I have been supporting the idea of having a rock event at EF since 2004, and that it's possible has been proven last year by the French furs who spontaneously organised an empty room, brought a PA and some lights from somewhere and made their own dance event.
Now, of course, that was just another dance involving electronic music, but it shows that with little effort, a rock / metal dance could have been realized easily.
Why am I not doing it? There's a simple answer: I'm an expert on many music styles, but metal or rock sure aren't part of that. I could of course grab some sort of "100 best rock songs of all time" CD compilations and press play on a CD player for two hours, but that wouldn't be fun for anyone, not even for me. So I was hoping for some rock DJ to show up and suggest something. I had a few suggestions, but they never were realized for some reason.
Also, a few people who contacted me mentioned that they were actually afraid of asking me because they thought I didn't like competition, so please let me point this out:
I don't consider a rock / metal dance "competition". I consider it "contribution".
I'm pretty sure most of you agree when I say that most metal furs would rather hang out in the bar or do something else while Kenai or me are DJing. It's not your type of music, so you won't attend. I totally understand this, and this is also why I always thought having a rock dance, even if it happens at the same time as my dance, would be an additional contribution to the con experience: It would make people happy that I can't make happy with the things I do. How much better can it get?
When it comes to the Piano bar dances, the name already gives it away: It has to be a bit "Piano". The musicians around you know what I mean. We can't have extreme styles like speed metal, agressive punk or similar in the bar, just like we can't have Drum'n'Bass or gangster rap. So please let me point this out once more: If you're willing to host an event like that or know of someone who wants to, please contact me and I'll try to help you as best as I can. We -may- be able to provide a mobile PA, we may be able to find a room, but this all depends on the event schedule and other things. However, we'll do all that is possible to help you running such an event, since after all, the more people leave the con with a happy feeling, the happier we, the con staff, will be.