The full list of posts on this tour outran the front page, so this is an index to keep track of them.
European Tour 2009 part 1: intro, setup, landing
European Tour 2009 part 2: Helsingør/Kronborg
European Tour 2009 part 3: Øresund loop
European Tour 2009 part 4: København
European Tour 2009 part 5: Wacken warmup
European Tour 2009 part 6: Wacken day 2
European Tour 2009 part 6a: Swashbuckle in Germany - a photo essay
European Tour 2009 part 7: Wacken wrapup
European Tour 2009 part 8: Berlin
European Tour 2009 part 9: Party.San buildup
European Tour 2009 part 10: Party.San day 2
European Tour 2009 part 11: Party.San day 3
European Tour 2009 part 12: homeward bound
scores and stuff:
Wacken
--
bands seen, day 0: 1
average day 0: 4/7
total day 0: 4
bands seen, day 1: 6
average day 1: 5.25/7
total day 1: 26.5
bands seen, day 2: 11
average day 2: 5.73/7
total day 2: 63
bands seen, day 3: 8
average day 3: 5.13/7
total day 3: 41
average, full festival: 5.37/7
total, full festival: 139.5
total bands: 26
Party.San
--
bands seen, day 1: 5
average day 1: 5.5/7
total day 1: 27.5
bands seen, day 2: 12
average day 2: 5.21/7
total day 2: 62.5
bands seen, day 3: 9
average day 3: 6.17/7
total day 3: 55.5
average, full festival: 5.6/7
total, full festival: 145.5
total bands: 26
Weirdly, I saw exactly the same number of bands at each fest. By objective measures, Party.San was better, though an argument might be made for the Wacken experience as well. Toss a coin, and pick your poison: do you want easy cultural exchange and more mainstream bands, or will you take the hinterland and pure underground metal? Your decision; that guide on how to do Party.San even if you don't speak German is forthcoming, and I hope that this in addition to the scores above will convince people to hit up smaller fests in addition to the ones like Wacken that are more immediately accessible.
Showing posts with label wacken2009. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wacken2009. Show all posts
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
European Tour 2009 part 7: Wacken wrapup
--
Day 8
1 August 2009
Wacken - Schleswig-Holstein - Germany
This morning's been cool, hanging out with another under-30 "alter kuttenträger" (from Chörnyj Woron) also concerned about the lack of us-headliners and the future of the festival. It's convenient that I don't really have to go forward after dark, but at the same time troubling, too. (This was also the conversation where we went through the Running Wild setlist from Thursday and came up with nearly as many songs omitted that should have been played as there were actual songs in that list.)
Einherjer [5.5/7]
They took a while to get cooking, but they laid out a worthy opening set covering "De Sorte Sjoers Land", "Crimson Rain", "Dragons of the North", "Ironbound", a few others, and of course FAR FAR FUCKING NARTH! They seemed to have their keys on playback, but the live portion was indisputably killer.
401. Emobusters, seen while buying my Borknagar shirt.
402. Viking attack!
403. Einherjer chunking through "Sjoers".
404. Maybe past their moment, but the Dragons of the North are still fierce.
405. Jamming a folkic lock-in riff.
406. Doing the chorals on "Far Far North".
After this, I got cash, got hydration, and went to go hit up the Bullshirt stand via a rec from earlier. I landed the only Pantera shirt I can see myself in (a Power Metal-era bootleg) and then across the way about 20e of bootleg patches. Looks like I can finally finish that other vest - right after I get a new shirt from Revocation to hack into a DIY backpatch.
Shit apparently got fucked up; I want Kampfar (cancelled the day before, apparently), but Onkel Tom's flag is out on the Party Stage. What the hell ever; I'm not missing front for Borknagar.
nochma Onkel Tom [nochma 5/7]
Basically a longer version of the set from Thursday, this takeover of Kampfar's slot was dedicated to proving the proposition that punk bands are always awesome when covering someone else's melody, and not so uniformly so otherwise. We already knew this, though, and in this slot we really should have got some skullcracking Norsk black metal. Nothing against Angelripper, and he got a great crowd response, but this wasn't what I trekked over to this stage for.
407. Beerthrash!
408. BIER HER BIER HER.
You've got to wonder if they get cultural grants from the government for keeping traditional Kneipenkultur alive.
And now, missing Testament to sit on the rail. Shit sucks. After this, though, I'm quite comfortable with going back to stick. Festival mode or not, this loss of sleep takes a lot out of you; I'm not getting any younger, and the bands I came to see will be done.
It's for these reasons that I'm uncertain about coming back. We'll see how Party.San goes regarding self-destruction; maybe Headbangers Open Air and Wacken next year - if I do festivals rather than that Russia trip that's been postponed too long. I may be done with this kind of extended adventure for external reasons after this; if so, as long as I survive, this will be a hell of a way to go out, with fairly few regrets.
409. Drum checks.
410. Yes, that's an 8, and the front looks even more badass. And of course, it's a true 8, not just a doubled 4. Jan-Erik doesn't fuck around.
411. Øystein tries to hide, but sharp-eyed fanboys with zoom lenses are everywhere.
412. If I had seen this ten years ago, I might have had a heart attack. Messrs Brun and Tägtgren (Pain was on this stage next after Borknagar), just hanging out and shooting the shit.
On a different note, somebody finally got Peter a damn sammich. It's nice to see him looking a little less like a walking cadaver.
413. Actually checking tone and function.
Ruins of Future
Gods of My World
Oceans Rise
Universal
Inherit the Earth
The Black Token
Future Reminiscence
Ad Noctem
Colossus
The Genuine Pulse
The Dawn of the End
Borknagar [6.5/7]
Perhaps my expectations were set too high, but this simply great set didn't cross over and become wicked epic. As can be seen on the setlist, there's a lot of good stuff from most of the band's history, but a little too much Archaic Course for my liking, and nothing from the self-titled. (Put that one up to language differences and Vintersorg not wanting to learn Norwegian just to sing "Dauden" or "Fandens Allheim" maybe once every other show.) No "Winterway", but there's a time limit on these things after all. I'm satisfied; not flattened, but this was still a Borknagar set worth crossing the seas for.
414. Auftritt!
415. Vintersorg hypes up the crowd.
416. Lars, Øystein, and Mr. V.
417. Ø. Brun slashing out the riffs.
418. Jan-Erik and Jens teaming up.
419. The bandleaders deliver the imprecation.
420. Not a huge crowd, as this fest goes, but passionate.
421. Jan-Erik caught mid-bang.
422. Øystein forging ahead.
423. Vintersorg locks in with Jan-Erik.
424. Mostly a one-shot of Øystein, at least as the focus allows.
425. Jan-Erik, Jens, the logo, and a preoccupied cameraman.
426. Vintersorg looking out over the ruins.
427. The vocals get some backup from eight strings of subsonic devastation.
428. United.
429. Jan-Erik and Jens, in another two-shot with the poor hidden drummer.
430. The other half of the band.
431. Øystein digs in as Vintersorg screams over his guitar.
432. Jan-Erik being generally awesome.
433. The forgotten guitar genius of his generation.
Now, in this section - exclusive to this report (probably) - I completely nerd out about Øystein's guitar technique, and demonstrate why to never send a fanboy to do a job for general audiences.
If you're an old-time Borknagar fan, you probably heard the music, were struck by how radically different the guitar sounded, and researched/asked around about the band until you found out that Øystein never had any lessons, and effectively reinvented playing guitar from scratch for himself. Ok, that explains some of the weird chords, but not really. There's more to the big Ø's sound than that, and you're likely to only notice it seeing the band live.
What stands out about Øystein's style, first? In a phrase that would be picked off the cuff by a lot of musicians (not actually tested), that might be "weird chords with a lot of sustain". The weird chords come from making up your own guitar vocabulary from scratch, but the sustain has a simple reason: for the most part, Øystein Brun does not palm-mute. Yes, you read that right. Øystein Brun does not palm-mute, and that right there is in itself a substantial reinvention of metal guitar technique. When he does, it looks forced and unnatural: Øystein may be the one metal guitarist in the world who doesn't habitually keep the heel of his hand on the low string and riff off that.
Why is this, you ask? Because Øystein may have the loosest wrist in metal. Any other guitarist, the picking motion is primarily in their hand; with Øystein, his wrist is moving, and his forearm with it on the back hump of the guitar. This is a natural motion for hitting all 6 strings at a strum, but there may be a chicken-and-egg effect at play here.
In general, Øystein plays up near the neck pickup rather than anywhere near the bridge, which is of course a lot more conducive to this kind of open sound. However, looking at where the pick lands riff to riff, he's not deliberately trying to play on the neck; this is just where his hand naturally sits on the axe if his forearm's fulcruming over the top.
