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Events and Reports - Wacken Open Air 2002 - The festival report
This was my fifth visit to Wacken and for the first time the festival was sold out. I thought last year had way too many people and was way unorganized, so it was interesting to see how the organizers would handle it this year. Well, still pretty unorganized, but definetely an improvement in the Toilet area...
I got down there with Anders on an bus tour arranged by the Danish metal magazine Metalized. We left Aarhus at noon on Thursday and I was hoping to get to Wacken in time to catch Kotipelto and Blaze. Of course those things never work out the way you hope they will, so we didn't get to Wacken before seven in the evening. The rain was starting to pour as we left the bus to find Mads and the other guys from Esbjerg and set up our tents. For reasons unknown they had set up their camp at the point, furthest away from the festival grounds. Well, we found them after walking for 20 minutes and got our tents up before the rain really started.
We went to check out the festival grounds where I found everything to look exactly the same as last year... Scary...
That night the Wet stage was the place to hang out and drink beers. So, Anders and I did just that and sang and danced along to the great metal music that was being played all through the night, some of the highlights being Battery and all the Manowar songs... I will not go into further details here, but let's just say that I spent two hours looking for my tent in the pouring rain and finally when I got inside and lay down I found out that my sleeping bag was missing... Must have forgotten it on the bus... Great start to a great festival.
Friday
After a couple of hours of sleep I got up and left with Anders for the festival grounds. Had to catch Domine... That proved to be a bigger problem than first expected because of the 45 minutes queue to get into the festival area... I got there 10 minutes before the show, so go figure... :) Instead I got in line for the Metal market. From the queue I heard the last part of the concert, which made me think of charging the fence around the festival ground just to see the band play. Well, It sounded awesome. The hurricane master and Ride of the Valkyries were some of the songs they played. Instead I got into the Metal Market with Anders and spent a lot of money on some great and cheap cd's.
The first band I got to see was Angra. I'm a big fan of their albums and I must say that they lived up to my expectations. The new singer's voice holds it grounds live and he sings the old songs very well. They played a good selection of their songs and seemed in a great mood,
Time to run for the wet stage and see Heavenly. My favourite French band who plays some very technical power metal. So I get to the Wet stage and the Danish band Withering surface are doing sound checks and are getting ready to go on stage. Hhmmm... What's going on here? Well, It seems that the entire schedule had been moved for an hour. So, I might as well here and see the start of Withering Surface. I had heard one song from the band and it had impressed me.
Here I met a happy Anders who thought he was going to miss this concert earlier because of reasons not to be spoken loudly or written here... sshhh. I won't tell... Anyway, we got a beer and watched as Withering surface started their show. They really seemed to enjoy themselves and spoke Danish to the crowd which was pretty funny. The singer really screams his lungs out and I'm pretty amazed that he could do that live. I was in a hurry so I only caught the first two songs before running for the True metal stage to support another Danish band:
The always consistent Pretty Maids. This time they started out with Future World and the stage was set for a great show. They never really slowed down and played an excellent show with some of the highlights being Virtual Brutality, Tortured spirits, Wouldn't miss you and the always popular Back to back. The sound was great and the band seemed happy to be playing in Wacken.
I was running for the Wet stage as soon as Pretty Maids finished and I get in the tent just at Heavenly start playing one of my favourite songs of theirs "Riding through hell". Great great great... I only caught the final part of their show, but I liked what I heard and their singer was very impressive. Please put them on a bigger stage in the future.
After Heavenly there was time to enjoy the sun a little before one of the big highlights of the festival:
Savatage! The four times I've seen them before they have always played awesome shows and so they did this time. If only they had gotten two hours of playing time :) This time the band had borrowed Jeff Waters, the amazing guitarist of Annihilator to play rythm guitars. They should hire him full time because he is a great asset for the band. He gave them some new energy and really tore up the guitar. I had hoped they would give us a surprise and maybe play "Phoenix rising" from Annihilator but that was probably a little too much to ask. The highlight of the show was when they played Morphine Child. The great 10 minute track from Poets and madmen. Jon Oliva was in great shape and wore his Viking horned hat and looked pretty funny. The crowd definetely loved Savatage and sang along to every song. Best show so far.
Next up was Bruce Dickinson with a pretty good solo show. I don't remember all of it, but he did play an old Maiden tune "Revelation" which was really great! As always Bruce was running around the stage pretty much all the time.
After a great day of concert I met up with my Finnish friend Skoll, who didn't recognize me in my silly hat. Thanks Anders :) We went back to the camp to have some beers and listen to music. It ended up with the two of us giving our very own Manowar concert for the nearby neighbourgs along with the rest of the camping ground, which I don't really think anyone enjoyed considering my singing voice... :)
Saturday
When I woke up the next morning I almost couldn't speak and that unfortunately kept me from singing along to the great bands that were playing this day. But fortunate for those standing next to me I guess...
