Category: Uncategorized
Stuff that makes life easier :-)
At the airport again
Journey to Thessaloniki didn’t start well. What took me days to organize because I had to fit everything I need for a week in two different countries, in a small shoulderbag/laptop bag, the security just poured out in a box for “random check”! Then they gave me the box with everything in a pile, to pack all over again. Needless to say, I wasn’t a big fan of Copenhagen airport security after that.:-( Luckily I was there early as always so I had time to fix it, but you could easily find me at the airport after that-just follow the black cloud above my head! Two hours to kill here before departure. Just had my favorite: Starbucks mocha frappucino!! That put a smile right back on my face. Rock people in sleeping bags all over the airport by the way, probably returning home from the Roskilde festival. Bought the smallest little pocket fan! :-) hopefully it will make it easier to survive the Greek heat. Well, more later, when I get to Thessaloniki!
Next destination: THESSALONIKI, Greece, Stop That Sound!
My suitcase is still open on the bedroom floor since Graspop Metal Meeting in Belgium, because there just is no point putting it away. Monday morning it’s time for the next destination: Thessaloniki, Greece.
Music has given me good reasons to go to places where I would probably never have gone otherwise. I get to see so much stuff, just because I’ve planned my journeys around some kind of music event. :-)) In this case, it’s the STOP THAT SOUND 2310 festival, featuring JUDAS PRIEST, WHITESNAKE & FIREWIND.
“This is big news: The first-ever music festival in Thessaloniki… hosted in Thessaloniki’s largest stadium, the Kaftanzoglio!
There was the U2 gig at the harbour in 1997 with at 50.000 crowd and that was it. OK, there have been gigs of Deep Purple, The Prodigy, Iron Maiden, Scorpions – but all these were in rather small venues (Theatro Ghis and PAOK Arena). This time it is big – at the Kaftanzoglio, Thessaloniki’s largest stadium with a capacity of about 35.000! And the city feels ready for it!”
The stadium:
Too bad in a way that I’m going on my own, seems like a city that would be fun to explore with a friend at least. But when you are out there travelling on your own, you get to meet people that you probably wouldn’t even have talked to if you had been travelling with someone, and sometimes you make new friendships. It’s all good, I’m used to it.
Two days I’ll be in Thessaloniki just touristing, and I don’t even know exactly where I want to go or what I want to do. I usually improvise because, if you make too many plans you only get disappointed if things don’t turn out the way you planned.
Being in a new city means that everything you see is new and exciting, simply because you haven’t seen it before! Even going to a grocery store in a different country is an experience, because there’s all this stuff that you don’t know what it is. :)The day after the festival in Thessaloniki, I’m going straight to the airport to fly to the next destination – London, UK. Spending one night there before taking the train to the Stevenage and the Sonisphere Festival. Got my accreditation papers last week. Only attending a few hours to see Firewind and Megadeth first and foremost, then taking the last train back to London and then from there somehow back to Heathrow to get on the first early flight home to Copenhagen – Malmo.
It will be exhausting and I just realized that I’ll be walking around with my luggage at the festival because I won’t have a hotel to keep it in that particular day, haha! Holy shit, this is going to be VERY interesting!
So yeah… all of this requires a lot of pre-planning just for the….uh….logistics. At this point, with everything going on down in Greece, I’m happy to just get there and get home without too much trouble. I have a feeling it will be alright. :-)
[Pic: Stole this one from Gus G’s page]
Graspop 2011 – reviews (Part 2)
Some gigs I just checked out briefly or from a distance (as in “not getting in the front row“) and here are some thoughts about those as well….
The first thing I wanted to check out was Swedish black metal band Watain. Not because I’m a fan of black metal by any means, but because of the hype and for the crazy stories about them that made me curious.
Walked into Marquee 1, one of the tents, and there was no question that it was the right one…It was louder than hell, no pun intended. Fire and stuff on stage, flashing lights and a noise that definitely could have been from the devil’s jukebox. Yet it was interesting to see the theatrical performance,
Not sure what to say about it though, since it’s not my cup of tea, I’m not the right person to have opinions about it. It was entertaining enough to keep us in there for about 10-15 minutes, which is good, cause at festivals you usually decide within seconds if you want to stick around or not.