This comes to the crux of the issue. This position is natural, sitting or standing, for Øystein because he happens to be a very big man. Here's a size comparison with the infamously gigantic Jan-Erik:
434. For scale; Jan-Erik's about a step behind relative to the camera.
Øystein probably doesn't clear 2m, but he's close, and he has the powerful build needed to have his whole arm pumping on every strum. It slows him down, but his technique has never been about speed, just all the unique sound that these quirks create together.
No wonder Molested broke up. A death metal band where the main songwriter is a slow arm-strummer who doesn't palm-mute? How did that even happen to start with? (That said, all reports are that the one Molested record out there is pretty good and pretty unorthodox death metal, so it'll be worth trying to dig up.)
This concludes this ridiculous nerd break. I hope you learned something, because I certainly did: I think about this band a lot more than is either normal or natural.
Axel Rudi Pell [4/7]
"Strong As A Rock" and "Rock The Nation", and then I stopped listening. Does this band actually have any other songs, or do they just jam random '80s riffs together?
I'm in the beergarden, and everyone's dead. I've got no desire to go forward; half of this is being old, and half of it is kind of "no headliners".
The giants are dying, but the festivals won't die, because the giants growing are not ones that we (the grumpy old ones dividing everything into Sounds Like Kreator or Garbage, and those younger ones who are accelerating their development toward this point) care about. Children of Bodom, In Extremo, Nightwish; these are the headliners that will replace Motorhead, Iron Maiden, and Doro in the run of ages. What we forget is that it was an accident of birth|history that Maiden and Motorhead survived; Def Leppard and Whitesnake made it out of that era too. Amon Amarth has another 10-20 years left in them, and they are in that headliner class already. So is In Flames, no matter how dead to us they are. Metal will be fine. And us hardcore kuttenträger may not have any headliners to back, but in some ways, we were never meant to.
Headliners need to draw. To draw, they need to either be mainstream or change the mainstream. The first is easier, but only the second will bring in us kvlter-than-thous. We'll see who can; I suspect Heaven Shall Burn may, forging on after the metalcore tide goes out and forging their own paradigm, but history may have other ideas. Wait ten years and laugh at the naivette.
435. Best. Idea. Evar. A chilled tank of Jäger roving around kicking out 2e shots. It's like we're in some platformer video game that just has powerups sitting around the screen for no reason.
In Extremo [5/7]
Sure, this was from the beergarden, but everything but the impact and flame of the pyro carried this far back. Good music, but from the point of view of one like me, their mainstream success is showing. Still a fine time though.
436. The Smack Ballz jamming some AC/DC with an unconventional setup.
Achtung! Besoffene Cougar - Angriffsmöglichkeit hoch.
Volbeat [6/7]
If this is the metier of rock'n'roll vended in the future, things are looking bright. There's a lot of Misfits, but also deeper, crunchier elements similar to Calmsite (if you've ever been near an Oak Knoll distro table), and the result is fuckin killer...as you'd know if you have any of their records, as that's the sound delivered - and well - live. Seriously, if you don't have Rock the Rebel/Metal the Devil yet, I don't know what more I can say....other than, well, you're WRONG, and need to get said disc posthaste.
437. The boneyard - emptied kegs piled high in the back of the bar area.
Seen but not shot: dude in a CFC shirt. First so far; a lot of Werder and St. Pauli and Barcelona gear, but you know you're not going to see anyone supporting TFOD at a proper metal show.
438. Machine Head and the burning skull. It's just as well that you can't see anything.
Machine Head [3/7, was 4/7]
I was trying to avoid this band, but was unable to. Maybe I'm older, differently chemtwisted, or just paying better attention, but they seemed to be more actively crap and annoying than last time, and I don't think they're put out a new record in the meantime.
HOLY CHRIST WILL THEY EVER FUCKING STOP?
The worst part of this, and the cause of the point deduction above, is that Rob Flynn was in Vio-Lence, and knows what kind of riffs you need to start a circle pit and keep one going. And yet his brain-dead band keep writing brain-dead nu-metal bullshit, and he keeps yelling for circle pits like the Ape King of the Idiots. YOU WILL NEVER BEAT HEAVEN SHALL BURN'S EPIC 2007 PIT. STOP TRYING. STOP PLAYING.
Saxon [6/7]
As expected, a lot of good songs....and a lot of title songs, because people are in the main ignorant of large stretches of Saxon's back catalog, and with a vote for some song on each album being compulsory (the set was a one-from-each-record selected by internet voting), people had to click some button. Hence "Dogs of War" and "Unleash The Beast" in favor of respectively, say, "Walking Through Tokyo" and "Ministry of Fools", but fortunately also "Solid Ball of Rock" (ahead of [shudder] "Crash Dive", even if it's not "Requiem (We Will Remember)") and "Crusader" (ok, people know that song for real too). Not my optimal set, but the internets picked this one, not the band, and Saxon had the sense to pretend to be pressed for time (presumably) and drop whatever steaming pile got picked from Destiny.
439. Saxon Unleashes The Beast.
440. Campgrounds; harvest moon and insufficient light.
--
Day 9
2 August 2009
Wacken - Schleswig-Holstein - Germany
441. Dawn breaks; time to break camp.
Thus ends another Wacken; it remains to be seen how many more of these I have in me. However, this is only the end of the second stage of the current adventure. Tomorrow is on to Berlin, and after, to Bad Berka; now, though, just to pack up and make for the HH.
442. Schlangen in Stangen: the line to get on the bus back to Itzehoe.
Day 8
1 August 2009
Wacken - Schleswig-Holstein - Germany
This morning's been cool, hanging out with another under-30 "alter kuttenträger" (from Chörnyj Woron) also concerned about the lack of us-headliners and the future of the festival. It's convenient that I don't really have to go forward after dark, but at the same time troubling, too. (This was also the conversation where we went through the Running Wild setlist from Thursday and came up with nearly as many songs omitted that should have been played as there were actual songs in that list.)
Einherjer [5.5/7]
They took a while to get cooking, but they laid out a worthy opening set covering "De Sorte Sjoers Land", "Crimson Rain", "Dragons of the North", "Ironbound", a few others, and of course FAR FAR FUCKING NARTH! They seemed to have their keys on playback, but the live portion was indisputably killer.
401. Emobusters, seen while buying my Borknagar shirt.
402. Viking attack!
403. Einherjer chunking through "Sjoers".
404. Maybe past their moment, but the Dragons of the North are still fierce.
405. Jamming a folkic lock-in riff.
406. Doing the chorals on "Far Far North".
After this, I got cash, got hydration, and went to go hit up the Bullshirt stand via a rec from earlier. I landed the only Pantera shirt I can see myself in (a Power Metal-era bootleg) and then across the way about 20e of bootleg patches. Looks like I can finally finish that other vest - right after I get a new shirt from Revocation to hack into a DIY backpatch.
Shit apparently got fucked up; I want Kampfar (cancelled the day before, apparently), but Onkel Tom's flag is out on the Party Stage. What the hell ever; I'm not missing front for Borknagar.
nochma Onkel Tom [nochma 5/7]
Basically a longer version of the set from Thursday, this takeover of Kampfar's slot was dedicated to proving the proposition that punk bands are always awesome when covering someone else's melody, and not so uniformly so otherwise. We already knew this, though, and in this slot we really should have got some skullcracking Norsk black metal. Nothing against Angelripper, and he got a great crowd response, but this wasn't what I trekked over to this stage for.
407. Beerthrash!
408. BIER HER BIER HER.
You've got to wonder if they get cultural grants from the government for keeping traditional Kneipenkultur alive.
And now, missing Testament to sit on the rail. Shit sucks. After this, though, I'm quite comfortable with going back to stick. Festival mode or not, this loss of sleep takes a lot out of you; I'm not getting any younger, and the bands I came to see will be done.
It's for these reasons that I'm uncertain about coming back. We'll see how Party.San goes regarding self-destruction; maybe Headbangers Open Air and Wacken next year - if I do festivals rather than that Russia trip that's been postponed too long. I may be done with this kind of extended adventure for external reasons after this; if so, as long as I survive, this will be a hell of a way to go out, with fairly few regrets.
409. Drum checks.
410. Yes, that's an 8, and the front looks even more badass. And of course, it's a true 8, not just a doubled 4. Jan-Erik doesn't fuck around.
411. Øystein tries to hide, but sharp-eyed fanboys with zoom lenses are everywhere.
412. If I had seen this ten years ago, I might have had a heart attack. Messrs Brun and Tägtgren (Pain was on this stage next after Borknagar), just hanging out and shooting the shit.
On a different note, somebody finally got Peter a damn sammich. It's nice to see him looking a little less like a walking cadaver.
