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Events and Reports - Wacken Open Air 2004 - Steen´s Wacken report
...And so came the time for another Wacken Open Air Festival. Usually the highlight of the year for me, but this time I had serious doubts that W:O:A would be able to top my experience at the fantastic Sweden Rock Festival a few months earlier as there weren't quite as many exciting bands playing. But you should never doubt the power of Wacken...
Unfortunately I didn't get a photo pass this year, so it became almost impossible to get good close ups.
For some reason my short term memory doesn't work very well anymore, and I suck at remembering details and writing about live shows in general so (as usual) this report will be more like my personal diary of Wacken. Read it and weep...
Wednesday
I had decided to take the Rock Crusader bus from Aarhus as it was the cheapest one around. Unfortunately alot of things went wrong in the organisation department, so I ended up having to take a 1 hour train ride to another city just to get to the pickup point. Then I waited for 1½ hour at the train station because the bus was delayed! Then when the bus finally arrived it was overbooked and I had to stand up or sit on other people all the way to Wacken! The organisers blamed the bus company for messing things up a few days prior to leaving and they were nice enough to make a free beer/Smirnoff ice policy for me because I was standing. As I am preparing to run my first marathon in Berlin next month I had been repeating the line "Steen, be strong, no beers at Wacken this year". I should have known that to be utopia and after a few minutes with free beer on the bus it didn't take long for that vow to break. When we arrived at the German border I naturally got tempted by the cheap prices and bought a case of beers, but anyway, I am quite proud of myself as I under normal circumstances would have bought at least three...
On the bus I met up with Nina and Mads so at least I had some good company for the trip. Well, we finally got down to Wacken something like 5 hours behind schedule and looking at my watch I saw that the time was 8:30pm, hhmmm I probably wouldn't make that meeting I had planned with Anders at 7pm... I went to look for Tommy, Mads and Ulrick and found them pretty quickly. Before long my tent was standing erect and ready for action. Tommy and the other guys had arrived a few hours earlier and were already rather loud. After a few beers I was walking across the camping ground to find a good tree to water when suddenly the ground disappears beneath my feet and I fall sideways into some kind of little river that runs through the entire camping ground! I don't remember that being there!!! Back at the camp I was completely soaked and of course I had not brought another pair of shoes... Fortunately Tommy borrowed me his great Metal-slippers...
Then we all went to check out the Metal Disco tent next to the entrance to the festival. Gone are to good old days when I would enter the metal disco and party, listen to tunes and drink until the early hours of the morning. Now 90% of what happens in the Metaldisco tent is the so called Metal-Karaoke where fans come on stage and sing along to a song. Unfortunately the music is not the original and after two songs I got extremely annoyed hearing classics like Master of puppets being played by a drum machine! This sucked!!! Wacken, please set up a seperate tent for the karaoke shit and another place for the real metal next year. Thanks.
As I hadn't slept much the days up to the festival I crashed in my tent just after midnight and had a good night's sleep, which turned out to be a good idea, as the heat the next day was completely overpowering.
Thursday
Today nothing really exciting happened. The highlight was spending 5 hours getting our press passes! That must be a new record. First walking for an hour to the check-in site, then standing in queue for three hours in the baking sun and then an hour back again. This is enough to drain the party attitude right away. Add to that the two hour queue at the supermarket and that the beer machine in the bar next to the supermarket had broken down and you will see that it was not funny at all and just had to be forgotten about as quickly as possible...
I didn't see any music thursday, in fact I don't even remember what happened during the evening. Man, I must be out of shape to lose my memory after three beers...
Friday
One thought was on my mind as soon as I awoke this day, "Chicken Wings!" As soon as I entered the festival grounds I discovered to my delight that they had placed the Chicken Wings vendor right next to the entrance. How lucky can one man be? I went to check out Mnemic who sounded way too hardcore for my taste and their sound sucked, so I returned to the Black Metal stage to watch Orphanage who sounded very promising, with a nice mix of female clean vocals and male growls in a very heavy background. I lingered for maybe ten seconds before my stomach started to rumble and I caved in and headed for the first batch of Chicken Wings of the day. Five minutes later I was sitting in the grass enjoying Orphanage, a pound of chicken wings and a cold beer. Can life get any better? Well, It didn't seem likely.
