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Events and Reports - Wacken Open Air 2007 - Steen´s Festival Report
We didn't get a pit photopass this year so pictures are missing from several concerts due to me either being too far from the stage or lying passed out somewhere in the crowd.
Thursday
Tommy and I arrived a day later than usual for Wacken this year. Around 5pm on Thursday we rolled into the camping ground and started settling down. We felt we had a lot of catching up to do so an abundance of alcohol was subsequently swallowed way too fast but of course with much enthusiasm and many hits on my faithful 4-watt pocket speaker system. A re-union with Nina and Mads was also held at their camp. Amidst much alcohol consumption and general party mood over finally being at Wacken again we completely forgot to eat anything and this had a very unfortunate effect on both mind, memory and general control of limbs later on.
Saxon was playing but the stage was a big haze to me so I headed off to the party stage to check out Overkill instead with some wild hope that they would play the entire Horrorscope album (my favorite). They were late but finally blasted off their show with some solid old school heavy metal. With this invitation to headbang Wacken had officially begun for me.
This year the Party stage had been moved to an area of its own. This is a much better solution than the previous years and the sound from the big stages did not ruin the sound at the party stage anymore.
Overkill was in great shape and played a tight powerful show. "Thanx for nothing" was a favorite since it was pretty much the only song I knew in advance. The crowd loved the band and the center of the stage was a mass of hair and banging heads.
Overkill was late so I left in the middle of the set to meet up with Nina, Mads and a drink as we had agreed. It took several text messages and phone calls to locate Tommy who had apparently been hiding behind a t-shit vendor all the time. We all headed for the Metal disco tent for a drink and a song. It turned into a bit more than that. The organizers have finally gotten the message and instead of the horrible karaoke versions of the classic metal songs we were treated to the real versions. Songs like Master of puppets, Fear of the Dark, Warriors of the world, Run To the Hills and many more were sung and air-played with much enthusiasm. Suddenly, in the midst of an air guitar solo, this guy in a metal vest and cowboy hat comes dancing straight at me. Turns out it was Dennis and we had a nice little reunion that night.
I shall spare you for some of the drunken antics that happened, just let you know that we, against all odds, made it back in our tents in the wee hours of the morning where I apparantly decided we needed some more metal hits, so I setup up my speakers in the door of my tent, pointing towards Tommy's tent and played a nice metal shuffle through the night/morning, singing along until I fell asleep.
Friday
The next day I woke up in all my clothes with my head inside the tent and my legs outside. The speakers were still running at full speed. My first thought was "What has happened here?" and then "Where's the whisky?". I had an apple, a biscuit and a whisky and coke for breakfast before I started moo'ing into Tommy tent for him to wake up. It was time to get serious today but somehow the five different kinds of alchohol purchased at the German border were much more inviting at this point of the day. Green drinks, blue drinks, brown drinks and a disgusting red one meant that when I headed for the festival area to catch the first band of the day I was more or less flying... Straight to the Party Stage where Communic had already started playing. I was thoroughly impressed by these three guys. Oddleif Stensland handling guitar and vocals was doing both in a style that had my mouth hanging in the dust. Of course the nearby cocktailbar took care of that problem. The three-piece band was tight and played several newer songs which I did not recognize as I only have the debut. Time to change that soon. Communic played a great show and set the day off to a strong start.
As Communic finished their set I headed back to the True Metal Stage to catch Therion, a band I had managed to miss every time they had played in the previous years. Not this time I decided... The band was delayed so I sat down in the soft hay that had been spread all across the festival grounds to compensate for the heavy rain earlier in the week. Around this time I met a group of nice Dutch people and we got to talking. They bought a round of drinks... I bought a round of drinks... and suddenly Therion was playing their encore, "To Mega Therion". Damn, I somehow managed to miss another Therion show. The company was too good.
I wanted to catch Volbeat so I said bye to the Dutch people and headed once again for the party stage. Volbeat entered the stage to much applause and Michael Poulsen shouted a loud "Halløj!!" (Danish equivalence of the Australian "G'Day Mate") into the microphone before they started on their first song. The concert didn't convince me to stick around for long, there were no real surprises and I became a little bored, so I headed back to the main stage to get a good spot for Grave Digger. Here I happened to meet up with Tommy at the cocktailbar as well as a couple of the Dutch people and my happy exclamation and best wishes for their continued great festival shall remain unsaid, but Tommy tormented me with that incident for the rest of the festival... Weeeee!!