413. Actually checking tone and function.
Ruins of Future
Gods of My World
Oceans Rise
Universal
Inherit the Earth
The Black Token
Future Reminiscence
Ad Noctem
Colossus
The Genuine Pulse
The Dawn of the End
Borknagar [6.5/7]
Perhaps my expectations were set too high, but this simply great set didn't cross over and become wicked epic. As can be seen on the setlist, there's a lot of good stuff from most of the band's history, but a little too much Archaic Course for my liking, and nothing from the self-titled. (Put that one up to language differences and Vintersorg not wanting to learn Norwegian just to sing "Dauden" or "Fandens Allheim" maybe once every other show.) No "Winterway", but there's a time limit on these things after all. I'm satisfied; not flattened, but this was still a Borknagar set worth crossing the seas for.
414. Auftritt!
415. Vintersorg hypes up the crowd.
416. Lars, Øystein, and Mr. V.
417. Ø. Brun slashing out the riffs.
418. Jan-Erik and Jens teaming up.
419. The bandleaders deliver the imprecation.
420. Not a huge crowd, as this fest goes, but passionate.
421. Jan-Erik caught mid-bang.
422. Øystein forging ahead.
423. Vintersorg locks in with Jan-Erik.
424. Mostly a one-shot of Øystein, at least as the focus allows.
425. Jan-Erik, Jens, the logo, and a preoccupied cameraman.
426. Vintersorg looking out over the ruins.
427. The vocals get some backup from eight strings of subsonic devastation.
428. United.
429. Jan-Erik and Jens, in another two-shot with the poor hidden drummer.
430. The other half of the band.
431. Øystein digs in as Vintersorg screams over his guitar.
432. Jan-Erik being generally awesome.
433. The forgotten guitar genius of his generation.
Now, in this section - exclusive to this report (probably) - I completely nerd out about Øystein's guitar technique, and demonstrate why to never send a fanboy to do a job for general audiences.
If you're an old-time Borknagar fan, you probably heard the music, were struck by how radically different the guitar sounded, and researched/asked around about the band until you found out that Øystein never had any lessons, and effectively reinvented playing guitar from scratch for himself. Ok, that explains some of the weird chords, but not really. There's more to the big Ø's sound than that, and you're likely to only notice it seeing the band live.
What stands out about Øystein's style, first? In a phrase that would be picked off the cuff by a lot of musicians (not actually tested), that might be "weird chords with a lot of sustain". The weird chords come from making up your own guitar vocabulary from scratch, but the sustain has a simple reason: for the most part, Øystein Brun does not palm-mute. Yes, you read that right. Øystein Brun does not palm-mute, and that right there is in itself a substantial reinvention of metal guitar technique. When he does, it looks forced and unnatural: Øystein may be the one metal guitarist in the world who doesn't habitually keep the heel of his hand on the low string and riff off that.
Why is this, you ask? Because Øystein may have the loosest wrist in metal. Any other guitarist, the picking motion is primarily in their hand; with Øystein, his wrist is moving, and his forearm with it on the back hump of the guitar. This is a natural motion for hitting all 6 strings at a strum, but there may be a chicken-and-egg effect at play here.
In general, Øystein plays up near the neck pickup rather than anywhere near the bridge, which is of course a lot more conducive to this kind of open sound. However, looking at where the pick lands riff to riff, he's not deliberately trying to play on the neck; this is just where his hand naturally sits on the axe if his forearm's fulcruming over the top.
This comes to the crux of the issue. This position is natural, sitting or standing, for Øystein because he happens to be a very big man. Here's a size comparison with the infamously gigantic Jan-Erik:
434. For scale; Jan-Erik's about a step behind relative to the camera.
Øystein probably doesn't clear 2m, but he's close, and he has the powerful build needed to have his whole arm pumping on every strum. It slows him down, but his technique has never been about speed, just all the unique sound that these quirks create together.
No wonder Molested broke up. A death metal band where the main songwriter is a slow arm-strummer who doesn't palm-mute? How did that even happen to start with? (That said, all reports are that the one Molested record out there is pretty good and pretty unorthodox death metal, so it'll be worth trying to dig up.)
This concludes this ridiculous nerd break. I hope you learned something, because I certainly did: I think about this band a lot more than is either normal or natural.
Axel Rudi Pell [4/7]
"Strong As A Rock" and "Rock The Nation", and then I stopped listening. Does this band actually have any other songs, or do they just jam random '80s riffs together?
I'm in the beergarden, and everyone's dead. I've got no desire to go forward; half of this is being old, and half of it is kind of "no headliners".
The giants are dying, but the festivals won't die, because the giants growing are not ones that we (the grumpy old ones dividing everything into Sounds Like Kreator or Garbage, and those younger ones who are accelerating their development toward this point) care about. Children of Bodom, In Extremo, Nightwish; these are the headliners that will replace Motorhead, Iron Maiden, and Doro in the run of ages. What we forget is that it was an accident of birth|history that Maiden and Motorhead survived; Def Leppard and Whitesnake made it out of that era too. Amon Amarth has another 10-20 years left in them, and they are in that headliner class already. So is In Flames, no matter how dead to us they are. Metal will be fine. And us hardcore kuttenträger may not have any headliners to back, but in some ways, we were never meant to.
Headliners need to draw. To draw, they need to either be mainstream or change the mainstream. The first is easier, but only the second will bring in us kvlter-than-thous. We'll see who can; I suspect Heaven Shall Burn may, forging on after the metalcore tide goes out and forging their own paradigm, but history may have other ideas. Wait ten years and laugh at the naivette.
435. Best. Idea. Evar. A chilled tank of Jäger roving around kicking out 2e shots. It's like we're in some platformer video game that just has powerups sitting around the screen for no reason.
In Extremo [5/7]
Sure, this was from the beergarden, but everything but the impact and flame of the pyro carried this far back. Good music, but from the point of view of one like me, their mainstream success is showing. Still a fine time though.
436. The Smack Ballz jamming some AC/DC with an unconventional setup.
Achtung! Besoffene Cougar - Angriffsmöglichkeit hoch.
Volbeat [6/7]
If this is the metier of rock'n'roll vended in the future, things are looking bright. There's a lot of Misfits, but also deeper, crunchier elements similar to Calmsite (if you've ever been near an Oak Knoll distro table), and the result is fuckin killer...as you'd know if you have any of their records, as that's the sound delivered - and well - live. Seriously, if you don't have Rock the Rebel/Metal the Devil yet, I don't know what more I can say....other than, well, you're WRONG, and need to get said disc posthaste.
437. The boneyard - emptied kegs piled high in the back of the bar area.
Seen but not shot: dude in a CFC shirt. First so far; a lot of Werder and St. Pauli and Barcelona gear, but you know you're not going to see anyone supporting TFOD at a proper metal show.
438. Machine Head and the burning skull. It's just as well that you can't see anything.
Machine Head [3/7, was 4/7]
I was trying to avoid this band, but was unable to. Maybe I'm older, differently chemtwisted, or just paying better attention, but they seemed to be more actively crap and annoying than last time, and I don't think they're put out a new record in the meantime.
HOLY CHRIST WILL THEY EVER FUCKING STOP?
The worst part of this, and the cause of the point deduction above, is that Rob Flynn was in Vio-Lence, and knows what kind of riffs you need to start a circle pit and keep one going. And yet his brain-dead band keep writing brain-dead nu-metal bullshit, and he keeps yelling for circle pits like the Ape King of the Idiots. YOU WILL NEVER BEAT HEAVEN SHALL BURN'S EPIC 2007 PIT. STOP TRYING. STOP PLAYING.
Saxon [6/7]
As expected, a lot of good songs....and a lot of title songs, because people are in the main ignorant of large stretches of Saxon's back catalog, and with a vote for some song on each album being compulsory (the set was a one-from-each-record selected by internet voting), people had to click some button. Hence "Dogs of War" and "Unleash The Beast" in favor of respectively, say, "Walking Through Tokyo" and "Ministry of Fools", but fortunately also "Solid Ball of Rock" (ahead of [shudder] "Crash Dive", even if it's not "Requiem (We Will Remember)") and "Crusader" (ok, people know that song for real too). Not my optimal set, but the internets picked this one, not the band, and Saxon had the sense to pretend to be pressed for time (presumably) and drop whatever steaming pile got picked from Destiny.
439. Saxon Unleashes The Beast.
440. Campgrounds; harvest moon and insufficient light.
--
Day 9
2 August 2009
Wacken - Schleswig-Holstein - Germany
441. Dawn breaks; time to break camp.
Thus ends another Wacken; it remains to be seen how many more of these I have in me. However, this is only the end of the second stage of the current adventure. Tomorrow is on to Berlin, and after, to Bad Berka; now, though, just to pack up and make for the HH.