Korn were next up on the main stage outdoors. That would be yet another band that’s not “my thing” but I’ve got to hand it to them, they were damn tight, and I love the confidence in their stage performance. Crowd went nuts, a good sign that you’re doing your job right, so kudos to Korn. Not too shabby. :-)
Taking over the stage after Korn was Danish band Volbeat. There’s an interesting thing, cause I’ve had so many opportunities to see these guys live, yet I chose not to. Just never thought it was a band I would like too much, but they ROCKED! They had such a genuine attitude, their hearts were in it all the way through and got the crowd dancing, singing, jumping – and simply loving it.
Volbeat is the perfect festival-band, their whole presence just screams PARTY! It swingggss, you can’t help it, you end up smiling without even realizing it. Very cool gig, glad I finally took time to check them out. That’s the great thing about festivals. You get a natural opportunity to check out bands that you normally wouldn’t for whatever reason. And you discover new, good stuff in the process.Next day, Saturday, we walked in to see “some band”, no idea who, cause they were finishing up their set – but next up was Lacuna Coil.
I’ve seen them before, at the local rock club in Malmo, KB, waaay back in the early or mid-90’s. I like Cristina Scabbia, she’s a cool rock-chick who has a very strong stage presence. I heard young girls all around go: “I like her pants, her jacket, her boots, her leather glove – blah blah.…”. She is a rock-style icon as well.
Eventhough there are two front-people in Lacuna Coil, it’s too easy to forget Andrea Ferro’s presence on the stage, unfortunately. How can you compete with someone like Cristina? Still, the duo works well together vocally and they did a perfectly balanced set. Not too long, not too short, good choice of songs, basically, worth the time. :-)
I didn’t move from the barricades most of the day, next up were Firewind, which have been reviewed in a previous blog already. After them, the stage was being taken over by another Ozzy-guitarist, Zakk Wylde and Black Label Society.
Like I said before, I think that Firewind and BLS are like Beatles and Stones.
Nice guys – bad guys. You like one or the other.
BLS is more for the cool, hardcore macho-people. Cause I never got it, I have to admit. Zakk opened for Ozzy with BLS a few years ago in Copenhagen, and it was the longest 40-something minutes of my life. Every song sounded the same and the solos were pure torture.
Zakk’s fans loved it though, they were totally into it. Guess that’s the most important thing.
Last but not least – Judas Priest… Guess that needs a blog of its own. :) Maybe tomorrow.
Graspop 2011 – reviews (Part 1)
Just a few reflections – in no particular order, just whatever comes to mind….
SCORPIONS……..
Headlined Friday night, and like any headliner with self-respect, they brought enough fire, smoke and fireworks to make us feel like it was New Year’s Eve. But unfortunately it couldn’t hide the fact that Claus Meine isn’t exactly the most charismatic frontman in the world. And nowadays, when his voice sounds like a tone-deaf karaoke-singer in a bar at 2 AM, there is not much to get impressed by. I kept wishing that my earplugs had had a Meine-filter or something, because when he sang “Dynamite” it was so embarrassing that I could barely stand it.
Luckily, the show was saved by the stringbenders Mathias Jabs and Rudolf Schenker who amaze me because they must have found the fountain of youth or something. They never grow old, they still look cool in tight leather pants, and they can work a big stage like it’s still 1983!Mathias’ smile has always been contageous, and being a stage performer is about projecting a feeling, not just being a perfect musician. There’s so much more to it and he knows what it takes.
Then of course, there’s the energetic and crazy drummer James Kottak who definitely doesn’t allow anyone to fall asleep.
I just think that if the Scorps are about to retire, they should do the predictable thing that always works. Predictable can be boring, yes, but sometimes, at festivals especially, you need to just do what’s expected of you – which is play a “Best of Scorpions”-set.
Give people the hits, the sing-alongs, and create a singing crowd with cigarette-lighters and all that shit. We (almost) didn’t get any of that until the encores when they did “Still Loving You”.
You can fire off as many fireworks and flamethrowers as you want, it won’t help if the vocals suck and the setlist is boring. Maybe I’m just jaded, but Scorpions didn’t charm me this time.
I’ve seen them before, and years ago when they played Sweden Rock Festival, they kicked so much ass that I was totally exhausted from just having WATCHED them! That I remember it to this day. It was great.
