I forgot to do that thing I did last year and put the scores in at the index post, even though (or perhaps because) I was smarter and put the index at the start. So, here they are:
Wacken
--
bands seen, day 1: 3
average day 1: 4.67/7
total day 1: 14
bands seen, day 2: 10
average day 2: 5.5/7
total day 2: 55
bands seen, day 3: 8
average day 3: 5.38/7
total day 3: 43
average, full festival: 5.33/7
total, full festival: 112
total bands: 21
Party.San
--
bands seen, day 1: 5
average day 1: 6.3/7
total day 1: 31.5
bands seen, day 2: 7
average day 2: 6/7
total day 2: 42
bands seen, day 3: 9
average day 3: 5.72/7
total day 3: 51.5
average, full festival: 5.95/7
total, full festival: 125
total bands: 21
The thing that sticks out here is that this is a wicked low number of rated bands. In 2005, I saw enough of 30 bands to get some kind of impression of them at Wacken, and the festival has done nothing but shove more bands in more places since. Chalk that up to more time spent hanging out; this is probably also why Party.San sees the same five-band drop from last year.
The other thing to note is that Thursday night at Party.San was really fucking good this year. I knew, of course, that Devourment and Watain had fucking killed it, but I didn't know that this was the best single festival day I had on record since Atheist broke the scoring system in 2006, which came out to exactly the same average. What's more, this year's day 1 was a lot more consistent; it's harder to make up 'dropped' points in a sample of five bands rather than 8, especially when there isn't a historically great set in the mix generating a "free" point.
Last but not least, trends. There was a lot of ceaseless moaning about the lack of quality on this year's Wacken, but overall, average score dropped by 0.04 points. So even according to this dumb and arbitrary measure, not significant. Party.San, though, saw a significant increase in quality on stage as well as fun "off the park"....and I'm pretty sure that had I seen enough of, say, Ofermod, Diabolical or The Crown to write some more arbitrary numbers down for Friday, this wouldn't've cratered the average. If you're losing patience with great culture and merely "pretty good" music up in S-H, the great culture and great music in Thüringen are worth checking out. Hinterlands guide for non-German-speakers is that way.
Showing posts with label psoa2010. Show all posts
Showing posts with label psoa2010. Show all posts
Thursday, September 09, 2010
Tuesday, September 07, 2010
Euro Tour 2010 part 14: No Nation On This Earth
8/15
[Bad Berka]
534. Grey dawn over the hills.
The weather didn't hold. It rained overnight, and stayed damp. Eventually there was nothing to do but eat breakfast, hang out with the Obscure Mortuary and Terror Blade crews (Sarah apologized for not finding me the day before, and for being sold out of their demo by the time the morning rolled around), eventually finish all the beer left after Sarah and Michael started for home, the no back, kick the slugs out of the tent, and pack everything up. On to the shuttlebus.
Only problem, no bus. Both the normal bus and the replacement were broken down. No biggie, though; the airmobile/landmobile concept I had going meant that my pack was light, nothing in it that I didn't need to bring back, so the 3km to the village was no problem.
535. Bad Berka, drawing near over the Landstrasse.
536. Now entering...
[Weimar]
537. Nick (from L.A.) waiting for his train back to the west.
So it's only an hour or so on to Berlin, and time to wrap things up. By any reasonable measure, this trip was a success; I maybe didn't see as many bands as past years, but those I did were pretty much choice. I hung out with cool people from across the world and completely emptied my pack of promo merch (well, except the buttons...) in the process. CDs, stickers, promocards, all gone, hopefully to good homes, and hopefully we get more trans-Atlantic connections out of this that are good for both sides.
So what are the lessons for merch, and for future Nachfolger, even if I end up not doing this again?
1) Wacken loves stickers, CDs not so much. This is not a DIY festival, and despite my experiences this year, most of the people you encounter don't play in bands. This makes giving CDs out tougher, if people want to wait until it's on a label. Stickers, though, even if they don't keep them, they'll play with them and get them stuck to shit, where other people will see them.
2) Under CDs, doom doesn't move in Germany. Death/grind and black/thrash go like the dickens, but I had a real hard time getting all the Dead Languages material moved. It's different, of course, if you're just chucking stuff out, but I wanted to be as sure as I could that the CDs I had were all going to people who would actually a) listen to them and b) like the band. Finding doom fans, at least at Wacken and Party.San, is just tough.
3) Buttons don't move period. No music, no space for a contact address. They are officially off the list; next year's merch call (should I do this again) will include a NO BUTTONS disclaimer. I have enough from enough bands to handle the rare cases where I'm able to give them out; bands I don't have any from can give me 5 max along with other stuff.
4) The more I lug in, the more I can kick out. It was a little tight at the end, mostly due to selection, though; if I had some death metal along, it would probably have "burned" at the same rate as Nachzehrer in Party.San. Whatever your band is (well, except doom maybe), gimme it, I'll move it, and to people who want to hear your music.
[Berlin]
538. City limits by the hotel. I'm pretty sure my room was still in Berlin.
8/16
[Berlin]
539. Rainscape at the Grünbergallee S-bahn stop.
Rain hiking to the S-bahn, the check-in counter closed, the stormdetonation of my soda bottle while waiting, even this pen falling apart on the way out of my pocket -- hopefully, this gets the bad luck out of the way and my pack gets to Boston the same time as I do. Seriously, if it aint one thing, it's another.
Pech noch nicht aus: because I didn't get stamped in Stavanger, I get aggro from the border control. Good thing that I'm paranoid about privacy and keep all my old ticket stubs and other personally-identifying crap to destroy on getting home; safely out regardless.
And it really was; I entered the United States in Dublin (seriously, you can do this) and sailed clean through customs in Boston, claimed my pack without issue, and managed to get an early, if expensive train, to get back to....
540. There and back again.
Sixteen days and three hours after departing, I was back where I started. The circle closes, and we are back where we belong....at least to the world, but as the foregoing may indicate, there's a way that everyone who's been across will understand, that where I and they belong is on some muddy infield with a kutte on my shoulders and a beer in my hand, on the other side of that golden spiral.
[Bad Berka]
534. Grey dawn over the hills.
The weather didn't hold. It rained overnight, and stayed damp. Eventually there was nothing to do but eat breakfast, hang out with the Obscure Mortuary and Terror Blade crews (Sarah apologized for not finding me the day before, and for being sold out of their demo by the time the morning rolled around), eventually finish all the beer left after Sarah and Michael started for home, the no back, kick the slugs out of the tent, and pack everything up. On to the shuttlebus.
Only problem, no bus. Both the normal bus and the replacement were broken down. No biggie, though; the airmobile/landmobile concept I had going meant that my pack was light, nothing in it that I didn't need to bring back, so the 3km to the village was no problem.
535. Bad Berka, drawing near over the Landstrasse.
536. Now entering...
[Weimar]
537. Nick (from L.A.) waiting for his train back to the west.
So it's only an hour or so on to Berlin, and time to wrap things up. By any reasonable measure, this trip was a success; I maybe didn't see as many bands as past years, but those I did were pretty much choice. I hung out with cool people from across the world and completely emptied my pack of promo merch (well, except the buttons...) in the process. CDs, stickers, promocards, all gone, hopefully to good homes, and hopefully we get more trans-Atlantic connections out of this that are good for both sides.