442. Schlangen in Stangen: the line to get on the bus back to Itzehoe.
European Tour 2009 part 6a: Swashbuckle in Germany - a photo essay
This is not in the main part of part 6 of this series because it's too fucking long to spend on one band in the middle of a general review post.
Swashbuckle [7/7]
There's always a few sets that define a festival every year. This, coupled with Running Wild's farewell outing last night, was one of them. And this isn't just an old fan glorying by extension in his pals' pals' success; in my five years here I have never seen a non-headliner have the staff have to fucking play their fans out with the PA to get the stage clear. It was a hellacious set with an equally hellacious response that gets its own photo essay.
Because there wasn't going to be any other fucking photog shooting this band (actually, a few did show up after a while), I did my best Aaron impression...while standing in one place and trying not to block anyone's first exposure to the band, and kind of went hog wild on pics. Follows:
324. All these people...
325. Showed up to see this band...
326. But the inflataship died. ;_;
327. Lame excuses were vended and not accepted....
328. ...but doods were still fucking pumped.
329. Wait, they have WHO on wench duty? That's Sabina Classen motherfuckers!
330. Hooks up!
331. The Jersey Devilfish hit the stage!
332. Nobeard fixing his amp.
333. Tuning up.
334. "Yarr, ye scurvy dogs!"
335. Coming out swinging.
336. Full blast pirate thrash.
337. Line of battle formed.
338. Wacken is wicked pumped.
339. Waist-deep in cannon smoke.
340. Laying out the riffs.
341. Some dude puts his hook in the frame.
342. Thrash speed beats shutter speed.
343. Fucking roaring; back to the noose!
344. Dug in, thrashing out.
345. The crowd is going more nuts than Alestorm last year and with fewer lame plastic toys.
346. Ripping into "Walk The Plank".
347. Bellowing for a circle pit.
348. Hooks and horns to the sky.
349. Through the haze.
350. Dudes still going nuts.
351. And this is on the puny Medieval Stage?
352. Prospective crew hail the captain.
353. A forest of arms.
354. The bodies go flying.
355. Admiral Nobeard parts the seas for the Wave of Death.
356. ....And the seas opened....
357. Breakers crashing with ultimate violence.
358. Dudes still flipping out.
359. Sack'n'pillage melee!
360. "Splash'n'Thrash" is a huge success.
361. ...and now there's THIS many, all going nuts.
362. Gimmick peeps come out in costume for "Party Boat".
363. The security finally shows up, eight or ten songs in, and immediately calls for backup.
364. Nobeard jamming the fuck out.
365. Washing in with the tide.
366. WHIRLPIT!!
367. Leo's younger brother dives into the waves.
368. Driving the storm.
369. Deserved appreesh.
370. IT CAME FROM THE DEEP!
371. Mutual hails go out.
372. Commodore Redrum sprays the first row with beer.
373. Locked in.
374. A new age of piracy dawning...
375. Hey, there's some fuckin epic parts too.
376. Almost backstage...
377. Crewed By The Damned!
378. Banging to the finale.
379. In the smoke - "X Marks The Spot"!
380. High kicks and absent picks.
381. The Admiral goes down with the "Battleship".
382. Hundreds scream for a further encore...
383. ....and get a drumkit teardown. They played every goddamned real song they've recorded! They're all fucking out!
384. Nobeard hails the crowd again.
385. ....and gives me the finger for not shutting up about they boyz.
386. And with no more music, the crowd dances on regardless, until the festival staff blast Schläger music over the PA to get them to go away.
Let's reiterate: 500 to 1000 people showed up to this stage, some not knowing what to expect and some singing Alestorm tunes. This band played aggressive moshing thrash metal owing heavily to Exodus, and by the end, after raucous encore demand that resulted in the band playing every original song they are even capable of playing live, the 1500 remaining were not worn out from an hour of vicious moshing and thrashing, and continued singing pirate songs and doing dances in the hope that the band would come out again, and eventually had to be shooed away. I'm not going to award the title on this basis, but Alestorm, a challenger has fucking appeared. (They always do.) Who will become the Pirate King?
It's ok to go back to part 6 now, you didn't miss anything.
Swashbuckle [7/7]
There's always a few sets that define a festival every year. This, coupled with Running Wild's farewell outing last night, was one of them. And this isn't just an old fan glorying by extension in his pals' pals' success; in my five years here I have never seen a non-headliner have the staff have to fucking play their fans out with the PA to get the stage clear. It was a hellacious set with an equally hellacious response that gets its own photo essay.
Because there wasn't going to be any other fucking photog shooting this band (actually, a few did show up after a while), I did my best Aaron impression...while standing in one place and trying not to block anyone's first exposure to the band, and kind of went hog wild on pics. Follows:
324. All these people...
325. Showed up to see this band...
326. But the inflataship died. ;_;
327. Lame excuses were vended and not accepted....
328. ...but doods were still fucking pumped.
329. Wait, they have WHO on wench duty? That's Sabina Classen motherfuckers!
330. Hooks up!
331. The Jersey Devilfish hit the stage!
332. Nobeard fixing his amp.
333. Tuning up.
334. "Yarr, ye scurvy dogs!"
335. Coming out swinging.
336. Full blast pirate thrash.
337. Line of battle formed.
338. Wacken is wicked pumped.
339. Waist-deep in cannon smoke.
340. Laying out the riffs.
341. Some dude puts his hook in the frame.
342. Thrash speed beats shutter speed.
343. Fucking roaring; back to the noose!
344. Dug in, thrashing out.
345. The crowd is going more nuts than Alestorm last year and with fewer lame plastic toys.
346. Ripping into "Walk The Plank".
347. Bellowing for a circle pit.
348. Hooks and horns to the sky.
349. Through the haze.
350. Dudes still going nuts.
351. And this is on the puny Medieval Stage?
352. Prospective crew hail the captain.
353. A forest of arms.
354. The bodies go flying.
355. Admiral Nobeard parts the seas for the Wave of Death.
356. ....And the seas opened....
357. Breakers crashing with ultimate violence.
358. Dudes still flipping out.
359. Sack'n'pillage melee!
360. "Splash'n'Thrash" is a huge success.
361. ...and now there's THIS many, all going nuts.
362. Gimmick peeps come out in costume for "Party Boat".
363. The security finally shows up, eight or ten songs in, and immediately calls for backup.
364. Nobeard jamming the fuck out.
365. Washing in with the tide.
366. WHIRLPIT!!
367. Leo's younger brother dives into the waves.
368. Driving the storm.
369. Deserved appreesh.
370. IT CAME FROM THE DEEP!
371. Mutual hails go out.
372. Commodore Redrum sprays the first row with beer.
373. Locked in.
374. A new age of piracy dawning...
375. Hey, there's some fuckin epic parts too.
376. Almost backstage...
377. Crewed By The Damned!
378. Banging to the finale.
379. In the smoke - "X Marks The Spot"!
380. High kicks and absent picks.
381. The Admiral goes down with the "Battleship".
382. Hundreds scream for a further encore...
383. ....and get a drumkit teardown. They played every goddamned real song they've recorded! They're all fucking out!
384. Nobeard hails the crowd again.
385. ....and gives me the finger for not shutting up about they boyz.
386. And with no more music, the crowd dances on regardless, until the festival staff blast Schläger music over the PA to get them to go away.
Let's reiterate: 500 to 1000 people showed up to this stage, some not knowing what to expect and some singing Alestorm tunes. This band played aggressive moshing thrash metal owing heavily to Exodus, and by the end, after raucous encore demand that resulted in the band playing every original song they are even capable of playing live, the 1500 remaining were not worn out from an hour of vicious moshing and thrashing, and continued singing pirate songs and doing dances in the hope that the band would come out again, and eventually had to be shooed away. I'm not going to award the title on this basis, but Alestorm, a challenger has fucking appeared. (They always do.) Who will become the Pirate King?
It's ok to go back to part 6 now, you didn't miss anything.
European Tour 2009 part 6: Wacken day 2
This covers all of day 2 except that part which is broken out as a special photo essay on Swashbuckle's set, because I took too many fucking pictures of them.
--
Day 7
31 July 2009
Wacken - Schleswig-Holstein - Germany
274. Perimeter of "Area 666", a self-proclaimed independent enclave entirely surrounded by the Federal Republic of Germany.
275. The Van of Death. Note the license plate as well as the stencil graphic.
This morning my tent was actually rained through, as in water dripping in through the rain fly and then through the ceiling. Fortunately, the information I got from the drunks in the breakfast tent was accurate, and the weather improved markedly the rest of the festival.
After taking the two pics above, I wrung out my socks - which had soaked up the water that I wasn't able to pour out of my boots - and got some breakfast. There I met and hung out with the above-alluded-to drunken German dudes; what else is new?