Especially for the first part of their show Grave Digger had a horrible sound. Chris Boltendahl's voice kept disappearing. It got worse during the second song "Knights of the cross" where the whole band sounded monumentally untight and Chris' voice made several disappearances again.
One thing the Wacken organizers really need to work on is the sound quality of their shows, especially now as the attendance has grown to around 60.000 people. Similar for nearly all bands I saw was that the sound sucked big time. Much depended on where you were placed and how much wind there was. As soon as a gust of wind tore through the crowd it took the sound with it and this made for a very bumpy concert experience. One second the whole sound was there, the next it wasn't and two seconds later it was back again, for 5 seconds. This is unacceptable and hopefully the organizers have fixed this major problem next year. Why not place some speaker stands further away from the stage?
Anyway on with Grave Digger. I headed further ahead in the crowd to see if the sound got better and to try and get some photos. As the band went into "Rebellion..." finally a little bit of the magic I had been expecting was there. "Heavy Metal Breakdown" and "Scotland United" ended a very uneven show.
Turbonegro and Falconer were playing at the same time, and since I had already seen Falconer two months earlier at Sweden Rock I decided to give Turbonegro a chance and head for Falconer if they didn't catch me. When I arrived at the Black stage Turbonegro was just starting on their first song. I sat down in the soft hay to enjoy the concert and relax a bit since all the alcohol was starting to get to me. I lasted one song which sounded very promising before I tumbled over, fell asleep and slept like a baby through the entire concert. I woke up much later, confused as hell since I was covered in hay. Looking at the clock I saw that I had slept for an hour and both Turbonegro and Falconer concerts were over. Ooops!
I headed back to the camp where I met up with Tommy and had another nap, just to make sure I wouldn't fall asleep during Blind Guardian.
Blind Guardian
As Tommy and I entered the festival grounds we gazed at each other with a puzzled look. Something was wrong, somewhere someone was playing "Born in a Mourning hall" way too loud. This could only mean that Blind Guardian, who was supposed to go on in 2 minutes was already well into their second song. Turned out that Blind Guardian had started their show 10 minutes early and so we missed "Into the storm" and most of "Born....."
We hurried into the crowd to try and get a good spot. "Nightfall" was next and it was obvious that Hansi's voice is a double edged sword. His powerful roar is and was amazing, but he doesn't use it as often as he does on record. Therefore several parts of songs sounded off. This was especially true for my personal favorite "The Script for my requiem" where he switched to the soft voice too often.
Compared to the show I saw two months ago in Sweden Blind Guardian had a much better setlist this time around. "Fly", "Otherland", "Traveller in time", "Bright Eyes", "Punishment Divine", "Time stand still" and "Lord of the rings" were all new songs in the show and most of them very welcome additions.
"Traveller in Time" was superbly powerful and while the opening to "Bright Eyes" sounded off it was a great song to hear live. "Time stand Still" brought back memories of Wacken 1998 where the band played the same song as the sun had just set and darkness was descending on the festival grounds. A great fireworks display suddenly started above the stage during this song and it fit perfectly. It is one of those memories that doesn't fade and while the band's delivery this day didn't reach the same heights it was still a highlight of the concert. "Lord of the rings" is an amazing song and it came off pretty well tonight.
"The Bard's Song" and "Mirror Mirror" ended a good show.
Setlist
Into the storm (A well educated guess)
Born in a mourning hall
Nightfall
The Script for my requiem
Fly
Valhalla
Otherland
Welcome to dying
Traveller in time
Bright Eyes
Time stand still
Imaginations from the other side
Punishment divine
Lord of the rings (Watch it on Youtube here or here)
This Will Never End
The Bard's Song - In the forest (Watch it on Youtube)
Mirror Mirror
Iced Earth
After witnessing a short 50 minute show at Sweden Rock hopes were up for something more satisfying tonight. This time the band did not disappoint me. As in Sweden the band opened with "Burning times" and "Declaration Day". Tim "Ripper" Owens struggled a bit with the chorus of "Declaration Day". It seemed like he strained too much on several occasions. Of course it might also have been the sound that cut out his voice at times, since this had been a problem for several other concerts at the True Metal stage. The concert continued as in Sweden with a great version of "Vengeance is mine" and "Ten thousand strong" (Watch it on Youtube) from the new EP. "The Hunter" brought a great cheer from the audience and was played very well.
Jon said hello to the crowd and that it was great to be back. He then introduced "Stormrider" which he also sang himself. A very cool moment.
Ripper came back and introduced the next song as "Charge to keep", a song of the forthcoming album. It was very interesting to hear this and it sounded strong and kept up hope for the new album.
