Expression commonly used in the Australian military, meaning any event or organised activity that has degenerated into a
poor joke, a waste of time or an outright disaster.
Alludes to a pop/rock concert, which usually preceded by unrealistic expectations and
hype, turns out to be something less than expected due to technical faults, poor performance by the star
act or just bad
luck. Anything built up out of proportion to the ability to deliver, coupled with the event turning into a catastrophe is, or can be described as, a “rock show”.
“That last exercise we had with the Yanks at Shoalwater bay was disaster. Not only did it piss down
rain all week, they send us the wrong
radio frequencies, the A- vehicles
never arrived and all our rations ended up stuck in traffic back at Rocky. The entire SNAFU was worse than a cluster, it was a real rock show!”