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.

I don’t like the songs, I don’t like the performance, I don’t like the solos… Hey – not saying that it IS bad, cause I can still appreciate what’s good or bad even in music that I don’t personally like, but I can’t lie and say that I enjoyed BLS because it’s like a sleeping-pill for me personally. 
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.

The Graspop-gig was far, VERY far from that…. Enjoy your retirement, guys and thanks for the years of great music. :-)

 

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……

Channel Zero – where the action was @ Graspop!

This was one of the most memorable performances of the whole Graspop festival – much to my surprise. Channel Zero. Maybe I SHOULD know who these guys were, but somehow it has slipped me, never heard the name before unless I just chose to forget (after all, us blondes have a limited memory capacity, hehe ;P)

As most of you already know, Ozzy cancelled due to illness on Saturday. So the schedule had to be rearranged and one of those changes was Channel Zero who were called in in the last minute to play the main stage.

Frankly, the only reason why I was even standing there, was because Whitesnake were playing the same stage shortly after, and I didn’t want to lose my front row spot.

So, Bianca and I stood there and quickly realized that this was a band that got people FLYING through the air like I’ve never seen before in my life! And I”ve been to so many concerts that I’ve lost count a long time ago. This was unreal!

Of course there have been mosh pits and stage divings, crowd surfings and all that, but never this much – and best of all, it was all done in such a great, positive manner.

Those that came “flying” didn’t do it to harm anybody, each and every one of them was smiling as if they just won the lottery when they landed on the other side of the barricades. You just had to laugh about it. :-)

And the security guys and girls were awesome! They did a fantastic job making sure no one got hurt – but most importantly, they had a wonderful, positive attitude. No yelling, screaming or frowning faces. It was all just a liberating, great experience for everybody I think.

As for Channel Zero, personally, I probably wouldn’t go buy their records because it wasn’t my kind of music. It was very enjoyable live, but I can’t see myself listening to their songs in my car for instance. Some bands are best experienced on a stage, these guys kicked major ass, that’s for sure.

I think their singer was a very good frontman, confident and powerful in his role. He was interesting enough to get people who never heard of the band, to stay there and watch the whole thing, actually enjoying it.
I would want to see a Channel Zero concert again, for sure!


Here’s what I tried to film while people came flying left and right – you’ll be RIGHT where the action is!

 

 

 

The hierarchy of rock

Finally made it home in one piece – or almost. Got sick in the process, but it’s worth it. I’m never sick more than a day or two, so I’ll be good to go when it’s time for the next trip to Thessaloniki, Greece next week for the Stop That Sound 2310 festival. Once again with Whitesnake and Judas Priest. :-) And of course Firewind, playing in their own hometown.

Then flying straight from Greece to the UK for the Sonisphere festival, and then back home again. Another week of very little sleep, but I can handle it.
An Australian friend called me a “rock’n’roll camel” earlier today.
“You store the nutrition and fluid in your humps for long periods without – and you travel long distances”. Where do people come up with this stuff, lol! ;-P

Anyway – Graspop 2011 was very different from Graspop 2010 for me. I played totally different roles and lived in totally different worlds, and you really need to be a split personalilty to be able to do that I think…

In 2010 I had every backstage-pass there was – I looked like a Christmas tree! I spent most of my time in the backstage area, relaxing, schmoozing, talking to people, hanging with Jon Oliva’s band and crew, just somehow not being a part of the craziness that was taking place outside, at the actual festival site.

Almost time for GRASPOP 2011!

Every now and then we went outside our little “den” and checked out some band, standing either on the side of the stage with the other “cool people” or on a safe distance somewhere – cause it’s very uncool to “mix with the rabble”…


GRASPOP 005
GRASPOP 076
 

THIS year, I was joined on my trip by a dear friend, Bianca, who e-mailed me one day and said that she was craving for a concert experience, and asked if she could go with me to Graspop. That means that I didn’t do the “cool” thing this year, I was down there with the rest of the crowd, getting as muddy and soaked as everybody else. And frankly, in many ways, that’s a lot more fun.

Quite honestly though, I felt slightly weird checking out Firewind early Saturday afternoon.
The reason being, as I wrote to reply on a comment in this blog this morning:
“I must have looked damn professional standing front row in a rain poncho with my camera!
Some things dawn on you afterwards, when you realize what impression you must be leaving on people…! I suck at being cool, might as well learn to live with it.”

As much as I shouldn’t have to feel weird about it, I still do because it was only about a week ago that I was having a relaxed conversation with Gus two hours before he went on stage with Ozzy at Sweden Rock Festival. This time, when I wasn’t in that “VIP-world” for a second, it’s like it turned out kind of weird. You always need to remember the different roles you play in this business.

The best example would be when I thought I should go and say hi. I went to the signing-session that Firewind had at 5 pm, figured I’d sneak in and wave or whatever. But when I saw the long line of people, I thought that there was NO way I would stand in THAT line.Forget it.