After "My Own Savior" I was keeping my fingers crossed that this wouldn't be the end. It wasn't. The band came back and played the whole Something Wicked Trilogy, in its new incarnation. This was great to hear, but it did also become apparent that it is lacking when compared to the original version on fx. Alive in Athens. Ripper did a good job, but in general, compared to the time I saw the band live with Matt Barlow on vocals, the band still has a way to go before they reach the same level. I'm sure they will improve with more shows under their belt.
Iced Earth (the song) ended their show, this time only 10 minutes early and both Tommy and I were completely exhausted. Back in the tent our German neighbors proceeded to play extremely loud German punk music until 5 in the morning. Maybe it was revenge from yesterday. No fair!
Setlist:
Burning Times
Declaration Day
Violate
Vengeance is mine
Ten thousand strong
The Hunter (Watch it on Youtube)
Stormrider (Watch it on Youtube)
Charge to keep (Watch it on Youtube)
My own saviour
Prophecy
Birth of the wicked
The coming curse
Iced Earth (Watch it on Youtube)
Saturday
Saturday was the musical highlight of the festival. All four bands I saw impressed me beyond what I had expected.
Stratovarius
First up was Stratovarius. Timo Kotipelto was in great shape and sang with much more conviction than what I had heard in any of the bands yesterday. "Hunting High and Low" (Watch it on Youtube) opened the show amidst much cheering and singing along. It was apparent that the audience was happy to see the band live again.
As a nice surprise we got a new song from the forthcoming Stratovarius album which in the words of Kotipelto "will probably be out sometime next year". "Last night on earth" (Watch it on Youtube) sounded like a typical Stratovarius song, ultra melodic with a catchy keyboard melody and a nice enough chorus. It will be interesting to see how the new album fares, that is for sure.
As Kotipelto introduced a song that they hadn't played in a long time "about flying" I was secretly hoping for "Galaxies", but of course they played "Distant Skies" (Watch it on Youtube). A powerful song that works well live. Timo almost reached the insane highs as he did on the album 12 years ago which was pretty impressive.
Other highlights from the show included the explosive "Father Time" where Timo couldn't quite reach the same highs as on the record, but at least he tried. "Visions" was a great surprise as well. Unfortunately the sound problems that were plaguing most bands at the True Metal stage had not been fixed and the middle part of the song suffered.
The crowd favorite "Black Diamond" ended a show which convinced me that Stratovarius is over their mental period and back in action.
Setlist:
Hunting High and Low (Watch it on Youtube)
Speed of Light
Paradise
Distant Skies (Watch it on Youtube)
One million lightyears away (Watch it on Youtube)
Father Time
Visions
Last night on earth (Watch it on Youtube)
Black Diamond
Rage and Vision Bleak.... NOT!
I had planned to catch Vision Bleak and part of the Rage concert as they were coinciding. 10 minutes of Rage, a run to the tent-stage for a 30 minute Vision Bleak show and then back again for the last 40 minutes of Rage sounded like a good plan. Only thing was that Rage played so damn well that I simply couldn't tear myself away from their performance. The three piece band had brought a full orchestra on to the stage, and they played with the band for most of the concert. This worked very well and brought a special atmosphere to the show.
I didn't know many of the Rage songs, but as soon as Peavy Wagner opened his mouth and sang the opening words of "From the cradle to the grave" I was completely in awe. Wow, there was finally a guy who could sing his lungs out in a convincing way live. Peavy sang with a lot of heart and his powerful voice just rolled off the stage. Without doubt the best vocal performance of the entire festival.
The audience was in a great mood and "Alive or Dead" had everyone shouting along in the end. The orchestra looked like they had a blast on the stage as well.
After band and orchestra introduction the band came back as their usual three piece and played a monstrously powerful version of Refuge.
This was a different Rage show and I missed a lot of songs, but it was a special and captivating experience. A definite highlight.
Turisas
Finland's Turisas had made a great impression with their latest album "The Varangian Way" (Read review) and I was looking forward to seeing if they could reproduce their massive sound on the stage. The band was playing the small tent stage which had some advantages. First the sound was compact and powerful with no wind to blow it away. Secondly the tent was pretty much packed with fans and this gave the show a more intimate atmosphere than the big stages. Everyone around me were completely into the band. Some guys had tried to copy the Turisas makeup by using mud and it looked pretty damn funny, but cool all the same. Before the show these guys started singing some Finnish folk songs (my guess) and got the spirits high.
The band played a superb concert and was able to transfer all their energy on the album off the stage and into the audience.
