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Events and Reports - Wacken Open Air 2005 - Tommy´s Festival Report
Wacken Open Air has grown into a huge event through the years, if you have been reading any of my previous reports, I must say that this one will be a bit different. This year I decided to drop the paper and pencil and just fully enjoy the shows I attended, going for the overall impression, so this is also what you'll get here.
A fairly weak program and an unstoppable amount of rain, wind, and mud helped in making this Wacken Open Air somewhat unusual too. When you add the fact that I was seriously drunk for most of the first three days my recollection of the festival isn't as good as could have been, now you have been warned.
The arrival
To get a good camping spot we decided to leave for Wacken early on Wednesday, this meant that me, Steen and Morten (not the RevelationZ one) packed the always-faithful Citroën (the red lightning) and headed southwards. At the border between Denmark and Germany we went shopping for the festival, besides lots of beer and vodka, the shopping cart also contained a range of sausages in glasses and a bottle of Bacardi Lemon.I'll get back to the consequences of those purchases later.
Two hour later we were getting close to the motorway spur towards Wacken when it occurred to me, that the police car in front of us in fact wanted ME to follow it. I had seriously been on the brink of overtaking it a few times and it was only when I got really close I could read the "bitte folgen" (please follow) sign in the back window. The policemen were in a good mood though, and only wanted to check for narcotics and if I had been drinking. They had picked out the wrong person and we finally rolled into the camping ground in late afternoon.
For some strange reason it begins to get a bit blurred now, I remember we got a quite cool camp set up, Steen got his self-proclaimed "mighty 4 decibel mp3 stereo" up and running and a bottle of vodka got opened.
This Wednesday evening turned out to be a very enjoyable warm up, Morten took control of the grill, I mixed the drinks and Steen started singing.all back to normal then.
Steen's mixed Manowar mp3 CD, containing all Manowar albums, had an enlarging effect on the amount of alcohol consumed and hits like Metal Warriros, Sign Of The Hammer and Warriors Of The World United got screamed out into the night with the outmost passion. Later I found one of my old mixed CD's and before long classic stuff like Metallica and Iron Maiden got the rest of the camp into the party mood, it was pretty funny when five passing Metalheads watched in amazement as Livin' On A Prayer was sung and acted out in bombastic fashion, that must have been a crazy sight.
At one point I thought it would be pretty funny to play a trick on Steen, so I mixed him a drink and rounded it of with some "pølsevand", which in normal terms refers to the liquid substance found in the glasses with the sausages, nasty stuff by the way. I handed him the drink, smiled and said it had lots of good stuff in it, Steen smiled and took a sip, sensing that something wasn't right he spat it across the table, partly hitting Nina with some of it. We all, apart from Steen, had a big laugh, but by the look in his eyes I could sense trouble was coming my way, and before I knew it, Steen lifted me from my chair and in good Wrestling manner smashed me back in to it, which saw both chair and myself flying backwards into a nearby tent.
This was just so much fun and even though Steen was quite mad at the time, he was laughing about it later on.
Afterwards we went to the Metal disco tent and enjoyed some more beers, Steen taking a nap towards the side of the tent from time to time, now Wacken could officially begin.
Thursday
A cold and rainy night was soon forgotten as the first shot of Dooley's were consumed Thursday morning. Only a few bands where to play this day so it was a good time to do some shopping in the Metal Markt. Later on I saw Candlemass put out a cool show and before long it was time for some nightly wishes.
Nightwish
Steen and I had found a pretty cool spot for Nightwish and the hopes were high as always when this fantastic band enterer the stage. Dark Chest Of Wonders opened in spectacular fashion and it was clear that the audience was really in to it from the start.
Tarja's voice held up beautifully through the whole set where the hypnotic The Siren, the dramatic Slaying The Dreamer and the bombastic stroke of pure genius called Ghost Love Score were top highlights.
One thing that annoyed me the last time I saw them and once again tonight were Marco's uninspiring and rather dull interaction with the audience, I know he means well but it just has to be much more vivid and "to the point" to really work out. The Pink Floyd cover High Hopes was pleasant but rather misplaced in front of a huge Metal crowd wanting a kick ass warm up on this first day of the festival, they could easily had chosen 500 other and more suitable songs to get the party going.
All in all a satisfactory concert, unfortunately lacking some of their older songs, which they almost seem to have forgotten.
Friday
Fellow RevelationZ writer Morten stopped by at our camp on Friday, Steen had been bitching about the beers I hadn't had this early morning so I decided it was time for him to shut up. This is where the bottle of Bacardi Lemon makes its entrance, surprisingly it tasted extremely good this early and before one o'clock a litre was missing. This was in fact the first time we meet Morten and I don't know what impression he was left with, my rambling and Steen's endless singing were pretty out there if my memory serves me correctly. Anyway we had an enjoyable time and went for the festival site in the afternoon.