So what are the lessons for merch, and for future Nachfolger, even if I end up not doing this again?
1) Wacken loves stickers, CDs not so much. This is not a DIY festival, and despite my experiences this year, most of the people you encounter don't play in bands. This makes giving CDs out tougher, if people want to wait until it's on a label. Stickers, though, even if they don't keep them, they'll play with them and get them stuck to shit, where other people will see them.
2) Under CDs, doom doesn't move in Germany. Death/grind and black/thrash go like the dickens, but I had a real hard time getting all the Dead Languages material moved. It's different, of course, if you're just chucking stuff out, but I wanted to be as sure as I could that the CDs I had were all going to people who would actually a) listen to them and b) like the band. Finding doom fans, at least at Wacken and Party.San, is just tough.
3) Buttons don't move period. No music, no space for a contact address. They are officially off the list; next year's merch call (should I do this again) will include a NO BUTTONS disclaimer. I have enough from enough bands to handle the rare cases where I'm able to give them out; bands I don't have any from can give me 5 max along with other stuff.
4) The more I lug in, the more I can kick out. It was a little tight at the end, mostly due to selection, though; if I had some death metal along, it would probably have "burned" at the same rate as Nachzehrer in Party.San. Whatever your band is (well, except doom maybe), gimme it, I'll move it, and to people who want to hear your music.
[Berlin]
538. City limits by the hotel. I'm pretty sure my room was still in Berlin.
8/16
[Berlin]
539. Rainscape at the Grünbergallee S-bahn stop.
Rain hiking to the S-bahn, the check-in counter closed, the stormdetonation of my soda bottle while waiting, even this pen falling apart on the way out of my pocket -- hopefully, this gets the bad luck out of the way and my pack gets to Boston the same time as I do. Seriously, if it aint one thing, it's another.
Pech noch nicht aus: because I didn't get stamped in Stavanger, I get aggro from the border control. Good thing that I'm paranoid about privacy and keep all my old ticket stubs and other personally-identifying crap to destroy on getting home; safely out regardless.
And it really was; I entered the United States in Dublin (seriously, you can do this) and sailed clean through customs in Boston, claimed my pack without issue, and managed to get an early, if expensive train, to get back to....
540. There and back again.
Sixteen days and three hours after departing, I was back where I started. The circle closes, and we are back where we belong....at least to the world, but as the foregoing may indicate, there's a way that everyone who's been across will understand, that where I and they belong is on some muddy infield with a kutte on my shoulders and a beer in my hand, on the other side of that golden spiral.
Euro Tour 2010 part 13: Where The Schlamm Lives
8/14
[Bad Berka]
488. Still life with logging boot.
The sun came out early this morning, but things are still shit. You get used to the mud, maybe not so much to the dude who snores like a downshifting semi in the next tent.
At breakfast, more cool dudes, more CDs passed out -- and also Austrians on meth and Sarah from Terror Blade's crew, who promised me a demo later after her boyfriend got their car back from the shop. All I had to do was find the girl with pink hair and inch-long spikes on the shoulders of her kutte; not a problem, even in 10,000 metalheads, especially since she's also looking for the 6'3" guy with seven bands of studs on each shoulder. Right?
Tribulation [4/7]
Overall decent black thrash, but absolutely nothing special -- or especially original. There were some good parts, but nothing that ever really developed into their own sound.
489. Tribulation warming up, jamming on "The Wicker Man".
490. The band comes out through the haze.
491. Jonathan jamming in his girl jeans.
492. Rest of the band.
At this point, of total resources I have zero stickers, three CDs, 8 flyers, and bare handful of buttons left. Everything is going to move by the end of the festival; no need to push, just let it go and let things come.
Ghost Brigade [4/7]
There's a time and a place for this kind of music, but even if the place is Party.San, it's doubtful that the *time* is between two black-thrash bands. They're not as crap as their demo, but if they played in the same slot as Swallow The Sun did last year, people would be screaming about downsizing. Still, they aint bad, and if the lineup goes small here to go Napalm Death - Suffocation - Lock Up - Cannibal Corpse later on, that's a tradeoff I'll take.
493. Ghost Brigade, laying a foundation.
494. One of the guitarists, because he was the closest.
495. Rest of the "outfield players".
496. In "action".
497. Full band.
Desaster [6.5/7]
Not perfect, but Desaster isn't in the perfection business. What they do do, though, is lay out critical burning black thrash metal, and fuck did we get a long portion of such. The infield filled near full up, and the band responded in top fashion. This is perfect festival music, fun but still true, and this was some kickass execution at, it must be said, about the perfect festival for this kind of music.
498. Desaster setting up, with banner.
499. Infernal jamming "South of Heaven" by way of warmup.
500. Desaster hit the stage.
501. Satanic out front.
502. Odin chunking away.
503. Full "outfield".
504. Odin smashing some more.
505. Hey! Hey! Hey!
506. Action shot.
507. Infernal doing his hero thing.
508. Part II.
Varg [5/7]
Solid but not spectacular black metal, Varg is the best kind of schedule filler, the kind people will eat up gladly for and hour sometime between the openers and the headliners. A good performance of good music, this set slotted perfectly into the afternoon.
509. Varg, full band.
510. Inciting the crowd.
Now for the hard part -- dinner and no bands to miss. Maybe if I turn in before Lock Up, having seen them and CC last weekend, I'll be able to tough it out; we'll see.
Månegarm [6/7]
The heathen/epic elements came in later, but even at the start, when I was off resting my feet, this was a class performance. Not quite on the same level as Moonsorrow last year, and certainly not in as good conditions, but good stuff all the same. This band was one of the main draws for me, before Autopsy announced, and they certainly delivered at their expected level.
511. Månegarm, full band.
512. The lighting was shit; the band, badass.
513. Focus on the fiddle. Månegarm play all their own instruments live, even the traditional stuff -- no playback or keys -- which makes the performance that much more impressive and awesome.
Necrophagist [6.5/7]
Amazing, still. Some things don't change, and one of them is that Muhammed and his band -- they've been together long enough to stop being sidemen -- will produce, on any stage, death metal vom absolut feinsten. Almost simple in how it came out, almost laid back at times -- but you kind of have to be a Necrophagist-level musician to make this kind of music come off as easy in any way.
514. Necrophagist setting up.
515. Muhammed and Sami through the smoke.
516. Stefan, easier to photograph.
517. The rest of Necrophagist is in here somewhere.
518. Stefan, hero shot.
519. The rest of the band emerges.
520. Muhammed's still veiled by the light in the smoke.
The way the sunlight was coming in made the smoke almost impossible to see through, especially with an old beater camera. The smoke's a godsend later; not so hot to work with in the middle of the afternoon.
521. Muhammed finally appears.
522. Full band, fully visible.
The ground is firming back up nicely; if the weather holds, moving out will be merely difficult, not stupidly dangerous. I've still got large chunks of Thüringen in my boots, and the shorts are probably going to be a total loss (tent's gone when I get home and no longer need it to balance the pack, obviously), but I've got a fair bit of time in Berlin tomorrow and some rough plans to get through immigration.
(Lol jinx. No sooner had this been written than it started dripping down again. Results from the next morning in the next post.)
Aura Noir [6/7]
Simply kickass -- full power blackened thrash showing its roots in Sodom, Venom, and Sarcofago, and the crowd lapped it up, but the best to come was outside the music. This is how this fest works: you come in, and great bands play great sets one after the other.