Paragon were up next but after their disappointing show in Sweden I didn't have any expectations. Still they were much better this time and seemed in a better mood. Arch Enemy were maybe the band I was looking most forward to seeing this year. The band was energized and packed a good punch in the audience's face. Unfortunately the sound from the main stage was not up to scratch and often filled with mud and echos. The wind was probably to blame for this, but overall the sound from the main stage was below par for most of the concerts I saw this year. The band had a good presence on the stage and songs like Dead eyes see no future and We will rise were great to hear live, but I left with a mixed feeling. Gotta see this band in a concert hall someday.
Every time I have seen Grave Digger it has been a huge party, and today was no exception. I had made my way to the front rows and was ready to go crazy. Grave Digger played the show I enjoyed the most of the festival. If I wasn't jumping up and down or singing along I was down on the ground after getting some random crowd surfing guy in the head. Usually I find the crowd surfing extremely annoying as it is not very fun to get your skull smashed by a huge army boot several times during a show, but today it was more fun than annoying, especially the girl who crowdsurfed with an open bra but didn't look like she did it on purpose.
Well, Grave Digger played an awesome setlist, including Son of Evil, The Grave Digger, The Battle of Bannockburn, Knights of the cross, Scotland United, Rebellion, Heavy Metal Breakdown, Morgane Le Fay, The round table and MORE. Lots of Power, intensity and Heavy Metal made this a show to remember.
The crowd at Grave Digger
After Grave Digger I had to miss Brainstorm in favor of the thing I was most looking forward to this day, the Rhapsody listening session and Press conference, where we would get a listen to the new album. Nina and I got into the press tent and sat down in the comfy chairs. Big mistake as that chair would later have a serious influence on my ability to stay awake... Well, the listening session got underway and after some skipping on the cd we got about four songs from the new album. The full version of Unholy warcry sounded great and had a better flow than the one on the EP. The rest of the songs I heard were not as fast, more orchestrated and giving the impression of many layers to get through. I can't judge anything until I hear the full album, but 10 minutes into the listening session I started nodding along. I'm sure it was the overpowering heat. I had almost fallen asleep and started dreaming of Sun Lolly's (very good ice) when I got a poke in the ribs from Nina, indicating that Rhapsody had entered the room. I quickly got up and snapped a few photos before the press conference got underway.
Being an extremely professional reporter I had of course left my dictaphone at home and was not able to record the entire session. Ahh well, always look on the bright side of life, at least that saved me five hours of typing... :) The band came of as very serious and I don't know if it is the limited knowledge of the English language, but especially Fabio Leone came of as somewhat self-absorbed while talking about Vision Divine. When asked about the quality of their videos and why they were not able to match the high quality of the music the reply from Luca was that their budget would not allow it. I say, leave the videos and concentrate on the music instead. We left before the press conference finished as it was just too damn hot in that tent and went straight for the Smirnoff Ice bar instead.
Right before Kotipelto hit the stage I got this unstopable craving for Chicken Wings again and I knew there was no turning back, so after a quick pitstop I was sitting in the back of the crowd enjoying some good music to my mega-meal. Later I regretted not checking out Feinstein instead as I was told that it was a most excellent show, with special guest Joey DeMaio on bass! Oh, well...
DIO
It seemed that I should just not get to see Joey today as I went to the tent to change clothes during the DIO concert and suddenly I heard Joey speaking from the stage while I was lying in my tent without any clothes on. Turned out that he gave DIO a lifetime achievement award...
Well, I got back to catch the last part of Warlock's reunion show right as Chris Caffery entered the stage to play a solo, good timing. With a huge live orchestra in the background and great sound and light show I think this show could have been totally amazing, but the lack of electric guitars through all the songs was a definite mistake and I really missed that in the music. I cannot describe the weirdness of hearing Judas Priest's Breaking the law being played acoustically. The first part sounded awful while the second part was much better. Visually it was amazing, but musically I missed the electric guitar.
Checking out the press tent turned out to be a low point as Tommy and I were very tired and just couldn't even pull ourselves together to make a move on any of the girls there. Instead we sat like two old grandfathers after a very hard days work. On our way home we caught the beginning of The Quireboys' show. I was pleasantly surprised by their energy and positive attitude at this late hour. Especially the piano player was a fresh touch. I would recommend the entire band to leave the stage when Spike, the lead singer, starts juggling with the mike stand as it would save them a lot of injuries. Anyway, if it wasn't half past two in the morning I would have stayed and hear the entire show, but being able to sleep standing up, I decided to head back to the camp after the first four songs. As Spike would probably have said: "That is not Rock'n Roll!"