276. WTF?! Yeah, Germany? I'm here on behalf of the Italian-American community. We just want to let you know that your pizza privileges have been revoked. I'm sorry, but if you think tuna fish is an appropriate pizza topping, we have to pull your cert. It's for everyone's good, you know.
There was also some more alleged pizza in the breakfast tent. People were complaining that it more resembled flooring tiles and probably tasted worse. I don't know why anyone would want pizza at a German festival; there's enough not-godawful food - like sausages and doner and beer - to go around for everyone.
Neat: Vried soundchecking their guitars by jamming on "I Am The Black Wizards".
277. Outer infield, still holding up pretty well.
278. For tech fans: the back of one of the video walls. All together now: NEEE~RD.
279. Vried setting up.
280. This security dude's pants are SET THE FUCK UP. Seriously, where do I get a pair of these things?
Vried [6/7]
Nice hammer-to-the-face opener, like Zyklon back in '05. If Vried didn't invent black'n'roll, they've at least perfected it; now we've just got to get them to the States so that they and Hirudinea and/or Witch Tomb can demolish the Middle East.
281. Vried hit the stage.
282. Laying down some "Discipline".
283. Ese rips on a solo.
284. Continuing to tear it up.
285. More devastation.
286. Through pyro smoke.
287. "Svart" - hero shot.
288. Camera service.
289. Guitar Hero time!
290. The Pitch Black Brigade in close formation.
291. The line of battle.
292. "Speak, Goddamnit!" - and the crowd roars back.
293. The "Blücher" burns as it goes down off Oslo.
It's interesting to see this band here; a lot of their lyrics, as a Norge band with a military complex kind of have to, deal with the World War II resistance movement, and they're not apologetic at all: "We're happy that our peeps killed your peeps whenever they could." But Germany's pretty antifa these days as well - and hey, in the abstract, Nazis are up there with aliens and zombies as preferred grist for general slaughter.
UFO [5/7]
Break time! Rock'n'roll hair metal; is there even a Schenker still in this band? They're decent enough to hear while drinking and writing notes, but....
294. UFO doing some '80s-sounding song about drinking tequila and fucking Mexican chicas....from their latest record.
295. More stuff to whine about - you can't sit on the bars anymore thanks to this fucking fencing. This was always fun as shit in the past; made a lot of friends sitting on the bars in the infield rather than the benches in the beer garden late in festivals.
As always, dudes are just pissing wherever. I have no idea how Europe isn't constantly gripped with cholera epidemics in the summer. Then again, there's so little blood in many of the offenders' alcoholstreams that stuff probably comes out being completely sterilized.
296. Dudes are pumped for Endstille.
297. Endstille summons a warblast from the weather.
Endstille [5/7]
I know next to nothng about this band, but they provided a good set of satisfactory German black/war metal mostly following Burzum and early Satyricon while I was waiting for Gamma Ray to go on. More interest? Go see them yourself, man.
298. Yes, it's a dude in a rabbit suit. Are you seriously surprised by anything from this fest any more?
Gamma Ray [7/7]
A set full of classics? A new song that isn't even recorded yet? A full take of "I Want Out", and nearly all of "Rebellion In Dreamland"? What could spoil this? Well, maybe the fest only selling shit batteries that can't push a flash charge without dying, but aside from that, nothing. As noted, an incredible set list, from the first row, and if the fucking camera was dead, all the more time to thrash.
299. Gamma Ray attacks the stage.
300. Heavy Metal Universe!
301. Jamming out.
302. Doing the neck-swing-in-unison thing.
303. Henjo tearing it up.
304. Action shot.
Now, skipping Walls of Jericho and Tristania (how fortunate, zero bands missed) to try and go find some camera batteries that don't suck before Nevermore and Swashbuckle.
305. The Frisis in town. I met this dude on the train up; he's still got the megaphone and the relentless prankster attitude, bringing improv comedy and lunacy to amuse residents and festivalgoers alike.
306. "Last Gas Before Exit". It's funny because the German drunk driving laws are a lot stricter than in the US, and here Astra goes anyway.
I once wrote a character who had a bit of a complex about pistol ammo, always loading dozens of magazines and strapping them onto all parts of his body. This fest - and shitty festival batteries - have made me that guy, at least for camera "ammunition"; I've got the equivalent of five "clips" in the jacket, and one more "in the chamber". Another day and a half; not gonna fucking run out.
Nevermore [7/7]
I got back in time to get rail, and of course it was complete ruleage. The band was in high form, and the crowd was as brutal as expected. They played, oddly enough, the title cuts of the last three records - including the everlasting "This Godless Endeavor" and the mostly apocryphal "Dead Heart In A Dead World" - and closed with "Born", and... well, take a look at the pictures.
307. Jeff taucht auf.
308. Thrashing through the opener.
309. Warrel and Jim crush the crowd.
310. Jeff and Jim behind the smoke front.
311. Jeff and Jim bent double mid-headbang.
312. In close formation.
313. Jeff and some running stage divers.
314. Warrel agitates on "The Heart Collector".
315. Jeff and Jim banging their necks off.
316. Jeff taking a solo.
317. Warrel preaches it - "IS THIS JUSTICE? IS THIS THE AMERICAN WAY??!"
318. The bodies go up for "Born".
319. The melee on the stagefront.
320. "More bodies!"
321. "Bodies on fucking bodies!"
322. Van comes out to chuck his sticks.
323. DragonForce, frozen in time.
DragonForce [5/7]
They're doing a better job of staying in tune than the last time I saw them here, but the new stuff sounds pretty much exactly like the old. So DragonForce is DragonForce, but more than that, they have done effectively NOTHING in the TEN YEARS since their Valley of the Damned demo. Nothing except woodshed, never innovate. A band that treads water gets a water-treader score; even Amon Amarth and AC/DC will show some manifest change in the span of a decade.
Airbourne [4/7]
Speaking of AC/DC... when did they start letting coverbands play the "real" days again? Nostalgia, I guess, but everything this band has was written by the Youngs 30 years ago.
HammerFall [5/7]
Speaking of treading water.... This was a beergarden set, waiting for Swashbuckle to start, so I missed most of the carnage. They're still decent, still silly, still HammerFail.
-------------------
Go to the Swashbuckle post here, then come back. We'll wait for you.
-------------------
That's a total of about 60 pics on one band. Epic.
387. And then we get back to the festival ground proper and find this guy sticking beer glasses to his gut. W O Fuckin A.
Motorhead [6/7]
I organized these pics and hung out with some cool doods while keeping an ear on the Road Crew; a proper banging set, even half a klick back. Good shit, as always, and Mickey's drum solo was legendary-class.
Following this, I killed more time with new friends (Dutch lesbians with big black whiskey dicks ftw) and waited for Pentagram. In Flames and Doro went on during this time frame but are not rated here, and in some senses, didn't rate.
Pentagram [6/7]
First, I was gonna stick for four songs (2 in the morning, I'd been up since seven previous, did a lot of hiking and saw a lot of bands). Then five. Then, fuck it, I'll watch the whole goddamned set. Good call; this was 45 minutes of all-ruling sorreño thrashing death metal. Worth the drinking ban I'd put myself under to stay awake for it, and worth the Jäger powerups used to supplement such; worth it every second.
388. Pentagram's stage setup.
389. It's a Chilean flag....in bad lighting.
390. The crowd is pumped as the band steps out.
391. Pentagram in the shadows.
392. Anton on full thrashing power.
393. Backlit, kvlt, as it was.
394. About to get "Demented".
395. Wrecking frets and necks.
396. KVLT.
397. Juan-Pablo ripping a solo.
398. The intro to "Pigs". (Powerviolence bands, cover this!)
399. After the set; so brutal the lens flares are bouncing back weird.
400. Later; a light in the dark. Campground A.
--
Day 7
31 July 2009
Wacken - Schleswig-Holstein - Germany
274. Perimeter of "Area 666", a self-proclaimed independent enclave entirely surrounded by the Federal Republic of Germany.
275. The Van of Death. Note the license plate as well as the stencil graphic.
This morning my tent was actually rained through, as in water dripping in through the rain fly and then through the ceiling. Fortunately, the information I got from the drunks in the breakfast tent was accurate, and the weather improved markedly the rest of the festival.
After taking the two pics above, I wrung out my socks - which had soaked up the water that I wasn't able to pour out of my boots - and got some breakfast. There I met and hung out with the above-alluded-to drunken German dudes; what else is new?
276. WTF?! Yeah, Germany? I'm here on behalf of the Italian-American community. We just want to let you know that your pizza privileges have been revoked. I'm sorry, but if you think tuna fish is an appropriate pizza topping, we have to pull your cert. It's for everyone's good, you know.
There was also some more alleged pizza in the breakfast tent. People were complaining that it more resembled flooring tiles and probably tasted worse. I don't know why anyone would want pizza at a German festival; there's enough not-godawful food - like sausages and doner and beer - to go around for everyone.