523. Aura Noir, at least as they are.
524. Setting up some "South American Death".
525. The audience for black thrash in Germany. All these dudes were in for Desaster too.
And then, at the very end....
526. HOLY MOTHERFUCKING SHIT IT'S AGGRESSOR!!
Carl-Michael came out on crutches to do "Sons of Hades" as a quasi-encore, the first time he's been onstage since the accident five years ago. Still not so able to move around, but he's still got the pipes. Fuckin killer.
The light's basically gone, so pics from Napalm Death, Suffocation, and anything I stay later for will likely be crap.
Napalm Death [6.5/7]
Powerful is the word for this -- so much speed and power in their grind that they double-timed the set. Nobody cared, though; we got super-fast, super-crunchy Napalm Death and then half another Napalm Death set as an encore. Fuckin hell.
To continue to allay baseless rumors about this fest, "Nazi Punks Fuck Off" got a strong and correctly pitched response from the crowd, and a loud chorus of "Nazis Raus!" from the time that Barney finished announcing it straight into the start of the song.
527. The "alte Zugmaschine" (old tractor, punning on some remarks from the orgas before the set about tow-out arrangements in the morning) gears up to drag the fest out of the mud.
528. Barry is a dynamo of energy.
529. Giant inflatable dong in the crowd before Suffocation.
Suffocation [7/7]
Just the top; not really a "high 7" as those facetious things go, but really, really good, headliner-class in every respect. Frank still blabs on a bit, but the actual music still kicks ass; when Suffocation is on, they're fucking on. You have to check if Terrance doesn't suddenly have three hands, and you just stare slackjawed at Mike's perfection of precision behind the kit: no wasted motion, every stick movement goes to exactly the right place with exactly the right power, then strikes again or moves on at near the speed of light. The audience responded as well as they're going to; you're not going to get 100-meter pits at this fest, but if you don't move when Suffo is just flat nailing breakdown after breakdown in "Pierced From Within", you're not fucking human.
530. Suffocation setting up. Light's gone.
531. Frank talking something over with Mike. Light's gone here too.
532. Derek, Terrance, and Frank let loose.
533. Frank roaring away as only he can.
[Bad Berka]
488. Still life with logging boot.
The sun came out early this morning, but things are still shit. You get used to the mud, maybe not so much to the dude who snores like a downshifting semi in the next tent.
At breakfast, more cool dudes, more CDs passed out -- and also Austrians on meth and Sarah from Terror Blade's crew, who promised me a demo later after her boyfriend got their car back from the shop. All I had to do was find the girl with pink hair and inch-long spikes on the shoulders of her kutte; not a problem, even in 10,000 metalheads, especially since she's also looking for the 6'3" guy with seven bands of studs on each shoulder. Right?
Tribulation [4/7]
Overall decent black thrash, but absolutely nothing special -- or especially original. There were some good parts, but nothing that ever really developed into their own sound.
489. Tribulation warming up, jamming on "The Wicker Man".
490. The band comes out through the haze.
491. Jonathan jamming in his girl jeans.
492. Rest of the band.
At this point, of total resources I have zero stickers, three CDs, 8 flyers, and bare handful of buttons left. Everything is going to move by the end of the festival; no need to push, just let it go and let things come.
Ghost Brigade [4/7]
There's a time and a place for this kind of music, but even if the place is Party.San, it's doubtful that the *time* is between two black-thrash bands. They're not as crap as their demo, but if they played in the same slot as Swallow The Sun did last year, people would be screaming about downsizing. Still, they aint bad, and if the lineup goes small here to go Napalm Death - Suffocation - Lock Up - Cannibal Corpse later on, that's a tradeoff I'll take.
493. Ghost Brigade, laying a foundation.
494. One of the guitarists, because he was the closest.
495. Rest of the "outfield players".
496. In "action".
497. Full band.
Desaster [6.5/7]
Not perfect, but Desaster isn't in the perfection business. What they do do, though, is lay out critical burning black thrash metal, and fuck did we get a long portion of such. The infield filled near full up, and the band responded in top fashion. This is perfect festival music, fun but still true, and this was some kickass execution at, it must be said, about the perfect festival for this kind of music.
498. Desaster setting up, with banner.
499. Infernal jamming "South of Heaven" by way of warmup.
500. Desaster hit the stage.
501. Satanic out front.
502. Odin chunking away.
503. Full "outfield".
504. Odin smashing some more.
505. Hey! Hey! Hey!
506. Action shot.
507. Infernal doing his hero thing.
508. Part II.
Varg [5/7]
Solid but not spectacular black metal, Varg is the best kind of schedule filler, the kind people will eat up gladly for and hour sometime between the openers and the headliners. A good performance of good music, this set slotted perfectly into the afternoon.
509. Varg, full band.
510. Inciting the crowd.
Now for the hard part -- dinner and no bands to miss. Maybe if I turn in before Lock Up, having seen them and CC last weekend, I'll be able to tough it out; we'll see.
Månegarm [6/7]
The heathen/epic elements came in later, but even at the start, when I was off resting my feet, this was a class performance. Not quite on the same level as Moonsorrow last year, and certainly not in as good conditions, but good stuff all the same. This band was one of the main draws for me, before Autopsy announced, and they certainly delivered at their expected level.
511. Månegarm, full band.
512. The lighting was shit; the band, badass.
513. Focus on the fiddle. Månegarm play all their own instruments live, even the traditional stuff -- no playback or keys -- which makes the performance that much more impressive and awesome.
Necrophagist [6.5/7]
Amazing, still. Some things don't change, and one of them is that Muhammed and his band -- they've been together long enough to stop being sidemen -- will produce, on any stage, death metal vom absolut feinsten. Almost simple in how it came out, almost laid back at times -- but you kind of have to be a Necrophagist-level musician to make this kind of music come off as easy in any way.
514. Necrophagist setting up.
515. Muhammed and Sami through the smoke.
516. Stefan, easier to photograph.
517. The rest of Necrophagist is in here somewhere.
518. Stefan, hero shot.
519. The rest of the band emerges.
520. Muhammed's still veiled by the light in the smoke.
The way the sunlight was coming in made the smoke almost impossible to see through, especially with an old beater camera. The smoke's a godsend later; not so hot to work with in the middle of the afternoon.
521. Muhammed finally appears.
522. Full band, fully visible.
The ground is firming back up nicely; if the weather holds, moving out will be merely difficult, not stupidly dangerous. I've still got large chunks of Thüringen in my boots, and the shorts are probably going to be a total loss (tent's gone when I get home and no longer need it to balance the pack, obviously), but I've got a fair bit of time in Berlin tomorrow and some rough plans to get through immigration.
(Lol jinx. No sooner had this been written than it started dripping down again. Results from the next morning in the next post.)
Aura Noir [6/7]
Simply kickass -- full power blackened thrash showing its roots in Sodom, Venom, and Sarcofago, and the crowd lapped it up, but the best to come was outside the music. This is how this fest works: you come in, and great bands play great sets one after the other.
523. Aura Noir, at least as they are.
524. Setting up some "South American Death".
525. The audience for black thrash in Germany. All these dudes were in for Desaster too.
And then, at the very end....