Saturday
First band I caught was Anthrax who put on a very powerful and energized show. Too bad I was standing so far back and didn't know many of their songs. This show was another reason to check out this hole in my music history a.s.a.p.
For those looking for something a little harder than Nightwish, After Forever proved to be the perfect choice. The band played a really excellent concert and was a highlight of the festival for sure. Unfortunately they were plagued by sound problems for the first half of the show. I was in the front part of the audience, with a good view of the stage. They opened with a few songs of their new album which sounded really promising and powerful, the only mistake was to have some speaking parts in the songs. This didn't work at all.
For the first part of the show I couldn't figure out if the new keyboard player Joost Van den Broek was there or not, but with the cover of Iron Maiden's "The evil that men do", he came on stage and yes, he has not lost his touch since leaving Sun Caged. Floor Jansen was hot as usual and her outfit was pretty cool. After Forever is definitely a band to look out for. Their new album comes highly recommended from Tajs, who usually has a pretty good taste. I know I will be buying it in the near future.
Nevermore was another band I was looking very much forward to and they were up next. They were also plagued by bad sound but after moving around a little I found a good place next to the right speaker in the front. The band seemed in good spirits and of course Warrel was constantly starting a mosh pit in front of the stage, and somehow one broke out with me right in the middle. I saved my camera and quickly jumped a few places closer to the stage. Highlights of the show included Next in line, This sacrament, The Seven tongues of god, Beyond withing, Enemies of reality and of course the sing a long to The heart collector. Yes, pretty much the entire show... Overall a very good show, but too bad about the sound problems.
Helloween
Helloween pretty much played a shorter rehash of their show in Sweden Rock festival, just not as good. Weikath seemed pretty drunk and fooled around a lot in a German chicken voice. For the last two songs Kai Hansen came on stage and gave the concert some extra energy with How Many Tears and Future World. Where I stood people were pretty static, and I seemed to be the only one going just a little crazy. While jumping high in the air during Power I got a poke on the shoulder and turning around I expected someone to yell at me because I had jumped on their foot, but instead it was Nina and Mads who had located me in the middle of the crowd. What a joyous reunion it was...
After the concerts were over we headed out to the backstage bar to say our last farewell to the Ice and see if anything interesting was happening. That was not the case...
This years Wacken Open Air was a somewhat weird experience for me as I did a lot of things I never ever do at festivals. I didn't get drunk. I took a bath. I fell into the river. I didn't lose anything. I never tasted the Steak im brot.
I am certain I will do all of these things different next year!
| You can click most pictures for a bigger version
The Wolfpack - Roaming the camping grounds at night
Paragon
Arch Enemy
Arch Enemy
Arch Enemy
Arch Enemy
Rhapsody Press conference
Grave Digger
Grave Digger
Grave Digger
Scary...
Anthrax
After Forever
After Forever
After Forever
After Forever
After Forever
After Forever
After Forever
After Forever
Nevermore
Nevermore
Nevermore
Nevermore
Helloween
Helloween
Helloween
Helloween
Helloween
Helloween
All pictures taken by Steen | Written by Steen
Friday, September 10, 2004 |
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RevelationZ Comments
| Comment by ben@metalreviews.com (Anonymous) - Monday, September 13, 2004 | ILL BE SEEING YOU IN ATLANTA!!! Brace yourself Steen cos were gonna go absolutely fucking insane! And Ill do my best to block you from the beers even though the bartender inside is a sex goddess.
Ben
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| Comment by nihilist (Anonymous) - Tuesday, September 14, 2004 | How does mighty "Grave digger" sounds live ?
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| Comment by Steen (Staff) - Tuesday, September 14, 2004 | 
View Profile
Comments: 518 | | Hey Ben! The eagle has landed. I'm chilling out at the pool with a cool sprite :) Come on down here man, now!
Nihilist:
Grave Digger sound just as good live as on album. Even rawer and more powerful, if you can believe that. Check them out if they play where you live.
Posted by Steen (Staff)
Tuesday, September 14, 2004 |
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| Comment by Ben@metalreviews.com (Anonymous) - Wednesday, September 15, 2004 | Yo Steen, my ass will be on the plane in about 5 hours. If youre at the pre-pre-party just be looking for the Asian giant at around 11.30 if not Ill run into the hotel and shout STEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN!!!!!!! or maybe Ill just check into the room hahha.
Seeya in a few
Ben
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| Comment by Heitor (Anonymous) - Thursday, January 4, 2007 | Rapaz o bagulho ta muito louco gostei demais desse negosso cara vlw!
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