So I went backstage, right after the signing session. Seemed like the most natural thing to do. However, sometimes things that are perfectly normal in your head, can turn out very wrong, seen from a different perspective.
As I was standing there, replying to a text message, it suddenly dawned on me that considering the different role I was in this time, this whole thing was ALL wrong if you were to follow the unwritten rules.

Instead of a friendly hello, it felt like I really shouldn’t be there at all, given the circumstances.
First I had been in the crowd watching the show, then I was at the signing thing and now I was here. Fuck, wrrooong! But it was too late to leave. No Scotty to beam me up.

Gus is a polite and nice guy so he was just as cool as always, whereas I once again learned that you can’t mix apples and pears. If you are part of the crowd – you have to stay there. If you are a part of the backstage-people, then it would have been okay. But you can’t be both.
Not at the same time. I should have learned after all these years, but sometimes I forget.

See, there IS a hierarchy in rock just as much as there is in a royal dynasty.

It looks something like this:

ON THE  THRONE – COOLEST OF THEM ALL – GODS, HEROES….

Rockstar

The BAND / artist


Important as hell:

Manager of the band, tour manager (those are not necessarily the same person) record company people, management people

Little less important as hell but people are jealous of them cause they’ve got a crew pass:

Roadies, stage manager, guitar-, bass-, drum techs, light techs, sound guys etc…

Other VIP-people, in pretty much that order:

A. Friends of the band (normally other musicians), girlfriends, wives or groupies who are allowed to stand on the stage behind the stacks and shit, and watch the show.

B. Journalists and/or chosen webmasters of the band.

C. Photographers

D. Security people

…and then on the absolute bottom of the Rock’n’roll-importance hierarchy, at least at shows and festivals – THE FANS. In other words, the people who are paying for everything, because without them the bands wouldn’t be selling any albums or get people to their shows – which in turn means that the managers wouldn’t make any money either, and there would be no need for a crew. No groupies would bother hanging around a band that’s not successful and no journalists or photographers would waste their time writing about or taking pics of a band that has no fans.

So, it’s funny how backwards everything is. Being a fan generates very little or zero respect, whereas being as uninterested and “cool” as possible, generates muchos mega respect in the business, with other so called “professionals”. Pretty funny if you ask me.

Definitely a bit of a snob-elite situation which I’ve sometimes have had a hard time with because I don’t feel like I belong to one side OR the other. I am both. What a pain in the ass that can be. Videos and reviews of the Graspop-bands coming up in a few!

Coverdale saved the day

Back at the hotel after a long day at the Graspop festival. Actually, it wasn’t half as bad as I had anticipated. It rained, but it was just a little, there was very little mud (no more than usual), no bands sucked, except for maybe Priest but I will need to clarify that later, people were generally nice and I like this festival – simple as that.

What made my day today was David Coverdale – again. The past fifteen years or so, he has always recognized me anytime, anywhere – press conferences, shows, whatever. Same thing happened today.
He smiled, walked over to “my” side of the stage and then I heard him say: “Well hello Daniela, how are you? Looking hot as always!”
That was my ego-kick of the day, thank-you.very-much. I’m easy to please, ;-)

It’s a typical Coverdale-thing to do and say shit like that, but what the F – it’s in front of a few thousand people, and so far I haven’t heard him name anyone else at any of the shows I’ve been to. I’m sure he does that in other places, but I’ve never heard it myself.

So, I choose to smile like a 15-year old girlie about it, OK? :-D

Didn’t even get it on video, would have been a nice memory. I was going to record the show (yes, I know, I’m a horrible criminal and I’m going to hell) but then I decided that I wanted to enjoy the show instead so I just figured “fuck it…”.
It’s always when you make those decisions that you wish you had made a different choice.

Ozzy’s cancellation must have been a bad thing for Ozzy himself, but I didn’t notice anything in particular at the festival, people were enjoying themselves as if nothing ever happened – and a Belgian band that I’d never heard of, Channel Zero, were asked to play mid-day to fill out the schedule, and that turned out to be the craziest performance of all! Not necessarily the band – but the crowd went crazy! The crowd-surfing was ridiculous! I haven’t seen that many people flying through the air even at a Megadeth concert..!

Fans of Ozzy-guitarists had a double-treat today as well – first Gus G and his Firewind, then Zakk Wylde and his Black Label Society. I’m more of a Firewind-person, not particularly into Zakk or his thing, never have been. And I can’t stand his solos, I know that I’ll get shit for saying that, but never in my whole life have I heard such boring guitar solos. When he starts doing that, all I can think of is “please just shoot me now!”

I’ve got videos from all of the above, but not now, it’s time for toothbrushing and maybe a few hours of sleep. The way I look right now could scare crows and children – or I could fit right in with any of the characters in The Night Of The Living Dead. Gah!

Sleepy time, more when I get home.