526. HOLY MOTHERFUCKING SHIT IT'S AGGRESSOR!!
Carl-Michael came out on crutches to do "Sons of Hades" as a quasi-encore, the first time he's been onstage since the accident five years ago. Still not so able to move around, but he's still got the pipes. Fuckin killer.
The light's basically gone, so pics from Napalm Death, Suffocation, and anything I stay later for will likely be crap.
Napalm Death [6.5/7]
Powerful is the word for this -- so much speed and power in their grind that they double-timed the set. Nobody cared, though; we got super-fast, super-crunchy Napalm Death and then half another Napalm Death set as an encore. Fuckin hell.
To continue to allay baseless rumors about this fest, "Nazi Punks Fuck Off" got a strong and correctly pitched response from the crowd, and a loud chorus of "Nazis Raus!" from the time that Barney finished announcing it straight into the start of the song.
527. The "alte Zugmaschine" (old tractor, punning on some remarks from the orgas before the set about tow-out arrangements in the morning) gears up to drag the fest out of the mud.
528. Barry is a dynamo of energy.
529. Giant inflatable dong in the crowd before Suffocation.
Suffocation [7/7]
Just the top; not really a "high 7" as those facetious things go, but really, really good, headliner-class in every respect. Frank still blabs on a bit, but the actual music still kicks ass; when Suffocation is on, they're fucking on. You have to check if Terrance doesn't suddenly have three hands, and you just stare slackjawed at Mike's perfection of precision behind the kit: no wasted motion, every stick movement goes to exactly the right place with exactly the right power, then strikes again or moves on at near the speed of light. The audience responded as well as they're going to; you're not going to get 100-meter pits at this fest, but if you don't move when Suffo is just flat nailing breakdown after breakdown in "Pierced From Within", you're not fucking human.
530. Suffocation setting up. Light's gone.
531. Frank talking something over with Mike. Light's gone here too.
532. Derek, Terrance, and Frank let loose.
533. Frank roaring away as only he can.
Euro Tour 2010 part 12: Thuringian Pagan Mudness
8/13
[Bad Berka]
The rain's stopped, at least for the moment, the sun is out, and a nice dry breeze is blowing, but the mud still covers the ground -- and my boots. I've got a serious case of Thuringian Pagan Mudness going on here; hopefully, shit will dry out to the point where I can kick it off against the front rail.
472. Upturned cross guitar jammed into the mud, out in the campground.
The morning was pretty standard form; get breakfast, drink Köstriker, meet some cool people, hang out, drinking a bunch more beer, then repair back to the beerstand to drink more Köstriker before the festival gates open. It's a routine, but there's not a whole lot else to do before the infield opens.
Milking The Goatmachine [5/7]
Good shit, and a full portion of goatgrind, but our slam/grind death bands don't have a lot to fear. It's not a stretch to believe that Composted would play them absolutely off the stage night after night, nor that for touring purposes both bands would have a lot of fun in the process.
473. The goats set up.
474. DUDE MILK IT DUDE YA!
Seriously, a dude runs around in costume with a supersoaker and gets attacked by an inflatable shark -- this is Composted with one gimmick rather than 20. (Ok, and a little less crushing, but what the hell.)
Lividity [6/7]
There's been and will be better death, grind, and slammy death at this festival, but here, outdoors in East Germany, is where to see Lividity, if nowhere else. (Look around and see how many people have Lividity patches on their kit the next time you're in the NBL.) This was a nice crunchy performance despite the rain, and one featuring a lot of new stuff, which got a good strong response from the audience.
475. Lividity checking.
476. Taking the stage.
477. Von and Jake roaring.
478. Dave, heroshot.
479. The full band laying waste.
A short break in here to find some dudes; unsuccessful, but missing Suicidal Angels doesn't appear to be a super high price to pay.
Things will vary spot to spot, but it is not pure conjecture to say that Germany, land of Desaster, is very ready for Nachzehrer, and following them the whole of NEBM, and then maybe the rest of the New England DIY underground by extension. Black thrash is what people listen to here, at least among the cadre that goes out to this festival, and people have been enthusiastic about getting DIY stuff off me. Maybe my brain's running ahead of the real world again, but this small sample of good results is encouraging; maybe things really are waiting on the one band to make that leap and open things up for the rest to follow.
A word on mud:
In Wacken, when it rains, the ground goes completely to pieces. Dirt paste eight, twelve inches deep. Here, though, what you get is this layer of spready mud that floats over the grass. Weird, but that's how it goes.
Origin [5.5/7]
I was in the head and at the back when this set was going on, but you gotta fucking cut out sometime. Also, the rain was starting; time to rest up for Dying Fetus and to blame the PA sound if things don't come out perfect.
480. Left to right; me, Jesse, and Max getting blasted in the beer tent and missing The Crown.
Asphyx [6/7]
We missed half their set due to the running order getting flipped around (and drinking very large amounts of beer), but what remained was fuckin killer. The running order may have gotten screwed around, but crushing death metal puts everything right.
481. Asphyx.
482. Asphyx again, setting shit off.
We got pakora (feckin vegetarians, but it was all right) and went further up. There's a lot of death metal beer blur from here to the end of the night.
Dying Fetus [6.5/7]
Jesse hadn't seen Dying Fetus before. One of the first things he learned is that you don't hand your beer to someone just before "One Shot One Kill" and expect it not to get shook all to pieces. Tremendous set, just completely explosive.
483. Dying Fetus opens fire. Bad light and a drunk guy holding the camera, but they're on the stage regardless.
Sarke [6/7]
This was a pleasant surprise, the band being both better and notably blacker than I expected going in. As good as the music was, though, going forward for this band was pretty much exclusively because they were on before Autopsy; still a positive, though, that the time on the rail was well-spent.
484. Fires for Sarke.
Autopsy [7/7]
What the fuck else? This was nearly perfect, worth the wait in years and hours and the long miles of travel to get here. Halfway through, I was so dead from beer and exhaustion that I could barely stand up, and thus had to pull, but Autopsy from the first row, Autopsy from halfway back, the last Autopsy song in the tent, still fucking Autopsy! This makes the trip worth it, all the mud and other bullshit worth it.
485. Autopsy banner in low light.
486. Eric rips it -- hero shot.
487. Autopsy, full band.
[Bad Berka]
The rain's stopped, at least for the moment, the sun is out, and a nice dry breeze is blowing, but the mud still covers the ground -- and my boots. I've got a serious case of Thuringian Pagan Mudness going on here; hopefully, shit will dry out to the point where I can kick it off against the front rail.
472. Upturned cross guitar jammed into the mud, out in the campground.
The morning was pretty standard form; get breakfast, drink Köstriker, meet some cool people, hang out, drinking a bunch more beer, then repair back to the beerstand to drink more Köstriker before the festival gates open. It's a routine, but there's not a whole lot else to do before the infield opens.
Milking The Goatmachine [5/7]
Good shit, and a full portion of goatgrind, but our slam/grind death bands don't have a lot to fear. It's not a stretch to believe that Composted would play them absolutely off the stage night after night, nor that for touring purposes both bands would have a lot of fun in the process.
473. The goats set up.
474. DUDE MILK IT DUDE YA!
Seriously, a dude runs around in costume with a supersoaker and gets attacked by an inflatable shark -- this is Composted with one gimmick rather than 20. (Ok, and a little less crushing, but what the hell.)