Sonata Arctica
After a couple of Jim Beam and Cola, Steen and me was ready for the Finnish Power Metal act and I was quite excited to seem them on a festival. Sadly their latest discs never lived up to the first two albums, but of course they were also something out of the ordinary. The melodic hit My Land was a sure winner and I liked the demanding keyboard performance, nicely interacting with the guitar passages throughout the concert.
They played quite a few tracks from their latest offering Reckoning Night and I was positively surprised by how well they held up live, Blinded No More was a great surprise with its powerful guitar playing.
Victoria's Secret added pace and energy to the show and the overall performance was very good indeed.
I missed some devil-may-care attitude and a few more of their best songs but in general it was a solid gig.
Edguy
As me, Steen and Mads went to see Edguy later on our spirits were high, additional drinks and solid Metal at the camp were just the right warm up. In order for Steen to have a few more Jim Beam glasses to take home with him, another round was ordered before the band hit the stage.
Just after Accept this was the show I had been looking forward to the most and after a minor delay due to traffic problems, they stormed the stage with the powerful Under The Moon, and we were under way to an unforgettable energetic set. Before the show we discussed the setlist and I remembered saying that as long as they played Babylon, King Of Fools, Lavatory Love Machine and Vain Glory Opera I would be just fine, and they did. that's a thing that doesn't happen often.
The band was really putting a lot of effort into their performance, being extremely tight and professional. No three minutes of soloing, just full steam ahead Metal where there were room for minor experimentations within in the songs themselves.
At the end of the show Tobias went for a climb in the stage construction, it was quite funny to watch the lead singer hanging 20 meters above the stage in the sealing rain trying to get the lines right, but as you all know he is kind of weird.thankfully.
This was exactly the way to play a festival, lots of raw power, humour, party attitude and a blistering performance of your best songs.
After the show we stumbled towards the camp and I must admit I did pass out in one of the tents early on. When I surfaced hours later, Steen was sitting with his head in his lap, courageously he had tried to hold the Manowar sing-along vibe going but was beginning to face his own limitations too.
Saturday
After another rainy night, and that goes for inside the tent as well, we all began to look a bit used Saturday. An unhealthy part of the day went with experimenting among the different food stands. be careful with those pizzas.
Axel Rudi Pell
At around 17:30 I headed towards the True Metal Stage with high expectations of a thrilling show from Axel Rudi Pell.
Not only did Johnny Gioli deliver an awesome vocal performance, he's acting like a maniac on stage, running around like a madman, close-lining the mike-holder straight to hell. His performance and intense voice really lifted the concert and made it very memorable.
Tear Down The Walls were fantastic live and just immensely powerful, Strong As A Rock from the latest CD was added a monster groove and The Masquerade Ball carefully placed a dreaming veil over the crow.
The hard rockish and intense Fool Fool was another highlight, having some lovely crisp guitar lines, before Casbah killed some of the momentum with its stretched out rhythm.
At the end of the show a cool and entertaining guitar/keyboard duel took place, which gave the show another interesting dimension.
The direct cuts were the ones that held up best live, but I'm still very fond of the longer epics too, one of them is just enough in such conditions. Unfortunately the guitar was mixed way to low in the beginning but I really enjoyed the concert.
Hammerfall
I still remember the huge impact the first two Hammerfall records had on me, at one time I went to Sweden to catch them live. Tonight they had been given an hour to perform their classic Power Metal and I must say that the guys put out a very cool concert. The sound was crisp and Secrets opened the ball with a proper amount of kick ass attitude. The guys did very well onstage and especially the dual guitar work made way for some cool dynamic moments, Joachim's voice was crystal clear but his on-stage performance was a bit stiff.
Anyway their material stood its ground, the hard pounding Riders Of The Storm really shock the earth and we also got treated with some great classics like Hammerfall, Let The Hammer Fall and the immensely melodic Heading The Call, again with blistering guitar leads.
The band was fit for fight and even some of their less good songs came through rather shining.
Accept
Finally it was time for one of the most anticipated concerts of my entire life, my old heroes from Accept was giving the 2-hour headlining spot on home ground.
I was tired and wet after 4 days of Metal adventures, but it should take more than that to keep me down, so I grabbed a beer and went towards the festival ground with Nina and Mads to get a good position close to the stage.
When Starlight opened the show I was as ready as I could get, and the band rocked hard through this classic piece. What followed were an endless list of classic tunes, thrown into the crowd with the characteristic German precision and solidity.
I'll make a few comments on some important tracks:
Being madly in love with the Russian Roulette album I was pleased to hear them play T.V. War, it even worked better live than I thought, stunning intensity and a tight fast delivery.