Neat: Vried soundchecking their guitars by jamming on "I Am The Black Wizards".
277. Outer infield, still holding up pretty well.
278. For tech fans: the back of one of the video walls. All together now: NEEE~RD.
279. Vried setting up.
280. This security dude's pants are SET THE FUCK UP. Seriously, where do I get a pair of these things?
Vried [6/7]
Nice hammer-to-the-face opener, like Zyklon back in '05. If Vried didn't invent black'n'roll, they've at least perfected it; now we've just got to get them to the States so that they and Hirudinea and/or Witch Tomb can demolish the Middle East.
281. Vried hit the stage.
282. Laying down some "Discipline".
283. Ese rips on a solo.
284. Continuing to tear it up.
285. More devastation.
286. Through pyro smoke.
287. "Svart" - hero shot.
288. Camera service.
289. Guitar Hero time!
290. The Pitch Black Brigade in close formation.
291. The line of battle.
292. "Speak, Goddamnit!" - and the crowd roars back.
293. The "Blücher" burns as it goes down off Oslo.
It's interesting to see this band here; a lot of their lyrics, as a Norge band with a military complex kind of have to, deal with the World War II resistance movement, and they're not apologetic at all: "We're happy that our peeps killed your peeps whenever they could." But Germany's pretty antifa these days as well - and hey, in the abstract, Nazis are up there with aliens and zombies as preferred grist for general slaughter.
UFO [5/7]
Break time! Rock'n'roll hair metal; is there even a Schenker still in this band? They're decent enough to hear while drinking and writing notes, but....
294. UFO doing some '80s-sounding song about drinking tequila and fucking Mexican chicas....from their latest record.
295. More stuff to whine about - you can't sit on the bars anymore thanks to this fucking fencing. This was always fun as shit in the past; made a lot of friends sitting on the bars in the infield rather than the benches in the beer garden late in festivals.
As always, dudes are just pissing wherever. I have no idea how Europe isn't constantly gripped with cholera epidemics in the summer. Then again, there's so little blood in many of the offenders' alcoholstreams that stuff probably comes out being completely sterilized.
296. Dudes are pumped for Endstille.
297. Endstille summons a warblast from the weather.
Endstille [5/7]
I know next to nothng about this band, but they provided a good set of satisfactory German black/war metal mostly following Burzum and early Satyricon while I was waiting for Gamma Ray to go on. More interest? Go see them yourself, man.
298. Yes, it's a dude in a rabbit suit. Are you seriously surprised by anything from this fest any more?
Gamma Ray [7/7]
A set full of classics? A new song that isn't even recorded yet? A full take of "I Want Out", and nearly all of "Rebellion In Dreamland"? What could spoil this? Well, maybe the fest only selling shit batteries that can't push a flash charge without dying, but aside from that, nothing. As noted, an incredible set list, from the first row, and if the fucking camera was dead, all the more time to thrash.
299. Gamma Ray attacks the stage.
300. Heavy Metal Universe!
301. Jamming out.
302. Doing the neck-swing-in-unison thing.
303. Henjo tearing it up.
304. Action shot.
Now, skipping Walls of Jericho and Tristania (how fortunate, zero bands missed) to try and go find some camera batteries that don't suck before Nevermore and Swashbuckle.
305. The Frisis in town. I met this dude on the train up; he's still got the megaphone and the relentless prankster attitude, bringing improv comedy and lunacy to amuse residents and festivalgoers alike.
306. "Last Gas Before Exit". It's funny because the German drunk driving laws are a lot stricter than in the US, and here Astra goes anyway.
I once wrote a character who had a bit of a complex about pistol ammo, always loading dozens of magazines and strapping them onto all parts of his body. This fest - and shitty festival batteries - have made me that guy, at least for camera "ammunition"; I've got the equivalent of five "clips" in the jacket, and one more "in the chamber". Another day and a half; not gonna fucking run out.
Nevermore [7/7]
I got back in time to get rail, and of course it was complete ruleage. The band was in high form, and the crowd was as brutal as expected. They played, oddly enough, the title cuts of the last three records - including the everlasting "This Godless Endeavor" and the mostly apocryphal "Dead Heart In A Dead World" - and closed with "Born", and... well, take a look at the pictures.
307. Jeff taucht auf.
308. Thrashing through the opener.
309. Warrel and Jim crush the crowd.
310. Jeff and Jim behind the smoke front.
311. Jeff and Jim bent double mid-headbang.
312. In close formation.
313. Jeff and some running stage divers.
314. Warrel agitates on "The Heart Collector".
315. Jeff and Jim banging their necks off.
316. Jeff taking a solo.
317. Warrel preaches it - "IS THIS JUSTICE? IS THIS THE AMERICAN WAY??!"
318. The bodies go up for "Born".
319. The melee on the stagefront.
320. "More bodies!"
321. "Bodies on fucking bodies!"
322. Van comes out to chuck his sticks.
323. DragonForce, frozen in time.
DragonForce [5/7]
They're doing a better job of staying in tune than the last time I saw them here, but the new stuff sounds pretty much exactly like the old. So DragonForce is DragonForce, but more than that, they have done effectively NOTHING in the TEN YEARS since their Valley of the Damned demo. Nothing except woodshed, never innovate. A band that treads water gets a water-treader score; even Amon Amarth and AC/DC will show some manifest change in the span of a decade.
Airbourne [4/7]
Speaking of AC/DC... when did they start letting coverbands play the "real" days again? Nostalgia, I guess, but everything this band has was written by the Youngs 30 years ago.
HammerFall [5/7]
Speaking of treading water.... This was a beergarden set, waiting for Swashbuckle to start, so I missed most of the carnage. They're still decent, still silly, still HammerFail.
-------------------
Go to the Swashbuckle post here, then come back. We'll wait for you.
-------------------
That's a total of about 60 pics on one band. Epic.
387. And then we get back to the festival ground proper and find this guy sticking beer glasses to his gut. W O Fuckin A.
Motorhead [6/7]
I organized these pics and hung out with some cool doods while keeping an ear on the Road Crew; a proper banging set, even half a klick back. Good shit, as always, and Mickey's drum solo was legendary-class.
Following this, I killed more time with new friends (Dutch lesbians with big black whiskey dicks ftw) and waited for Pentagram. In Flames and Doro went on during this time frame but are not rated here, and in some senses, didn't rate.
Pentagram [6/7]
First, I was gonna stick for four songs (2 in the morning, I'd been up since seven previous, did a lot of hiking and saw a lot of bands). Then five. Then, fuck it, I'll watch the whole goddamned set. Good call; this was 45 minutes of all-ruling sorreño thrashing death metal. Worth the drinking ban I'd put myself under to stay awake for it, and worth the Jäger powerups used to supplement such; worth it every second.
388. Pentagram's stage setup.
389. It's a Chilean flag....in bad lighting.
390. The crowd is pumped as the band steps out.
391. Pentagram in the shadows.
392. Anton on full thrashing power.
393. Backlit, kvlt, as it was.
394. About to get "Demented".
395. Wrecking frets and necks.
396. KVLT.
397. Juan-Pablo ripping a solo.
398. The intro to "Pigs". (Powerviolence bands, cover this!)
399. After the set; so brutal the lens flares are bouncing back weird.
400. Later; a light in the dark. Campground A.
European Tour 2009 part 5: Wacken warmup
--
Day 5
29 July 2009
København - Hovedstaden - Denmark to Hamburg - Hamburg-Hesse - Germany
241. Wait, water? I thought this was a train stage? It is -- as later pics will show, the train drove into the ferry to cross between Rødby and Puttgarden.
242. Some distant ships at full zoom.
243. Windmills coming into the German side.
244. Train inside the ferry. Awesome.
On the ride in to Wacken, I fell in with locals as usual, and gave out my first Parasitic Extirpation CD. It didn't work in the dude's radio, though; if cosmic rays fucked it up, I'll be pissed.
Wacken - Schleswig-Holstein - Germany
With my tent up and crap in, it's time to go get some dinner and a beer or so, hang with some peeps, strew some merch, and then get back and rest up. Dunno if Onkel Tom is worth staying up till 11 tonight for.
Is it me or are there more chicks here than previously? Weird; one wonders if such was a consideration in when the fest sold out....
Victims of Madness [4/7]
Maybe the higher profile this year convinced them to rehearse more; maybe better technology allowed it; maybe they just played easier covers while I was listening. Whatever the reason, they did generally better with their covers, and the original "Wacken Song" wasn't half bad. We'll see how it goes with Doro fronting Skyline tomorrow.
245. A better VoM lineup doing "Ace of Spades".
246. VoM doing the Wacken song.
247. Borat-Abteilung in the beergarden. If you're not comfortable with dudes' junk hanging out, this may not be your festival. Wacken, man.