Lividity [6/7]
There's been and will be better death, grind, and slammy death at this festival, but here, outdoors in East Germany, is where to see Lividity, if nowhere else. (Look around and see how many people have Lividity patches on their kit the next time you're in the NBL.) This was a nice crunchy performance despite the rain, and one featuring a lot of new stuff, which got a good strong response from the audience.
475. Lividity checking.
476. Taking the stage.
477. Von and Jake roaring.
478. Dave, heroshot.
479. The full band laying waste.
A short break in here to find some dudes; unsuccessful, but missing Suicidal Angels doesn't appear to be a super high price to pay.
Things will vary spot to spot, but it is not pure conjecture to say that Germany, land of Desaster, is very ready for Nachzehrer, and following them the whole of NEBM, and then maybe the rest of the New England DIY underground by extension. Black thrash is what people listen to here, at least among the cadre that goes out to this festival, and people have been enthusiastic about getting DIY stuff off me. Maybe my brain's running ahead of the real world again, but this small sample of good results is encouraging; maybe things really are waiting on the one band to make that leap and open things up for the rest to follow.
A word on mud:
In Wacken, when it rains, the ground goes completely to pieces. Dirt paste eight, twelve inches deep. Here, though, what you get is this layer of spready mud that floats over the grass. Weird, but that's how it goes.
Origin [5.5/7]
I was in the head and at the back when this set was going on, but you gotta fucking cut out sometime. Also, the rain was starting; time to rest up for Dying Fetus and to blame the PA sound if things don't come out perfect.
480. Left to right; me, Jesse, and Max getting blasted in the beer tent and missing The Crown.
Asphyx [6/7]
We missed half their set due to the running order getting flipped around (and drinking very large amounts of beer), but what remained was fuckin killer. The running order may have gotten screwed around, but crushing death metal puts everything right.
481. Asphyx.
482. Asphyx again, setting shit off.
We got pakora (feckin vegetarians, but it was all right) and went further up. There's a lot of death metal beer blur from here to the end of the night.
Dying Fetus [6.5/7]
Jesse hadn't seen Dying Fetus before. One of the first things he learned is that you don't hand your beer to someone just before "One Shot One Kill" and expect it not to get shook all to pieces. Tremendous set, just completely explosive.
483. Dying Fetus opens fire. Bad light and a drunk guy holding the camera, but they're on the stage regardless.
Sarke [6/7]
This was a pleasant surprise, the band being both better and notably blacker than I expected going in. As good as the music was, though, going forward for this band was pretty much exclusively because they were on before Autopsy; still a positive, though, that the time on the rail was well-spent.
484. Fires for Sarke.
Autopsy [7/7]
What the fuck else? This was nearly perfect, worth the wait in years and hours and the long miles of travel to get here. Halfway through, I was so dead from beer and exhaustion that I could barely stand up, and thus had to pull, but Autopsy from the first row, Autopsy from halfway back, the last Autopsy song in the tent, still fucking Autopsy! This makes the trip worth it, all the mud and other bullshit worth it.
485. Autopsy banner in low light.
486. Eric rips it -- hero shot.
487. Autopsy, full band.
Euro Tour 2010 part 11: One More Magic Potion -- No, Make That Two, And Pass Me The Whiskey Back
8/11
[Weimar]
Rain, but not actually raining, is decent enough. Odds are I'll be able to get the tent down unmolested.
[Bad Berka]
Party.San = richtig Party. Several CDs out just on the trip to and from and to the festival again, and Donny, Oscar, Jesse, Susi, and Julia, among quite a few others, heartily partied with. Rewind before this pen runs out.
442. Getting in; seemingly even earlier than last year.
443. This one looks like it's going past.
444. So fucken glad to be back in the East, for real. Have I mentioned I love this fucking festival?
The notes and pictures are sparse from this day because after taking the above, I ended up moving my tent across to hang out with several of the peeps mentioned above. I had a 24-can (12-liter) slab of Radeberger that mostly vanished in this time, probably evaporated by German, Swedish, Israeli, and American dudes, with occasional help from passers-by. What exactly went down, though, is not completely clear -- how you know the party was up, on the last day of the festival with uniformly good weather.
8/12
[Bad Berka]
For the first time since like winter 2007, I have my kutte buttoned up to protect against the elements. It is really raining like a bastard here.
445. Bonus video - the grounds and the rain. This was kind of taken by mistake, but it actually came out.
446. A better view, being an actual picture.
Fortunately, the breakfast tent and beer wagon are open; that's my until-festival basically sorted. Maybe go into town to get a backup pen (this one's dying) around midday; sun-in-my-eyes delusions can wait until the bands start.
Dudes were jamming Landser out over the campground at 7:30 this morning. Someone was desperate to go home early.
Beers after breakfast ended up leading on to many more beers (and thrashing around to Nachzehrer, Nachtmystium, and Fiddler's Green) with Daniel, organizer of Mordfest, who at least at the time wanted to bring Nachzehrer over for a couple dates in November. If the flights can work, it might happen; the audience is definitely there for black thrash in Germany.
This then led on to more drinking through the afternoon -- no bands and it's raining like a bastard, what the fuck else was there to do? -- and Daniel and I lugging Jesse into town to introduce him to the doner kebab. Even vegetarian, Turco-German food kicks ass, and no traveler should be allowed to miss out on it.
447. The dudes in the international party tent.
Eventually, though, we got back, in time for....
Merrimack [5/7]
Slashing, kickass black metal from France, but nationality doesn't matter here if you can pump the fuckin metal out. I was up front here mostly for Devourment, then back to take in the spectacle of Watain.
448. Merrimack, at last!
449. Whole band in the smoke.
450. The singer pumps up the crowd.
451. Action shot, most of the band.
452. The guys on the other side of the stage.
453. Full band in full cry.
Devourment [7/7]
I know they're the originators, but this felt, at least to me, acculturated to my own scene, like nothing so much as Dysentery up on the big stage. Sooo many fuckin slams -- and more besides, but fuckin slam dood! SLAAAAAAM!!!
454. Devourment setting up in shitty light.
455. Chris tuning up.
456. Full band on soundcheck, before the light died.
457. The band storms the stage.
458. Ruben crushing.
459. Mike and Chris brew shit up.
460. Lens was a little too long, but as it was.
461. Full band hammering the crowd.
Monstrosity [6.5/7]
This was one of those sets that really reminds you why you love death metal. Nothing too fancy -- brutal parts, mosh parts, good solos -- but almost perfectly put together at a uniformly high standard of execution. Fuckin hell man -- fuckin death metal.
462. The band emerges.
463. Storming the stage.
464. Full fuckin death power.
The Devil's Blood [6/7]
The normal songs, not much to write home about, but the solos man, the fuckin solos! These guys get how to play rock'n'roll lead guitar, and the amazing instrumental work gets the extra point here, more than the revival of '70s occultism.
465. The Devil's Blood being spooky awesome.
Watain [7/7]
It was a bit of a slow start, and the audience, more heavily death metal this year (Autopsy and Cannibal Corpse as the other headliners), was giving them a bit of aggro, but once "Sworn To The Dark" started (second song), all was right, and both band and audience in fine form. At least while I was down front (exhaustion and a LOT of beers catching up with me), they didn't do anything bloody, but as the pictures show, fire, fire, everywhere. All in all, this was about as true a Watain set as modern animal protection laws will allow, and a terrifically cool musical experience as well.
