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Events and Reports - Sweden Rock Festival 2009 - Nina's Festival report - Day 1 and 2
Since visiting Sweden Rock festival for the first time in 2000, the festival has become a treasured tradition for me. Every year, it's a pleasure to return to sunny Sweden to share most of a week with other Metalheads, drinking, rocking and having a good time. As a brand, the Sweden Rock name has come to stand for quality, reliability and excitement.
This year, Sweden Rock Festival broke their own record, being attended by even more people than any previous year! This is the ninth year in a row Sweden Rock Festival has broken the record, and it is now by far the biggest festival in Sweden.
Being joined by fellow RevelationZ staffers Steen and Stuart, as well as a my metalized husband and a handful of other great friends, I was looking forward to five days of total partying, drinking and going seriously nuts to some kick-ass Metal!
Wednesday, 3th of June:
Innocent Rosie
Innocent Rosie is a band I'm not really familiar with, but I decided to join my husband to see the show. The band performed with a high energy level, and their slightly Punk influenced Sleaze Rock translated well live. The titletrack of their latest album Bad Habit Romance left a positive impression, and overall, the show had a good drive. A pretty cool show.
Setlist (not complete):
Animal
Don't Drag Me Down
Bad Habit Romance
Bound To Fuck Up (new song)
Knock Me Out
Left Alone
Hysterica
I saw Hysterica perform a few months ago in Copenhagen, and found their show to be rather entertaining and energetic. Today, I was slightly less excited. Though I am attracted to the True Metal attitude of these five beautiful women, it does become a bit hollow, when the music is not able to back up the image in a powerful way. Image is a good thing, but only important if backed up by some great music. I did enjoy the album, Metalwar to a certain extend, but it is not something I will spin in ten years. Hysterica played most songs from that album, where Bless The Beast, Heavy Metal Man and Louder came across as most convincing.
Singer Anni de Vil, is pretty cool as a frontfigure, headbanging, swinging whips and wielding swords, while keeping an intense contact to the audience. However, she lacks in the vocal department, and doesn't have the necessary range to cut this style, which was painfully obvious today. The musically most convincing performance came from guitarplayer Bitchie. Having a cool stage-setup with giant swords and performing in leather outfits not leaving much to the imagination is an attention-grabber, but just not enough in the long run. Hysterica is a fun band to watch, but easily forgotten once the smoke clears at the end of the show.
Blaze Bayley
The ex-Maiden singer has had a turbulent carrier, since being kicked to the curb by the Metal giants, with numerous line-up changes. Today, he was to perform at the small Zeppelin stage, where the show was fittingly kicked off with The Man Who Would Not Die. Blaze seemed on fire tonight, running around in usual wildman style, and even sending us a few smiles through all the madness. When he went into a great rendition of Lord Of The Flies, fists filled the air and headbanging ensued everywhere. Blaze is an aggressive and passionate performer, clearly believing fully in what he does.
Though I'm not too familiar with the majority of his solo material, it was easy to get sucked into the atmosphere. The reaction from the crowd was great, songs like Born As A Stranger or Kill & Destroy got everybody's blood pumping. I was watching this show with a great part of my camp, and the atmosphere was electric. When the first notes of The Clansman sounded, the ecstatic screaming would take no end, and a great version of this one was performed. Blaze delivered an aggressive and raw show, as Metal as can be!
Setlist:
The Man Who Would Not Die
Blackmailer
Smile Back At Death
The Launch
Lord Of The Flies
Born As A Stranger
Tenth Dimension
Identity
Kill & Destroy
The Clansman
Samurai
Voices From The Past
Robot
Uriah Heep
Slightly twisted in mind after a day of drinking and rocking, I went to check out Uriah Heep at the Sweden Stage. I didn't have the energy to see the whole show, unfortunately, but what I saw was a well-performing band, especially the vocals of Bernie Shaw made a very positive impression, so clear and beautiful. Also, I've always had a weak spot for the trademark keyboard-sound of Uriah Heep. The performance was professional and carefully carried out, without becoming sterile, the band's passion shone through. I feel bad, not watching the entire show, it sounded like the band put on a kick-ass performance, but in the end I had to throw in the towel, and go get some sleep.