--
Day 6
30 July 2009
Wacken - Schleswig-Holstein - Germany
My favorite part of Victorian novels is whent he protagonist(s) inevitably fall in with bad company. Falling in with bad company is fun shit.
After the above notes on Victims of Madness, I got rolled into the international table; Norwegians, Dutch, Swedes, Danes, French, etc, and me, translating occasionally. This led to heavy drinking and going back to the Norskies' buscamp to drink some more. The party started before seven and wound down well after midnight; I did get some real sleep, though, before waking up to pull my boots in from the morning rainstorm.
248. Morgengrauen in Wacken.
Yesterday was Ipsissimus and moderate distro success; hopefully the Dysentery shirt will help me clear the rest of my pocket loads before the close of the day.
249. Jägermeister, taking bad decisions to literally new heights. This is the Jäger hanging bar discussed earlier.
250. Hier kommt die Sonne. The morning's rain was pushed away by strong winds; we'll see if there's more moisture trailing. (There was.)
Last year's A-line setup has taken a bit of a hit that can be described in two words: No Water. As I ambled lightheaded through the campground this morning, I noticed a complete absence of the water tanks of the previous couple years. Were they really such vandalism magnets? I can't see any other reason for them to get pulled. Unless, of course, they figured on 69,999 others, like me, buying a 2e iced-tea box instead of pouring themselves a hat or Masskrug of free, clear, delicious, water.
The beergarden staff is currently hauling out what seems to be a ton of broken benches and tables. It doesn't feel like the aftermath of a riot, though; my money's on the usual combination of heavy people and heavy drinking.
251. From the original '92 shirt to Fape hoodies; 17 years, how much culture. Since no earlier festival shirts exist, maybe I should whine less about NEDF not doing festival shirts in their first year either.
252. "Wind 1, Jägermeister 0!" Their tents got fucking jacked up over the wall from the infield into the midway. Hope my stakes held.....
They didn't. Tent got flipped. All contents ok, under-sail removed, tent re-staked, where it would stay the rest of the weekend.
I eventually bailed on the merch line and hit the Metal Market. Picked up a couple of patches, including a ~parody one for Composted, and also a couple black metal demos on tape. After picking these out, I got to peek at the dude's secret stash of NSBM; nothing especially interesting, so I didn't bite. Still, the almost literal under-the-table aspect was kinda cool.
253. Wacken, rain or....well, mostly rain.
After reviving my tent and tossing my merch in, I ambled back through a rainshower to the beergarden through a mostly empty midway. Dudes were scattering and ponchoing up, but my all-weather kutte saw me through. Thick and rain-repellent! Insulating! Cools easily in case of sweat!
Unfortunately, all this extra time-to-live bought me was more standing in line. Weatherpussies had crowded into every inch of space under every available awning, making it impossible to get a goddamned beer. Soon, though, enough of them manned up and left that I was able to get to the bar, grab a beer, and go back out under the drying sun. Bands start in about 2 hours.
254. Let's see how long this holds up.
255. The new infield.
Skyline [4/7]
A few originals, a lot of help; a nice look into the past, but you can kind of see why they weren't able to get an open-air slot anywhere else and had to make their own fest.
256. Skyline jamming out.
257. Doro leading Skyline.
258. Doro & Sabina on "We Are The Metalheads".
259. The piper from Subway to Sally makes an appearance.
Onkel Tom [5/7]
A surprise 2-song outing at the end of Skyline's set, this was a nice Zugabe for those (like me) who missed his set the night before.
260. It's everyone's favorite drunken German uncle!
261. Onkel Tom & band thrashing.
262. Herr Angelripper auf brüllen.
Schandmaul [5/7]
Another good performance, and a fucking amazing response. However, it's still not completely clear how they separate themselves from other mittel-alter bands. No Subway to Sally or In Extremo yet (though both are on the bill), so good stuff.
263. Schandmaul demonstrates that there is "Kein Weg zu weit".
Der W [5.5/7]
Good stuff, of which some I'm a fan of (yay "Heiss", "Geschichtenhasser", and "Gewinnen Kann Jeder"), but for all the quality, it's doubtful that he'd get this slot, being such a pure rock band, if he hadn't been in the Onkelz and helped save the festival so long ago.
264. Der W - Weidner takes command of the mic.
Shut up, dumb awards show, moar Running Wild!
The good things about this dumb awards show:
1) Slipknot getting booed after winning Best Website.
2) Heaven Shall Burn coming out after winning song of the year and simultaneously dissing the award, talking their own music down, and fanboying for Running Wild to the exclusion of all other activities. This is why they will survive after the wave that has put them to the top of the charts starts cutting their hair differently.
265. Stage set for Running Wild.
266. The set opened with a pirate skit (probably stumping for the Hamburg Dungeon that Rolf's involved with now) that ran on about a minute and a half longer than optimal.
267. Pirates continue fucking around.
268. Chick with some dude on a chain.
269. Finally, Cap'n Rolf!
Port Royal
Bad To The Bone
Riding The Storm
Soulless
Prisoner of our Time
Black Hand Inn
Condemned
Battle of Waterloo
(drum solo)
Raging Fire
The Privateer
Draw The Line
Whirlwind
Tortuga Bay
Branded and Exiled
Raise Your Fist
--
Conquistadores
Under Jolly Roger
That's it. Running Wild will never play another show as a full band again. Note: I ran into another under-30 "alter kuttenträger" on Saturday morning, and we had about a 45-minute discussion of how this set could have been improved, mostly by adding in several of the dozen or two classic songs we identified as missing, and by removing the pirate skit and the bogus wait before the encore. This is how real fans roll.
Running Wild [7/7]
No "Little Big Horn". No "Ballad of William Kidd" or "Treasure Island" -- not even "Chains And Leather" or "Victim of State's Power". But yes, 17 Running Wild songs, front row, and that at least will last. With my personal history as a metalhead, I had to see this; I did, and it made the trip worth it, even adjusting for the weather.
270. The band rips through "Port Royal".
271. Rolf Kasparek, front and center.
272. Same song, running low on light.
273. Throw some sand on the decks, mateys, we'll ride out this squall yet! And we did.
Heaven & Hell [5/7]
Really good for an old band heard from a quarter mile away. I was more watching a live concert feed than seeing the set, courtesy of the video walls, but I heard it live, which is what counts.
Day 5
29 July 2009
København - Hovedstaden - Denmark to Hamburg - Hamburg-Hesse - Germany
241. Wait, water? I thought this was a train stage? It is -- as later pics will show, the train drove into the ferry to cross between Rødby and Puttgarden.
242. Some distant ships at full zoom.
243. Windmills coming into the German side.
244. Train inside the ferry. Awesome.
On the ride in to Wacken, I fell in with locals as usual, and gave out my first Parasitic Extirpation CD. It didn't work in the dude's radio, though; if cosmic rays fucked it up, I'll be pissed.
Wacken - Schleswig-Holstein - Germany
With my tent up and crap in, it's time to go get some dinner and a beer or so, hang with some peeps, strew some merch, and then get back and rest up. Dunno if Onkel Tom is worth staying up till 11 tonight for.
Is it me or are there more chicks here than previously? Weird; one wonders if such was a consideration in when the fest sold out....
Victims of Madness [4/7]
Maybe the higher profile this year convinced them to rehearse more; maybe better technology allowed it; maybe they just played easier covers while I was listening. Whatever the reason, they did generally better with their covers, and the original "Wacken Song" wasn't half bad. We'll see how it goes with Doro fronting Skyline tomorrow.
245. A better VoM lineup doing "Ace of Spades".
246. VoM doing the Wacken song.
247. Borat-Abteilung in the beergarden. If you're not comfortable with dudes' junk hanging out, this may not be your festival. Wacken, man.
--
Day 6
30 July 2009
Wacken - Schleswig-Holstein - Germany
My favorite part of Victorian novels is whent he protagonist(s) inevitably fall in with bad company. Falling in with bad company is fun shit.
After the above notes on Victims of Madness, I got rolled into the international table; Norwegians, Dutch, Swedes, Danes, French, etc, and me, translating occasionally. This led to heavy drinking and going back to the Norskies' buscamp to drink some more. The party started before seven and wound down well after midnight; I did get some real sleep, though, before waking up to pull my boots in from the morning rainstorm.
248. Morgengrauen in Wacken.
Yesterday was Ipsissimus and moderate distro success; hopefully the Dysentery shirt will help me clear the rest of my pocket loads before the close of the day.
249. Jägermeister, taking bad decisions to literally new heights. This is the Jäger hanging bar discussed earlier.
250. Hier kommt die Sonne. The morning's rain was pushed away by strong winds; we'll see if there's more moisture trailing. (There was.)