466. Techs set up Watain's props. Excuse the light, this set was a midnight start.
467. Ritual candelabras burning in the gloom.
468. The intro starts....
469. The band, hidden in a funeral fog.
470. Watain strike!
471. Tridents burn as the band swears the audience to the dark.
[Weimar]
Rain, but not actually raining, is decent enough. Odds are I'll be able to get the tent down unmolested.
[Bad Berka]
Party.San = richtig Party. Several CDs out just on the trip to and from and to the festival again, and Donny, Oscar, Jesse, Susi, and Julia, among quite a few others, heartily partied with. Rewind before this pen runs out.
442. Getting in; seemingly even earlier than last year.
443. This one looks like it's going past.
444. So fucken glad to be back in the East, for real. Have I mentioned I love this fucking festival?
The notes and pictures are sparse from this day because after taking the above, I ended up moving my tent across to hang out with several of the peeps mentioned above. I had a 24-can (12-liter) slab of Radeberger that mostly vanished in this time, probably evaporated by German, Swedish, Israeli, and American dudes, with occasional help from passers-by. What exactly went down, though, is not completely clear -- how you know the party was up, on the last day of the festival with uniformly good weather.
8/12
[Bad Berka]
For the first time since like winter 2007, I have my kutte buttoned up to protect against the elements. It is really raining like a bastard here.
445. Bonus video - the grounds and the rain. This was kind of taken by mistake, but it actually came out.
446. A better view, being an actual picture.
Fortunately, the breakfast tent and beer wagon are open; that's my until-festival basically sorted. Maybe go into town to get a backup pen (this one's dying) around midday; sun-in-my-eyes delusions can wait until the bands start.
Dudes were jamming Landser out over the campground at 7:30 this morning. Someone was desperate to go home early.
Beers after breakfast ended up leading on to many more beers (and thrashing around to Nachzehrer, Nachtmystium, and Fiddler's Green) with Daniel, organizer of Mordfest, who at least at the time wanted to bring Nachzehrer over for a couple dates in November. If the flights can work, it might happen; the audience is definitely there for black thrash in Germany.
This then led on to more drinking through the afternoon -- no bands and it's raining like a bastard, what the fuck else was there to do? -- and Daniel and I lugging Jesse into town to introduce him to the doner kebab. Even vegetarian, Turco-German food kicks ass, and no traveler should be allowed to miss out on it.
447. The dudes in the international party tent.
Eventually, though, we got back, in time for....
Merrimack [5/7]
Slashing, kickass black metal from France, but nationality doesn't matter here if you can pump the fuckin metal out. I was up front here mostly for Devourment, then back to take in the spectacle of Watain.
448. Merrimack, at last!
449. Whole band in the smoke.
450. The singer pumps up the crowd.
451. Action shot, most of the band.
452. The guys on the other side of the stage.
453. Full band in full cry.
Devourment [7/7]
I know they're the originators, but this felt, at least to me, acculturated to my own scene, like nothing so much as Dysentery up on the big stage. Sooo many fuckin slams -- and more besides, but fuckin slam dood! SLAAAAAAM!!!
454. Devourment setting up in shitty light.
455. Chris tuning up.
456. Full band on soundcheck, before the light died.
457. The band storms the stage.
458. Ruben crushing.
459. Mike and Chris brew shit up.
460. Lens was a little too long, but as it was.
461. Full band hammering the crowd.
Monstrosity [6.5/7]
This was one of those sets that really reminds you why you love death metal. Nothing too fancy -- brutal parts, mosh parts, good solos -- but almost perfectly put together at a uniformly high standard of execution. Fuckin hell man -- fuckin death metal.
462. The band emerges.
463. Storming the stage.
464. Full fuckin death power.
The Devil's Blood [6/7]
The normal songs, not much to write home about, but the solos man, the fuckin solos! These guys get how to play rock'n'roll lead guitar, and the amazing instrumental work gets the extra point here, more than the revival of '70s occultism.
465. The Devil's Blood being spooky awesome.
Watain [7/7]
It was a bit of a slow start, and the audience, more heavily death metal this year (Autopsy and Cannibal Corpse as the other headliners), was giving them a bit of aggro, but once "Sworn To The Dark" started (second song), all was right, and both band and audience in fine form. At least while I was down front (exhaustion and a LOT of beers catching up with me), they didn't do anything bloody, but as the pictures show, fire, fire, everywhere. All in all, this was about as true a Watain set as modern animal protection laws will allow, and a terrifically cool musical experience as well.
466. Techs set up Watain's props. Excuse the light, this set was a midnight start.
467. Ritual candelabras burning in the gloom.
468. The intro starts....
469. The band, hidden in a funeral fog.
470. Watain strike!
471. Tridents burn as the band swears the audience to the dark.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Euro tour absolviert
I'm back, and slowly getting everything to the point where tour reports will go up. I suspect they'll show I didn't see as many bands as in previous years, but I still had a hell of a time, passed out every single thing I took over (buttons excepted, but I cleared a bunch of those as well), and hung out with a lot of cool people in the process.
Thanks are due to, in no particular order, Dutch druggies, Greek DIY hosters, Solvi, Mattse and the DORF bunch, the entire island of Ireland, Culto, Maria, Sobo, Paula, Hector, Carmen, and any of the rest of the Salamanca crew that I forgot, German bikers, Dennis and crew, Jesse, Donnie, Max/Mopsi and crew, Oscar and crew (sorry I didn't get your bandname), Susi and Julia, DER KAI!!!, Daniel Mordfest, Nick, Chris and the other Aussies, Paulo, Sara and Michael from Terrorblade, Austrian speedfreaks, Sven from Obscure Mortuary (and Phillip, when he was awake), Katrin and Corinne, the extremely helpful staff at the Hertha fanshop, and of course the bands whose merch I took over and passed out to all these people. If I forgot or misspelled anyone, I apologize; there was a LOT of beer involved, and unlike the reports (hopefully to follow in the next couple days), I wasn't compiling this thankslist live.
Thanks are due to, in no particular order, Dutch druggies, Greek DIY hosters, Solvi, Mattse and the DORF bunch, the entire island of Ireland, Culto, Maria, Sobo, Paula, Hector, Carmen, and any of the rest of the Salamanca crew that I forgot, German bikers, Dennis and crew, Jesse, Donnie, Max/Mopsi and crew, Oscar and crew (sorry I didn't get your bandname), Susi and Julia, DER KAI!!!, Daniel Mordfest, Nick, Chris and the other Aussies, Paulo, Sara and Michael from Terrorblade, Austrian speedfreaks, Sven from Obscure Mortuary (and Phillip, when he was awake), Katrin and Corinne, the extremely helpful staff at the Hertha fanshop, and of course the bands whose merch I took over and passed out to all these people. If I forgot or misspelled anyone, I apologize; there was a LOT of beer involved, and unlike the reports (hopefully to follow in the next couple days), I wasn't compiling this thankslist live.
Thursday, July 08, 2010
In Which I Attempt To Guess The Party.San Running Order, And Moan About Wacken Again
It's a little more than three weeks before I fly out, but the festival lineups are set, and importantly, Party.San hasn't done out their full running order, so I can indulge this pointless exercise in Paul the Octopus biting.
