There weren't a lot of bands im Lauf for today -- Rompeprop had member issues and were playing as Rectal Smegma, so it was easy to get stuck in camp, drinking, hanging out, drinking, drinking, playing Dosenfußball, drinking, and also drinking along with more drinking.
242. Spiel geht hoch. This was our second keg -- as before, dudes dribbled off with the first one.
The keg took a big dent, so guys were getting their shoe under and flipping it up in the air to do tricks, and Andi got hit in the gut/balls from like 10 yards away and had to take a time-out. If you want to teach your team to play on the deck like Barca, forget "down the shops with the ball at their feet", just play triangles with something that's going to do some damage if you put some lift under it.
243. Fiesta.San; Subcommandante Tjorven gets his south-of-the-border on with cigar and straw bandito hat.
244. Typical; Oliver and Laurent from (French death metal act) Death Agony and some good red wine.
245. Aussi-Assis; me and Oliver make faces for the camera.
Warbringer [5/7]
The running order had gotten a little messed up -- Ragnarok were a little late or something -- so it was a little surprising to hear John announce his band as Warbringer from the stage. There was a lot more black metal in their sound than I recalled from previous samples, and it'll be interesting to see if this was a one-off conditioned by the festival soundboard, or if they continue to develop in this line rather than stay stuck on the off-brand Kreator they've relied on to this point.
Toxic Holocaust [5/7]
With Toxic Holocaust, though, the sound veered back in a more traditional/punk-driven direction. On the whole, this was a slight step up from Warbringer; I've seen better, but this was another strong TH set that made for great feeling in the infield.
Somewhere in this set, I set out my last buttons. Buttons. Dead out. This was a new high; if you have a band or your friends have a band, and you go to this festival without bringing stuff to pass out or trade, you are kicking yourself in your own balls.
Ragnarok [5.5/7]
Bam! This band was, somewhat more for me than for other people, one of the bands I absolutely had to see. I first heard them more than ten years ago, and was immediately taken with their direct and violent brand of black metal, but this was the first chance to see them live, and they didn't disappoint. Still direct, still ceaselessly aggressive -- hopefully, it won't be another ten years until the next look. IT'S WAR!!!!
For some reason -- probably food and booze -- we took a break, and ended up missing Incantation. Rough, but with a lineup this good, missing good bands is relatively impossible, and they do come from the same country that I do, so another chance to see them is not out of the question.
246. Back to the music; Insomnium get going.
Insomnium [6/7]
It had been a while since I'd seen these guys, and they followed that with another class performance. Their style isn't a 100% match for this fest, but they won the crowd over, even as everything was filling up for Tankard. I'm looking forward to seeing them inside in the fall, but this was pretty damn cool as a break from the thrash avalanche.
247. And there we go -- Tankard im Einsatz.
248. ...and gone again. Fucking light.
249. A little better, Gerre behind a cloud.
250. Stop the Chemical Invasion!
251. Gerre runs over to the short side.
video5: about the first 30 seconds of "A Girl Called Cerveza".
252. Later in the song; smoke holds up the light.
253. Gerre on the far side of the DVD camera.
254. Frank and Gerre jamming.
255. Empty Tankard!
256. Diving in to greet the fans.
Tankard [7/7]
Yes, I did slap hands with Gerre about 30 seconds after the above pic. I'm no longer so young or starstruck to make a huge deal out of that, but front row for 45 highest-class minutes of Tankard is a pretty damn big deal. "Chemical Invasion", "Freibier...", "Empty Tankard" to close, and new stuff nearly as good as the old; this can only be a top mark. With this highlight, I've now seen just about all of the bands I've wanted to see live....but another Tankard set like this one certainly wouldn't go astray.
257. Naglfar from the back. This was a good set, with a lot of good material, but I was too drunk to take scores down.
258. Behemoth. See above -- this is kind of how it looked, as I gave away some drinks and came up a little closer for a bit.
Bands to the end, I went back to camp, and ended up going up with Müller and some girls from the neighboring camp to the disco. Aftter about a half-hour or so of after-party, it was mit mir zu Ende, and I ducked out for real. Party.San'd out complett.
8/12 - Schlotheim
Waking up was hard. Breakfast was leftovers. But after giving Sam my Sauriel shirt, and handing Müller the black Herugrim one, my pack was ready to go, with like 5-10 pounds less than I shipped out with. Sam and I split on the platform in Mülhausen, and from there it was out on the long, slow, drag back to Erfurt. This sucked hard; festival mode is great for festivals, but coming down involves an hours-long liver cramp and streams of sweat. Fortunately, the hotel was right by the train station.
- Erfurt -
259. ((not germane))
I couldn't find a laundromat, so I washed a week's worth of festival laundry in the sink and hung stuff up all around the room, then went to sleep. Rough day, period.
Final scores and such:
day 1: 6 bands, 34.5 total points, average 5.75/7
day 2: 5 bands, 27 total points, average 5.4/7
day 3: 5 bands, 28.5 total points, average 5.7/7
total festival: 16 bands, 90 total points, average 5.63/7
This is down from last year in terms of average, but I saw twice as many bands, and due to drinking a lot at night to the point of not rating a lot of the headliners, the lower average was kind of coming. The fact that this is here instead of the last post is a little bit of foreshadowing about the hike, and what happened with the Summer Breeze plan after that.
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