Last year's A-line setup has taken a bit of a hit that can be described in two words: No Water. As I ambled lightheaded through the campground this morning, I noticed a complete absence of the water tanks of the previous couple years. Were they really such vandalism magnets? I can't see any other reason for them to get pulled. Unless, of course, they figured on 69,999 others, like me, buying a 2e iced-tea box instead of pouring themselves a hat or Masskrug of free, clear, delicious, water.
The beergarden staff is currently hauling out what seems to be a ton of broken benches and tables. It doesn't feel like the aftermath of a riot, though; my money's on the usual combination of heavy people and heavy drinking.
251. From the original '92 shirt to Fape hoodies; 17 years, how much culture. Since no earlier festival shirts exist, maybe I should whine less about NEDF not doing festival shirts in their first year either.
252. "Wind 1, Jägermeister 0!" Their tents got fucking jacked up over the wall from the infield into the midway. Hope my stakes held.....
They didn't. Tent got flipped. All contents ok, under-sail removed, tent re-staked, where it would stay the rest of the weekend.
I eventually bailed on the merch line and hit the Metal Market. Picked up a couple of patches, including a ~parody one for Composted, and also a couple black metal demos on tape. After picking these out, I got to peek at the dude's secret stash of NSBM; nothing especially interesting, so I didn't bite. Still, the almost literal under-the-table aspect was kinda cool.
253. Wacken, rain or....well, mostly rain.
After reviving my tent and tossing my merch in, I ambled back through a rainshower to the beergarden through a mostly empty midway. Dudes were scattering and ponchoing up, but my all-weather kutte saw me through. Thick and rain-repellent! Insulating! Cools easily in case of sweat!
Unfortunately, all this extra time-to-live bought me was more standing in line. Weatherpussies had crowded into every inch of space under every available awning, making it impossible to get a goddamned beer. Soon, though, enough of them manned up and left that I was able to get to the bar, grab a beer, and go back out under the drying sun. Bands start in about 2 hours.
254. Let's see how long this holds up.
255. The new infield.
Skyline [4/7]
A few originals, a lot of help; a nice look into the past, but you can kind of see why they weren't able to get an open-air slot anywhere else and had to make their own fest.
256. Skyline jamming out.
257. Doro leading Skyline.
258. Doro & Sabina on "We Are The Metalheads".
259. The piper from Subway to Sally makes an appearance.
Onkel Tom [5/7]
A surprise 2-song outing at the end of Skyline's set, this was a nice Zugabe for those (like me) who missed his set the night before.
260. It's everyone's favorite drunken German uncle!
261. Onkel Tom & band thrashing.
262. Herr Angelripper auf brüllen.
Schandmaul [5/7]
Another good performance, and a fucking amazing response. However, it's still not completely clear how they separate themselves from other mittel-alter bands. No Subway to Sally or In Extremo yet (though both are on the bill), so good stuff.
263. Schandmaul demonstrates that there is "Kein Weg zu weit".
Der W [5.5/7]
Good stuff, of which some I'm a fan of (yay "Heiss", "Geschichtenhasser", and "Gewinnen Kann Jeder"), but for all the quality, it's doubtful that he'd get this slot, being such a pure rock band, if he hadn't been in the Onkelz and helped save the festival so long ago.
264. Der W - Weidner takes command of the mic.
Shut up, dumb awards show, moar Running Wild!
The good things about this dumb awards show:
1) Slipknot getting booed after winning Best Website.
2) Heaven Shall Burn coming out after winning song of the year and simultaneously dissing the award, talking their own music down, and fanboying for Running Wild to the exclusion of all other activities. This is why they will survive after the wave that has put them to the top of the charts starts cutting their hair differently.
265. Stage set for Running Wild.
266. The set opened with a pirate skit (probably stumping for the Hamburg Dungeon that Rolf's involved with now) that ran on about a minute and a half longer than optimal.
267. Pirates continue fucking around.
268. Chick with some dude on a chain.
269. Finally, Cap'n Rolf!
Port Royal
Bad To The Bone
Riding The Storm
Soulless
Prisoner of our Time
Black Hand Inn
Condemned
Battle of Waterloo
(drum solo)
Raging Fire
The Privateer
Draw The Line
Whirlwind
Tortuga Bay
Branded and Exiled
Raise Your Fist
--
Conquistadores
Under Jolly Roger
That's it. Running Wild will never play another show as a full band again. Note: I ran into another under-30 "alter kuttenträger" on Saturday morning, and we had about a 45-minute discussion of how this set could have been improved, mostly by adding in several of the dozen or two classic songs we identified as missing, and by removing the pirate skit and the bogus wait before the encore. This is how real fans roll.
Running Wild [7/7]
No "Little Big Horn". No "Ballad of William Kidd" or "Treasure Island" -- not even "Chains And Leather" or "Victim of State's Power". But yes, 17 Running Wild songs, front row, and that at least will last. With my personal history as a metalhead, I had to see this; I did, and it made the trip worth it, even adjusting for the weather.
270. The band rips through "Port Royal".
271. Rolf Kasparek, front and center.
272. Same song, running low on light.
273. Throw some sand on the decks, mateys, we'll ride out this squall yet! And we did.
Heaven & Hell [5/7]
Really good for an old band heard from a quarter mile away. I was more watching a live concert feed than seeing the set, courtesy of the video walls, but I heard it live, which is what counts.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Wacken/P.San in process
I'm currently in the middle of transcribing notes and processing about 770 pictures relating to the recent central European trip. Wacken and the tourist parts are done but I haven't hit Party.San yet; about 210 pictures are left to be resized/edited and documented. Look for the first updates toward the end of this week, along with all the Every Shirt installments since Tuesday that I haven't written up yet due to working on the trip stuff. Being on call sucks for not going to shows, but as long as no one calls, it's more time in the evenings to finish this crap up.
Thursday, July 02, 2009
this will, of course, end well
I understand that if people actually want to read about the upcoming W:O:A, the official site is over that way, and nothing is stopping people from doing so. I also understand that nobody reads this, and that any statistical noise in that "nobody" assessment probably also does not have a Wacken ticket, and thus does not care. Still, though, there are some things that are worth sharing.
The festival is less than a month away, and we're getting into the part where a lot of shit gets announced, both good (select sets being recorded live for cheap download), bad (Mago de Oz and Thin Lizzy cancelling what the hell), and WTF (this one). WTF, of course, because seriously, what else do you call hanging a Jaegermeister bar off a crane?
I'm a metalhead, and I drink Kraueterlikoers. I know many other metalheads who also like weird liquors made out of roots and herbs. And unambiguously, I forecast that it is a stupid idea to drink them when suspended 150 feet up in the air. They get you drunk, and make you do stupid things, and that is a long way to fall. The End; I will not get tagged for like $35 to send an international SMS while in the goddamned infield to get a chance to go on it, and I will assiduously avoid standing under it.
The festival is less than a month away, and we're getting into the part where a lot of shit gets announced, both good (select sets being recorded live for cheap download), bad (Mago de Oz and Thin Lizzy cancelling what the hell), and WTF (this one). WTF, of course, because seriously, what else do you call hanging a Jaegermeister bar off a crane?
I'm a metalhead, and I drink Kraueterlikoers. I know many other metalheads who also like weird liquors made out of roots and herbs. And unambiguously, I forecast that it is a stupid idea to drink them when suspended 150 feet up in the air. They get you drunk, and make you do stupid things, and that is a long way to fall. The End; I will not get tagged for like $35 to send an international SMS while in the goddamned infield to get a chance to go on it, and I will assiduously avoid standing under it.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
/jawdrop
Seriously. Through the fucking floor.
Why?
Swashbuckle is playing Wacken. (article in German, man up and learn the lingo)
Before this point, the Medieval stage (and the entire Medieval Village, for that matter) was completely useless and a prime argument that the festival had jumped the shark. Now, as long as they're not playing against anyone of ocean-crossing draw power, I have to go there. Even if it's the smallest and newest of the stages, this is three years removed from playing dive bars on the East Coast out of a van. Actually, they're probably playing Europe out of a van, too, and will be cussing when they get there that they're tied up for the week because there's only one usually-closed-for-festival road going through Wacken, but still.
Why?
Swashbuckle is playing Wacken. (article in German, man up and learn the lingo)
Before this point, the Medieval stage (and the entire Medieval Village, for that matter) was completely useless and a prime argument that the festival had jumped the shark. Now, as long as they're not playing against anyone of ocean-crossing draw power, I have to go there. Even if it's the smallest and newest of the stages, this is three years removed from playing dive bars on the East Coast out of a van. Actually, they're probably playing Europe out of a van, too, and will be cussing when they get there that they're tied up for the week because there's only one usually-closed-for-festival road going through Wacken, but still.
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