This is a potential running order for Party.San 2010, based on already-published information; feel free to laugh at it when the real one is published and I get most bands wrong:
DONNERSTAG
--
DEMONICAL
KETZER
THE DEVILS BLOOD
MERRIMACK
MONSTROSITY
WATAIN
actual Thursday:
--
KETZER
MERRIMACK
DEVOURMENT
MONSTROSITY
THE DEVILS BLOOD
WATAIN
I got none of these right (well, besides Watain, but that doesn't count). I didn't anticipate The Devil's Blood playing so late or Devourment switching in, albeit to about where I'd've had them.
FREITAG
--
SUICIDAL ANGELS
MILKING THE GOATMACHINE
ONHEIL
ORIGIN
OFERMOD
DEVOURMENT
LIVIDITY
SARKE
DYING FETUS
THE CROWN
ASPHYX
AUTOPSY
actual Friday:
--
ONHEIL
MILKING THE GOATMACHINE
LIVIDITY
SUICIDAL ANGELS
ORIGIN
OFERMOD
DEMONICAL
THE CROWN
ASPHYX
DYING FETUS
SARKE
AUTOPSY
I got Milking The Goatmachine right, and the Origin-Ofermod-D-band-that-switched-days sequence in the right order, but Sarke going so late fucked things up again. I should have learned from Eluveitie last year.
SAMSTAG
--
TRIBULATION
UNDER THAT SPELL
VARG
DESASTER
GHOST BRIGADE
LOCK UP
AURA NOIR
NECROPHAGIST
MANEGARM
NAPALM DEATH
SUFFOCATION
CANNIBAL CORPSE
actual Saturday:
--
UNDER THAT SPELL
TRIBULATION
GHOST BRIGADE
DESASTER
VARG
MANEGARM
NECROPHAGIST
AURA NOIR
NAPALM DEATH
SUFFOCATION
LOCK UP
CANNIBAL CORPSE
I got Desaster right, and correctly called Suffocation playing after Napalm Death. Additionally, I had Under That Spell and Tribulation, as a pairing, in the right two slots on the bill, but the wrong slots individually; same goes for Aura Noir and Necrophagist. The wrench in these works was Manegarm playing so early after when Moonsorrow went on last year, and Lock Up somehow going on after Napalm Death. All in all, about 8 of 27 correct (under a charitable interpretation). Picking at random would probably get about one band right per day (equal chance of any band for any slot, add up the percentages and hey ho, (1/n)*n = 1), so I did better, but not actually well.
The headliners (last in the list for each day) are announced, and all bands are assigned to the days noted above; it's only the exact order that's not yet determined. If I get more than 50% bands correctly slotted, I get to be unnecessarily annoying and self-congratulatory about it in a later post.
Meanwhile, the running order for Wacken is now out in full, and due to a lack of especially interesting bands, there are very few conflicts. However, they all seem to be really, really, stupid ones:
Grave Digger against Equilibrium on Friday
Slayer against 1349, also Friday
Atrocity against Cantus Buranus (Corvus Corax) on Friday -- even though I don't give a shit and will be seeing Raven in that slot, this is egregiously stupid
Immortal against Rotting Christ on Saturday
As a result, my schedule is going to look something like this:
WED
--
Wikinger-stage (medieval markt?)
18:00 - 19:00 LORD OF THE LOST
20:00 - 21:00 FIDDLERS GREEN
moviefield:
22:30 - 00:00 MOVIENIGHT "UNTIL THE LIGHT TAKES US"
THURS
--
16:00 - 16:45 BLACK SKYLINE (+ SPECIAL GUESTs DORO, U.D.O. and more)
17:30 - 19:00 TRUE ALICE COOPER
20:00 - 21:15 BLACK MÖTLEY CRÜE
21:30 - 23:30 TRUE IRON MAIDEN
(if shit is ridiculous)
Wikinger:
17:00 - 18:00 SVARTSOT
19:00 - 20:00 TORFROCK
21:00 - 22:00 HANGGAI
tent:
23:00 - 23:45 GOJIRA
FRI
--
11:00 - 11:40 BLACK DEW-SCENTED
11:45 - 12:45 TRUE AMORPHIS
13:00 - 14:00 BLACK ORPHANED LAND
14:15 - 15:15 TRUE ILL NINO (???)
15:30 - 16:30 PARTY VOIVOD
16:45 - 17:45 TRUE THE BOSS HOSS (???)
18:00 - 19:00 WIKING SCHELMISH
19:15 - 20:15 TRUE KAMELOT (???)
20:00 - 21:00 WIKING LETZTE INSTANZ (???)
XOR
20:30 - 21:30 BLACK ARCH ENEMY (???)
22:00 - 23:00 WIKING EQUILIBRIUM
23:15 - 00:30 BLACK SLAYER
00:45 - 01:45 TRUE ANVIL
02:10 - 02:55 TENT RAVEN
SAT
--
12:00 - 12:30 TENT NIGHTMARE
12:55 - 13:25 TENT THE NEW BLACK (???)
13:50 - 14:20 TENT DEGRADEAD (???)
14:30 - 15:30 BLACK UNLEASHED
XOR
14:30 - 15:30 PARTY KAMPFAR
15:45 - 16:45 TRUE OVERKILL
17:00 - 18:00 BLACK LOCK UP
18:15 - 19:15 TRUE W.A.S.P.
19:30 - 20:30 BLACK CANNIBAL CORPSE
20:45 - 21:45 TRUE EDGUY
22:00 - 23:00 BLACK IMMORTAL
?AND?
22:45 - 23:15 TENT ROTTING CHRIST
BREAK (no Soulfly, no Despised Icon)
00:30 - 01:30 PARTY TIAMAT
XOR
00:45 - 01:30 TENT KILLING MACHINE
01:35 - 02:50 TRUE U.D.O.
02:54 - 03:00 TRUE SUBWAY TO SALLY COVER "IT'S AFTER DARK" (DAD)
Despite the downtime built in avoiding Caliban and the 23:15 - 00:15 Saturday slot, and the real sag in quality early Friday evening, there are still a lot of decent bands on that schedule. It's just that there are also a lot of bands on that schedule that I don't have an especially strong interest in, many more, proportionally as well as absolutely, than at Party.San, and it's not like every single slot where I do have must-see bands has another must-see band booked onto a different stage behind it. The orgas may say "the festival is the headliner", but in reality there are a lot of other options for people who mainly want to live in a tent by their car, drinking beer and blasting metal for a weekend. Without good bands, no festival will hold up, and the thing about a 50,000+-class festival is that virtually no one who is going to be attending is going to be able to draw up a schedule much different than the one above, full of downtime and bands they don't care about. The trick is, obviously, to cover all the bases in getting enough bands that every segment of the audience has someone they have to go see, but managing that without getting repetitive is the tough part. Apo have played a minimum of three times in the last five years ('06, '07, and '10), and I really need to go back and check to make sure, as I thought they were in last year as well. Mambo Kurt and the Firefighters back every year is festival culture; main-stage stalwarts back every year is ossification. We'll see how things are for real this time next month.
update:
godfuckingdamnit, no sooner do I go and post this up than the organizers swap Devourment to Thursday and move Demonical to Friday. The complete list of slots I got wrong will be unveiled as soon as the real running order goes up on the 26th.