Thursday, 4th of June:
Grand Magus
To kick the day off, Grand Magus was to play at the Zeppelin stage. The band opened with the excellent Like The Oar Strikes The Water, a very atmospheric song, that served well as an opener, waking up the Metalheads, and driving away most of the hangover. Grand Magus has a very heavy and doomy foundation, which sends my thoughts back to good old Black Sabbath, while topping it all off with beautiful melodies and fantastic clean vocals. Singer JB held up great live, his voice was clear as glass and full of emotion. The titletrack of their latest album, Iron Will marked a highlight of the show, extremely heavy and melodic at the same time. After this performance, I was ready for yet another day filled with Metal.
Setlist:
Like The Oar Strikes The Water
Blood Oath
Lodbrok
The Shadow Knows
Ulvaskall (Vargr)
I Am The North
Hövding
Iron Will
Nine
Wolf's Return
Kingslayer
H.e.a.t
Melodic Hard Rock band H.e.a.t is currently riding high on success after the release of their selftitled debut album and an appearance at the Eurovision song contest. A huge crowd had assembled in front of the stage and was eager to rock. Keeping the 80's feel of the band intact, the stage was decorated with a huge staircase and retro-styled backdrop, and to complete the atmosphere the classic The Heat Is On by Glenn Frey blasted from the PA, as the anticipation grew among fans. The band delivered almost all songs from their debut, and in addition to that one new song and the Eurovision-hit 1000 Miles.
During the show, two men appeared on stage, throwing out condoms in specially designed H.e.a.t-boxes. A cool souvenir! The guys were clearly in a good mood and happy to perform, but I couldn't help noticing that Kenny Leckremo had a few minor vocal-problems, maybe the result of too much partying? His performance was not as impressive as last time I saw the band, but still not terrible either. All in all it was an enjoyable gig, but not as good as when I saw them live last time with Edguy.
Flogging Molly
Not really knowing Flogging Molly, except for a few songs a friend has played for me, I didn't know quite what to expect. Having a soft spot for folk-ish Metal and Rock, I was curious about the band. After a few songs, I was absolutely sucked into the atmosphere and found myself moving closer and closer towards the stage. The music of Flogging Molly in just extremely appealing live, combining raw Punk attitude with fiddles and folk music rhymes, that just lifts your spirit. I almost felt as transported to an Irish village during traditional festivities, as everyone lifted their drinking glasses and even danced around in traditional folkdance ways. I had to join the madness.
Strangers danced around, cheering and singing along to the merry melodies, and yet underneath it all seemed to be a core of melancholy and drunken wisdom, as in all good folk music. Flogging Molly played a rather long set, and their captivating energy spread throughout the massive audience. The band, fronted by charismatic singer Dave King, had a great contact to the audience. King really managed to get out over the stage barrier, with his long speeches between songs and enthusiastic performance. An inspired and captivating show, that fuelled my wish to check out this band some more in the future.
Setlist:
Paddy's Lament
Likes of you again
Requiem For a Dying Song
Selfish Man
Whistles the Wind
Won't Make a Fool
Man With No Country
Drunken Lullabies
Kilburn High Road
Float
Tobacco Island
Rebels
Devil's Dance Floor
Salty Dog
World Alive
Lightning Storm
What's Left of the Flag
Seven Deadly Sins
Bullet
There seem to be some sort of "retro"-wave in Sweden at the moment, with young bands taking up the 80's style, including Bullet. Not that I'm complaining about that, by the way. If you are unfamiliar with Bullet, a quick and yet pretty accurate description would be a mix between Accept and AC/DC. I had the pleasure of seeing the guys live, supporting HammerFall in Copenhagen not long ago, so I knew they are capable of delivering an ass-kicking show. Today's show was more or less identical to that performance, by which I mean really cool! The stage decoration consisted of the lighbulb-framed Bullet-logo, and the even though I don't own any of Bullet's albums (yet), I could already sing a long to a few tunes, and particularly enjoyed Turn It Up Loud. The guys really put an effort into delivering a blast of a show, and they look like they enjoy it even as much as the fans.