"To Holmgard and Beyond" set the concert off to an amazing start. The chorus had everyone singing along and it sounded absolutely amazing in the small tent. The band continued on their new album with "A Portage to the unknown". Besides the usual guitarist, bassist and drummer, a crazy violin player and a guy playing a huge accordion were on stage as well. The band had a great stage presence and lead singer Mathias Nygaard's voice held up very well.
A song from their debut was played before Mathias told the audience that now it was "time to dance". "In the court of Jarisleif" had the audience going pretty crazy with funny dance moves and jumping. I was right in the middle of the crowd and from the moment I entered the tent, the heat had been completely exhausting. It was way too humid and hot in there. The enjoyable Boney M cover "Rasputin" didn't put a stop to the dancing or the heatwave. Due to the excruciating heat and a near dehydration my dance moves were kept in check.
Another song from Battle Metal was played ("One more" if I remember correctly) before the band suprised me by closing with a shortened version of "Miklagard Overture". A cool song that worked quite well live. During the last part of the show some people started throwing hay around and soon the air was filled with flying hay. It looked pretty crazy from where I was standing.
Turisas was a highlight of the festival. A bit more airing in the tent and it would have been perfect.
Setlist:
To Holmgaard and beyond
A portage to the unknown
? from Battle Metal
In the court of Jarisleif
Rasputin (Boney M. cover)
One More?
Miklagard overture
Stormwarrior
After Turisas we headed towards Mads and Nina's camp for what turned out to be the first drink of the day. There was some discussion whether Stormwarrior would play with Kai Hansen as frontman through their entire show or if he would just appear as a special guest for a couple of songs. Only one way to find out so we headed for the Party stage and arrived a bit late, just as the band was playing "Ride the Sky", indeed with Kai Hansen as lead vocalist. At first I didn't think it was Kai Hansen since the vocals were absolutely amazing. I'd never heard him sing this well before. Kai sang with a ton of power and nailed the highpitch parts with perfection. I was very impressed to say the least. The Helloween oldies were given new life this night and the two guitarists did an awesome job of dual soloing. Encore was a nice version of "I want out" where everyone shouted along.
Setlist (From the moment we arrived)
Ride the sky
Victim of Fate
Judas
Murderer (Watch it on Youtube)
Heavy Metal is the law
I want out
After the show we said our goodbyes to Nina, Mads and Dennis. As a sign that we are growing old we had to decline the invitation to go back to their camp for a beer. Both grandfather Steen and grandfather Tommy were completely drained of energy and blacked out in their respective tents. Next year we will bring a cane.
| Click pictures for a bigger version
Overkill
Overkill
Overkill
Overkill
Overkill
Overkill
Communic
Communic
Communic
Grave Digger
Grave Digger
Grave Digger
Grave Digger
Grave Digger
Grave Digger
Grave Digger
Stratovarius
Stratovarius
Stratovarius
Stratovarius
Stratovarius
Stratovarius
Stratovarius
Stratovarius
Rage
Rage
Rage
Rage
Rage
Rage
Rage
Rage
All pictures taken by Steen | Written by Steen
Monday, August 13, 2007 |
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RevelationZ Comments
| Comment by Mike B (Anonymous) - Wednesday, August 15, 2007 | Sounds like a great time. I'm hoping to get over there from the US for next year's show!
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| Comment by Steen (Staff) - Wednesday, August 15, 2007 | 
View Profile
Comments: 518 | | Cool! Wacken Open Air (or Sweden Rock Festival for that matter) is surely worth a bit of travel.
Posted by Steen (Staff)
Wednesday, August 15, 2007 |
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| Comment by Dennis the Menace (Anonymous) - Sunday, September 2, 2007 | Holla,
the report brings back warm memories. I have to say that I was totally satisfied with this year's showcase. Unfortunatly we could not camp together, but at least we met two times. Banging in the tent and after the best show - the Kai playing a Helloween wishlist. Highlights: Overkill, Sacred Reich, Sodom and yes, Iced Earth. They finally convinced me. They are indeed pure Metal. Beside of these bands Heaven Shall Burn and Dimension Zero made the most impact on me. WOA with the new stage organisation: thumbs up. I was a 'lil disappointed by Blind Guardian. Weak sound and Hansi Kuersch in a bad condition, singing all the high parts in a lower tone. But nevermind. Plans: Dokken, Way of Darkness-Festival with Unleashed, Naglfar, Illdisposed, Disbelief, Fleshcrawl and Dismember and the Keep it True Festival in April. I heard rumors that Ratt are coming over for some gigs. True or false?
Death or Glory
Dennis.
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