This is a potential running order for Party.San 2010, based on already-published information; feel free to laugh at it when the real one is published and I get most bands wrong:
DONNERSTAG
--
DEMONICAL
KETZER
THE DEVILS BLOOD
MERRIMACK
MONSTROSITY
WATAIN
actual Thursday:
--
KETZER
MERRIMACK
DEVOURMENT
MONSTROSITY
THE DEVILS BLOOD
WATAIN
I got none of these right (well, besides Watain, but that doesn't count). I didn't anticipate The Devil's Blood playing so late or Devourment switching in, albeit to about where I'd've had them.
FREITAG
--
SUICIDAL ANGELS
MILKING THE GOATMACHINE
ONHEIL
ORIGIN
OFERMOD
DEVOURMENT
LIVIDITY
SARKE
DYING FETUS
THE CROWN
ASPHYX
AUTOPSY
actual Friday:
--
ONHEIL
MILKING THE GOATMACHINE
LIVIDITY
SUICIDAL ANGELS
ORIGIN
OFERMOD
DEMONICAL
THE CROWN
ASPHYX
DYING FETUS
SARKE
AUTOPSY
I got Milking The Goatmachine right, and the Origin-Ofermod-D-band-that-switched-days sequence in the right order, but Sarke going so late fucked things up again. I should have learned from Eluveitie last year.
SAMSTAG
--
TRIBULATION
UNDER THAT SPELL
VARG
DESASTER
GHOST BRIGADE
LOCK UP
AURA NOIR
NECROPHAGIST
MANEGARM
NAPALM DEATH
SUFFOCATION
CANNIBAL CORPSE
actual Saturday:
--
UNDER THAT SPELL
TRIBULATION
GHOST BRIGADE
DESASTER
VARG
MANEGARM
NECROPHAGIST
AURA NOIR
NAPALM DEATH
SUFFOCATION
LOCK UP
CANNIBAL CORPSE
I got Desaster right, and correctly called Suffocation playing after Napalm Death. Additionally, I had Under That Spell and Tribulation, as a pairing, in the right two slots on the bill, but the wrong slots individually; same goes for Aura Noir and Necrophagist. The wrench in these works was Manegarm playing so early after when Moonsorrow went on last year, and Lock Up somehow going on after Napalm Death. All in all, about 8 of 27 correct (under a charitable interpretation). Picking at random would probably get about one band right per day (equal chance of any band for any slot, add up the percentages and hey ho, (1/n)*n = 1), so I did better, but not actually well.
The headliners (last in the list for each day) are announced, and all bands are assigned to the days noted above; it's only the exact order that's not yet determined. If I get more than 50% bands correctly slotted, I get to be unnecessarily annoying and self-congratulatory about it in a later post.
Meanwhile, the running order for Wacken is now out in full, and due to a lack of especially interesting bands, there are very few conflicts. However, they all seem to be really, really, stupid ones:
Grave Digger against Equilibrium on Friday
Slayer against 1349, also Friday
Atrocity against Cantus Buranus (Corvus Corax) on Friday -- even though I don't give a shit and will be seeing Raven in that slot, this is egregiously stupid
Immortal against Rotting Christ on Saturday
As a result, my schedule is going to look something like this:
WED
--
Wikinger-stage (medieval markt?)
18:00 - 19:00 LORD OF THE LOST
20:00 - 21:00 FIDDLERS GREEN
moviefield:
22:30 - 00:00 MOVIENIGHT "UNTIL THE LIGHT TAKES US"
THURS
--
16:00 - 16:45 BLACK SKYLINE (+ SPECIAL GUESTs DORO, U.D.O. and more)
17:30 - 19:00 TRUE ALICE COOPER
20:00 - 21:15 BLACK MÖTLEY CRÜE
21:30 - 23:30 TRUE IRON MAIDEN
(if shit is ridiculous)
Wikinger:
17:00 - 18:00 SVARTSOT
19:00 - 20:00 TORFROCK
21:00 - 22:00 HANGGAI
tent:
23:00 - 23:45 GOJIRA
FRI
--
11:00 - 11:40 BLACK DEW-SCENTED
11:45 - 12:45 TRUE AMORPHIS
13:00 - 14:00 BLACK ORPHANED LAND
14:15 - 15:15 TRUE ILL NINO (???)
15:30 - 16:30 PARTY VOIVOD
16:45 - 17:45 TRUE THE BOSS HOSS (???)
18:00 - 19:00 WIKING SCHELMISH
19:15 - 20:15 TRUE KAMELOT (???)
20:00 - 21:00 WIKING LETZTE INSTANZ (???)
XOR
20:30 - 21:30 BLACK ARCH ENEMY (???)
22:00 - 23:00 WIKING EQUILIBRIUM
23:15 - 00:30 BLACK SLAYER
00:45 - 01:45 TRUE ANVIL
02:10 - 02:55 TENT RAVEN
SAT
--
12:00 - 12:30 TENT NIGHTMARE
12:55 - 13:25 TENT THE NEW BLACK (???)
13:50 - 14:20 TENT DEGRADEAD (???)
14:30 - 15:30 BLACK UNLEASHED
XOR
14:30 - 15:30 PARTY KAMPFAR
15:45 - 16:45 TRUE OVERKILL
17:00 - 18:00 BLACK LOCK UP
18:15 - 19:15 TRUE W.A.S.P.
19:30 - 20:30 BLACK CANNIBAL CORPSE
20:45 - 21:45 TRUE EDGUY
22:00 - 23:00 BLACK IMMORTAL
?AND?
22:45 - 23:15 TENT ROTTING CHRIST
BREAK (no Soulfly, no Despised Icon)
00:30 - 01:30 PARTY TIAMAT
XOR
00:45 - 01:30 TENT KILLING MACHINE
01:35 - 02:50 TRUE U.D.O.
02:54 - 03:00 TRUE SUBWAY TO SALLY COVER "IT'S AFTER DARK" (DAD)
Despite the downtime built in avoiding Caliban and the 23:15 - 00:15 Saturday slot, and the real sag in quality early Friday evening, there are still a lot of decent bands on that schedule. It's just that there are also a lot of bands on that schedule that I don't have an especially strong interest in, many more, proportionally as well as absolutely, than at Party.San, and it's not like every single slot where I do have must-see bands has another must-see band booked onto a different stage behind it. The orgas may say "the festival is the headliner", but in reality there are a lot of other options for people who mainly want to live in a tent by their car, drinking beer and blasting metal for a weekend. Without good bands, no festival will hold up, and the thing about a 50,000+-class festival is that virtually no one who is going to be attending is going to be able to draw up a schedule much different than the one above, full of downtime and bands they don't care about. The trick is, obviously, to cover all the bases in getting enough bands that every segment of the audience has someone they have to go see, but managing that without getting repetitive is the tough part. Apo have played a minimum of three times in the last five years ('06, '07, and '10), and I really need to go back and check to make sure, as I thought they were in last year as well. Mambo Kurt and the Firefighters back every year is festival culture; main-stage stalwarts back every year is ossification. We'll see how things are for real this time next month.
update:
godfuckingdamnit, no sooner do I go and post this up than the organizers swap Devourment to Thursday and move Demonical to Friday. The complete list of slots I got wrong will be unveiled as soon as the real running order goes up on the 26th.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)