I got up early to catch Evergrey. I was looking very much forward to seeing them after their brilliant last album "In search of truth". Everything started out well and the band was playing excellent. Then all the sound and instrument problems started... and through the rest of the show they were plagued by various problems. The crowd kept them going though and we heard some excellent songs like Rulers of the mind, Watching the skies, Mark of the triangle and the final track The Masterplan. It was at the end of the concert that I noticed there was a tape playing in the background almost as loud as the band themselves. I guess it was due to all the sound problems. Shame about all the sound problems because the band seemed very eager and ready to play.
Next up was Vicious Rumors, who I'd seen many times before. They played a great "Metal in your face" show. March or die, Abandoned, Digital dictator, You only live twice were all old classics but they also played a new song which I think was called Fight. It sounded awesome anyway. The band was recording the show at Wacken for a future live cd! Can't wait for that one. As a special surprise we also got to meet their secret weapon and third guitar player "Horny Henry" Say no more...
After 45 minutes of pure heavy metal I went to the Party stage to see the brilliant Hard rock band Shakra. They had an excellent sound and their songs were very catchy. I have only heard their newest album Power ride from which they played quite a few tracks. 10 minutes into their set the last couple of days of drinking and partying seemed to finally catch up with me, so I laid down in the hay by the stage and took a little nap while enjoying the music.
After Shakra I was ready for the band I had been looking forward to the most. Falconer!. I was very interested in seeing if they could bring the magic of their albums on to the stage. The answer to that would have to be a resounding YES! They played a brilliant set with a great selection of songs from both their albums. At times the band didn't seem to be too comfortable to be playing live and they also had some sound problems during the set. But the audience was the most entusiastic yet and kept them going, singing along to every song and screaming for more during every silence. A very nice surprise was the singer, who sang just like he does on the albums in his own voice and with a lot of emotion. One of the highlights of the show was when they played "We sold our homesteads" sung in Swedish. Other highlights included Royal Galleys, Clarion call, A quest for the crown, Enter the glade and Decadence of Dignity.
After that awesome concert I was really looking forward to Vanden Plas, but due to a mixup with my printed out schedule and the actual festival schedule I only caught 10 minutes of both Vanden Plas and Sinergy. DAMN! Well, from what I saw the Vanden Plas singer is just as awesome live as on the album and Kimberly from Sinergy was very energetic and screaming like hell. That was a compliment by the way. I never got close enough to the stage to check out their new bass player. Oh darn...
Edguy had a huge set on the stage and played a very respectable set. My favourite was "Avantasia". Great to hear that one live. Out of control is always great to hear live too... I had hoped to hear Theater of Salvation though. All in all a very good concert.
Finally it was time for the festival headliner Blind Guardian. By the time they took the stage it seemed like everybody wanted to see them. It got really tight and impossible to get anywhere near the stage. Blind Guardian lived up to their headliner status and performed one of the greatest if not the greates show of the festival. It was definetely better than their show at Wacken in 1998. Hansi's voice has improved a lot in the four years. There were many highlights during the show. The first one came when they played a majestic version of Lord of the rings. I never thought I would hear that one live. Excellent! That they also played one of my favourite BG songs "The script for my requiem" was another plus. Hansi's voice gave me the chills when he started singing this one.
Imaginations from the other side, Bright eyes, Mirror Mirror, Time stands still..., Majesty, Journey through the dark, The soulforged, Valhalla, Welcome to dying, Lost in the twilight hall, Mordred's song, Nightfall, Born in a mourning hall were some of the other songs they played. But the absolute highlight came when they performed "And then there was silence" from the new album. What a song, but most of all, What a performace. I never dreamed they would even try to play that one, but they pulled it of in all it's glory. Only thing missing was I'm alive from an otherwise pretty perfect show.
After this day of concerts I was extremely tired and went straight back to the tent to get some sleep before the bus went home the next morning.
All I have to say is: One of the best Wacken festivals ever. I will be back next year.
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On the metalized bus
1½ hour queue for Wacken
Nice Wacken mud...
Angra
Withering Surface
Pretty Maids
Heavenly
Savatage
Savatage
Evergrey
Vicious Rumors
Back at the camp
Two blokes...
Vanden Plas
Vanden Plas
Edguy
| Written by Steen
Monday, August 5, 2002 |
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RevelationZ Comments
| Comment by yoni (Anonymous) - Thursday, March 20, 2003 | man...all i can say is that i would pay a LOT of money (if i had) to have experienced that.
looks like fun :)
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| Comment by Steen (Staff) - Friday, March 28, 2003 | 
View Profile
Comments: 518 | | It was ALOT of fun. Wacken is one of the biggest highlights of the year. You will have to make the journey sometime in the future!
Then we will drink beers all day and put Mads in a box... :)
Posted by Steen (Staff)
Friday, March 28, 2003 |
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| Comment by Mads (Anonymous) - Friday, March 28, 2003 | Hey!!! Don't start that again Steen or we won't sing Gate Of Kings for the entire Camp-grounds again HAHAHA... I don't want to be in a box any more... I want to be free... so that's why I am singing I WANT OUT by Helloween... See you later... The triumphant Grand Pa is still in our hearts...
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