FIREWIND…………
It’s safe to say that there is not a weak link in this band. Bob Katsionis blows me away every time, that guy is unreal..! Gus G may be the star of the band, but him and Bob are without a doubt equals musically – and honestly, if these two guys were to compete and play for their lives, it’s hard to say who would win!
When Firewind were due on stage, it was raining and the keyboards were covered with a towel for protection. Bob played it, with the towel still on it, and didn’t miss one single note…! Call me easy to impress, but my jaw just dropped. Is he serious?! :-)Apollo has this Tony Martin-like voice that I really like, and although it’s a bit annoying when he adds or changes wovels to make some of the songs easier to sing (e.g a line from “Falling To Pieces” for instance: Let me lead you to-aaaah) he’s still a solid metal vocalist that brings his share to the table.
Bassplayer stand-in Marios (Nightrage) reminds me of Ian Hill of Judas Priest for some reason. :) He just has that same vibe somehow, doing his job and doing it well, but not claiming to compete with Gus and Bob for the crowd attention.
There’s not a lot more to be said about Gus G that I haven’t already said. I haven’t exactly made it a secret that I’m damn impressed by his abilities and I could probably watch another handful of shows with Ozzy or Firewind without getting bored for one second.
Usually what is being mentioned the most about Gus G, is his fast fingers – the ridiculous speed at which he can play. But the fact is that he is also a tasteful player, not just a shredder. In short, you always get what you came for. You get the faster-than-the-speed-of-light shreddng, but you also get simple, cool riffs that stick like glue and he is never boring on a stage either, as he’s all over the place. Just when you think you know where’s he’s heading, he’s already ran off in the opposite direction. :)I might not be the right person to review Firewind since I really love what they do to begin with, but when you get a soaked crowd to stay throughout the whole set, dispite the pouring rain – you know that you’ve definitely got a good band right there. Looking forward to seeing more in a few days.:-)
WHITESNAKE………..
Oh boy. You can’t really review Whitesnake, because it’s an institution more than it’s a BAND. There’s not a person on this planet who doesn’t know at least one Whitesnake-song (unless they lived in a cave for the past 25 years). That alone, secures a great show.
However… in this case I’ve got to be honest and establish one thing: The Belgian crowd was more into Channel Zero, who played on the same stage shortly before Whitesnake entered it, and it seemed that in a way the brutal macho-metal worked better than the melodic virtuosity from Whitesnake.
That has nothing to do with the band though. David Coverdale is the MASTER of a stage, he OWNS it, and moreso, he OWNS his crowd. There is not a frontman anywhere that can compete with David Coverdale in terms of charisma and total focus on what he’s doing.
He can project that emotion that I was talking about earlier, where he touches your soul by just showing his own emotions in every song and the way he performs it.
He is professional, yet one of the few who is still genuine and doesn’t come across as one of those “I’ve got to do this gig to pay the bills”-kind of people like so many of the older bands sometimes do.
There were some major differences in this show compared to the Sweden Rock-show. First of all, it’s difficult to create magic in broad daylight, secondly – the long guitar solos had been cut out of the set. Although I really love Doug Aldrich’s very cool, bluesy style, it’s Whitesnake that people want to see and hear, not necessarily a handful of solos.
I was glad that the DRUM-solo was still included though. I’m a sucker for drums, always have been. Brian Tichy is nothing short of amazing. I don’t think I even need to say anything, I’ll just share the evidence of my criminal deed, the video!
It was a good balance between new and older Whitesnake-material but I missed “Ain’t No Love In The Heart of The City“. It may not be Whitesnake’s own song, but they made it their own, and somehow it belongs in a WS-set just as much as “Here I Go Again“.
The Sweden Rock-show was pure magic, so it’s difficult not to compare and you really can’t.
David Coverdale rules, he always have, he always will – period. Doesn’t even matter if his voice can’t reach the stratosphere in some of the songs anymore. He was smart enough to write so many other songs that are not focused on the high-pitch singing. Stuff that shows off his more bluesy, deep, masculine voice that is so, SO sexy!
I’ve seen Whitesnake all over the world tons of times through the years, and they never bore me. Maybe once or twice they haven’t lived up to their standard, but when their standard is in a league of its own, I guess you’re entitled to suck once in a blue moon. :-)
MORE TO COME……
IN THE REARVIEW MIRROR 