened when they let it roll “I’m still screaming for a change.” It felt like it was a classic song I had known for years.
“Hearts of Fire” was especially poignant with the bassist thumping out on his 5-string, sounding like he was straight out of the MC5.
“Rebel Soul Sound” is where the Iron Roses have their new sound formed in concrete, with lyrics like:
is everybody down let’s be clear & quick, there ain’t no future with these nazi pricks
shove back the fascists hold your head up, and tell me now kid have you had enough
Love doesn’t mean a thing if you ain’t ready to fight, lines are drawn in the sand tonight
for our future for our rights for our lives.
This is a clear follow-up from the previous album ‘Rebel Songs’ where they were commenting on the social unrest, and how people needed to come to the table and talk, the new work is embracing the need to make yourself known and understood because of what has been taken away from us, and the rights they are threatening to remove. This is all on top of some great guitar lines.
During the set, Nathan decided it was more interesting to be IN the crowd with the fans, so they just jumped off the stage and went about dancing and singing from somewhere else in the venue, getting in the faces and singing with the fans, and everyone had worked up a sweat just following along. This was exhausting doing all of this, just watching them perform took a lot of energy.
Their guitarist Phil laid out the sort of rap section in pure punk mode during “Justify The Lies”, adding a new most welcome new dimension to the sound.
In typical Iron Roses fashion, Nathan told the punters, that this was going to be the last song, stating clearly that The Iron Roses were just going to walk off stage for a minute, and expected the punters to yell something awesome in German (that Nathan won’t understand), and ask to come back to the stage. Then they played “Raising Hell, Raising Hope” at the top of the first part of the set with a feel good punk rock message.
The Iron Roses did leave the stage for a minute and acted surprised when the punters were asking for more. They came back and played an encore tying up the evening with “Rebel Songs”, just bringing the music to an end. Then Nathan and Becky went into the crowd, and directly went to the merch table, and just hung out talking to everyone, signing autographs, and connecting with the punters. Nathan said that the after-show meet and greet is one of their favorite things to do because they can connect with so much diversity.
I said good night, and grabbed my Uber, thinking, “How are they going to manage to meet all those fans waiting to say hello?” The Iron Roses will deliver a fantastic show, and make everyone feel welcome and loved. You have to see them live, it’s quite an experience.
Here is the interview I had with Nathan and Becky before the show.
Should you want to catch them on the festival circuit… (I certainly think you do)