HammerFall
"A total suck-fest" was Steen's immediate, one-sentence review of this show, which shocked me. Apparently he felt the show was rather uninspired. I definitely beg to differ; the metal heroes put on a splendid show, and were one of my highlights of the festival! Being a massive HammerFall-fan, I witnessed the guys play an amazing concert a few months ago in Copenhagen (link), and today's performance was pretty similar to that show. The setlist was rather similar, with a few differences; they played the splendid Threshold as well as one of my old favorites, At The End Of The Rainbow. I basically screamed my lungs out during the entire show. The band played like a tight machine, and Joacim Cans once again impressed with his vocal skills, the man has got some serious pipes. However, I missed my absolute favorite HammerFall-song, the emotional Glory To The Brave.
A few people complained, that almost no songs from the first two albums were performed, where I actually find it refreshing to see a band that dares to rely so much on their recent material. Songs like the amazingly powerful Last Man Standing and the catchy Any Means Necessary made a huge impact. Visually, the stage set up was rather simple, but very cool, with a huge shield with a cut-out HammerFall logo hanging in the back, with flames burning behind it, and even some pyrotechnics were used, to spice things up. It could be argued, that HammerFall is a rather predictable band, that doesn't take chances of any kind, but personally I would rather argue, that the band is a reliable, rock-solid institution in today's Metal scene that always delivers. And that there´s no need to change a winning formula. Today's show was a classic HammerFall gig without major surprises, but solid through and through.
Setlist:
Bloodbound
Crimson Thunder
Renegade
Hallowed Be My Name
Last Man Standing
At The End Of The Rainbow
Heeding The Call
Life Is Now
Any Means Necessary
Threshold
Between Two Worlds
Riders Of The Storm
Encores:
Templars Of Steel
Let The Hammer Fall
Hearts On Fire
Twisted Sister
Tonight's headliner, Twisted Sister seemed to be in great shape and delivered a splendid show. The ageing heroes opened the ball by playing the complete Stay Hungry album. Even if the trend of playing complete albums live does make the show a bit more predictable, of course, stuff like this is a godsend for the die-hard Sister-fans, and the average festival-goer, will still be able to shout along to The Price, and of course the crowdpleaser, I Wanna Rock. And that's exactly what I did! The band appeared in full Stay Hungry-era gear tonight, huge outfits and full make-up, all fired up to deliver a great show. Even if revealing, tight clothing and crazy make-up looks funny on ageing guys, I actually found that it was working for Twisted Sister. The personalities in the band are just strong enough to pull it off convincingly, making you feel like you´re "back in the day", not attending a fashion show for cross-dressers. Dee Snider is very charismatic, joking in between songs, motivation the audience to scream along and party!
The band was tight, it clearly showed that they know each other very well musically, and Dee's vocals is in impressive state after all these years, though he was a little short of breath.
After the Stay Hungry performance, the guys played their famous version of the Rolling Stones' It's Only Rock And Roll, where Lemmy and Phil Campbell from Mötörhead joined the band on stage. After three encores, Come Out And Play, Under The Blade and You Can't Stop Rock 'N' Roll, Twisted Sister left the stage.
During the show, I couldn't help but notice how few people had shown up for the gig, and how many left during the performance. The huge ground in front of the festival stage was half- empty, to my surprise. Too bad so many people missed out on this great show!
Setlist:
Stay Hungry
We're Not Gonna Take It
Burn in Hell
Captain Howdy
Street Justice
I Wanna Rock
The Price
Don't Let Me Down
The Beast
S.M.F.
It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (Rolling Stones cover)
Encores:
Come Out and Play
Under the Blade
You Can't Stop Rock 'n' Roll
Go to...
Day 1 & 2
Day 3 & 4
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Blaze (S)
Blaze (S)
Blaze (S)
Blaze (S)
 Heat (L)
 Heat (L)
 Heat (L)
 Bullet (L)
 Bullet (L)
 Bullet (L)
 Hammerfall (L)
 Hammerfall (L)
 Hammerfall (L)
 Twisted Sister (L)
 Twisted Sister (L)
 Twisted Sister (L)
 Twisted Sister (L)
All pictures taken by Lunah - Metal Moments and Steen | Written by Nina
Monday, August 10, 2009 |
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