Turn Me On on the other hand was a bit of a let down, not the most exciting song to begin with and I don't think the band did enough to make it come fully to live either.
Fast As A Shark represents one of the bands most important tracks, helping define the Power Metal style back in 1982, and even today it manages to shock. The speed was untraceable and the drumming furious, simply great stuff.
I was blown away be the sheer force of Restless And Wild and thrilled to see the strong reaction from the seemingly otherwise quite drained audience. Groovy bass lines, tight drumming and heavy guitars laid an unbreakable foundation for the vigorous sing along parts.
A nice surprise and a live experience I will never forget was the blistering performance of one of my all time favourite songs Burning, a party song of astral dimensions. Most of my remaining energy went into going nuts during this memorable execution; I was really feeling a genuine and vintage Rock N' Roll vibe from the guys on stage, they really burned through this one.
Looking at the downsides of the gig, I missed songs from the newest albums, not playing All Or Nothing for example is just a shame, it was too much a "safe" path chosen, and that goes for the selected tunes as well as the delivery of them, in broad terms that is.
Surprisingly Udo seemed listless and rather uninspired, his voice was impressive but the interaction with the crowd was minimal and way too simple. The ohoohhoo parts were dragged on much too long and I missed more energy on stage.
Wolf Hoffmann on the other hand talked through his guitar and amazed me quite a few times. I have always held him as one of the best guitarist in Metal and tonight he showed why, both in his ingenious performance of the classic songs, but also in his breathtaking one man spots. I clearly remember an image of him leaning backwards while holding his screaming axe high into the air, it was as if the entire power supply of Wacken town was flowing into his guitar and out through the speakers. Unforgettable.
The sound was decent, apart form the times where Wolf's guitar died out.
It was with mixed emotions I left the ground. They surely passed the test but it wasn't the divine revelation I had dreamed of, the quality of their material and the solid performance was not to be questioned though.
I did catch parts of other shows but since I didn't attend the whole thing I have restrained my report to the gigs I was 100% involved in, there is always something you would have liked to catch but never got around to.
If any of the Wacken management is reading this, then please get some more people to handle the press check in, turn the volume up a bit in most concerts and most important of all, for crying out loud, expand the enormous list of bands with more (any is perhaps a better word) Progressive and Hard Rock acts.
So one amazing show, a lot of solid gigs, an unhealthy amount of alcohol, some cheap CD shopping and the usual Metal madness at the camp made another successful Wacken festival.
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Singing in the rain | Written by Tommy
Wednesday, September 14, 2005 |
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RevelationZ Comments
| Comment by Steen (Staff) - Wednesday, September 14, 2005 | 
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Comments: 518 | | Editors note: I must apologise for the lack of good concert pictures this year. The Wacken organisers didn't grant us a photopass and I was unable to get close to the stage (because I was at the Jim Beam bar :)). All I have is a collection of three blurred Nightwish pictures... I take full responsibility. It can only get better next year.
Now that I'm making excuses I will also announce that I won't be writing a festival report this year. I think I got a little burned out on writing festival reports after Sweden Rock and Earthshaker and this years Wacken Open Air ended up as a four day drinking binge for me... While my drunken antics could have made for a funny report I just don't think there would be enough musical content to warrant it.
To Tommy: "You will never mix another drink for me. I will never trust you again!!" Haha what fun we had. It was only fair that I broke your chair since you broke mine on the first day and I had to tape it back together. It was too bad you missed Mads, Peter and me singing Manowar songs for three hours straight. I can't believe you were able to sleep throught that! Impressive. I would also like to thank the rest of the camp for not throwing me into the river...
If I was to write a festival report today it would go something like this: Never found the Chicken Wings vendor. I hung out at the Jim Beam bar a lot. Edguy were the best band by far!
Posted by Steen (Staff)
Wednesday, September 14, 2005 |
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| Comment by Mads J. (Anonymous) - Thursday, September 15, 2005 | Hehe, this does for some nice readin'...and a little trip down memory lane. Tommy, I can truly understand those amazed metalheads: We really killed "Livin' On A Prayer"!!! :)
A lot of great moments, a lot of great shows and all in all yet another memorable W:O:A...but too much rain!!!
But then again, come hell or high water...I bet we'll all be there again next year anyways :)
C'ya chaps!
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| Comment by Morten - RevelationZ (Anonymous) - Thursday, September 15, 2005 | What kind of impression you left??? You sick person you!! :-S
Na, all is good, apart from Steen's singing that is, hope to see you all for some metal mayham soon!!
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| Comment by Ulrick (Anonymous) - Monday, October 3, 2005 | Yeah... and thanx for mentioning us in your report!
You know who we are!
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