Hunting for Batman: Simply not!

Sick at home, today.

No WGT for me. F**k

More bands missed...

Hunting for Batman: WGT in Leipzig ahead

Just about 20 hours, then I will join the scene in Leipzig as well, just as described by SpOn. Hunting bats, getting mad in the visual overload, and hopefully seing some bands. What I already missed today: Amorphisand Poisonblack. Fuck!

But see you next time!

WGT 5 and last - Sonja unter Fledermäusen

Meanwhile...
I uploaded all my pics to FlickR, but it's just few snapshots as the mobile cam was not really good enough for the indoor festivities and the weather not good enough for good situations outside: Crowds of blacks in cloaks don't really make a picture.

The summary

Most important lesson learned:

• I'm a fan of D-Beat

Rider of the weekend

• Mois Dix Mois: beginning with screws for the drummer's boots in the morning, further on that only one special photographer was allowed to portrait the singer (except for the first song where there was "public shooting", no flash). Most important item on the list: black straws. Matching the water-bottles which all had to be gaffa-taped black as well.

More bands missed, did I?

The Old Dead Tree from Italy.

Dope Stars Inc.

:Of The Wand And The Moon: (as I think that a signing at Prophecy productions can only be outstanding)

Theatre of Tragedy: Thanks to Hein and Lorentz for introducing "Ronan the Hobbit" and a short but great party mayhem!

Tetris of the weekend

• Cantus Buranus: How do you fit 80 musicians on the Agra-Stage? Somehow Corvus Corax and their crew managed to. Impressive musical mystery play. Just a shame that everything was too packed for letting the people the space to move.

Ausbeutung des Wochenendes:

• Liebe Goten: Wisst ihr, warum eure schnieken Korsagen bei Xtra vergleichbar billig sind? Nein, nicht nur weil Xtra alles gleich im Dutzend billiger fertigen kann und deswegen ganz viele von euch gleich aussehen in ihrer Individualität. Sondern auch, weil ihre Mitarbeiter den Luxus von nur einer Viertelstunde Pause pro Tag haben. Wo habt ihr über's WGT-Wochenende also das Geld hingetragen?

Short reviews:

Saltatio Mortis: Opposite to all the other bands who started "medieval" sounding, Saltatio don't get boring when carrying on with it. "Heptessenz" is still their best record. Unfortunately they want to "develope" as well - please, rather stay with interpreting outstanding songs and music than writing mediocre own stuff. Sad but true.

Even though listening to Deine Lakaien is rather like a trip to me than listening to particular songs, it was great to finally see them live. Hey! Here is no "but" in this phrase.

Hey, isn't that a cover version again? By OMD? And this? Hey, it's not Madonna, but...
Ok., that was funny guessing. But, geez: Yes, it was Paul Humphreys of OMD, and the new project is called One Two. So if you are in Eighties pop (and who is not?!) - thanks for the nice time warp back. But... in the end it was really boring... just to mention.

How do you say "overrated" in latin?

• Omnia. Really nice pagan folk. But, honestly: After 3 days of non-stop flute'n'lute you should give the stage free for other artists to freshen the hearing of the audience again. And you don't have to bash the other artists in your myspace-blog afterwards... as I heard no one scream for more Omnium when there was still the encore for Liv Kristine...

Und außerdem:

• Danke an die beiden Mädels und den Typen, die mich vom Kohlrabizirkus nach Katatonia zur Straßenbahn mitgenommen haben!

WGT 4 - Sonja unter Fledermäusen

About bands and music again:

Longest Queues (without the chance to get into the venue at all)

1. Catastrophe Ballet
2. Rosa Crux (Geheimtipp des dritten Tages, eigentlich sprach jeder davon am Samstag)

Most stylish Corsage of the festivals

• Liv Kristine
  Actually I didn't expect this gig to be this good as it turned out. Her voice is more beautiful then ever, the open air gig, the comparably small audience and the surroundings mixed up to a very special campfire atmosphere - and especially the people who worked in the boothes in the "Pagan Village" stressed that this is finally (*sigh*) some different music than the some dozen medieval-sounding bands who seem to be all alike after a while.

WGT 2 - Sonja unter Fledermäusen

It's not really obvious, but actually the Wave Gotik Treffen is a music festival. Some things in short just to put them straight:

Band I really, really missed out on Friday:

• Obviously Samael who must have rocked the Parkbühne according to several viewers.
  First gig in ages without "My Savior" and - what was the second song, pls., Hans? Dawning of "Era Two", hu? Just kidding, witnesses spoke about a return to the sound of the "Passage". Would be great, dudes...!

Bands I might have missed:

• Surely The Gathering. Can someone comment who watched their gig? I was really looking forward to see these old friends, but what I heard was not so good. So pls. post!
• And can pls. someone post who has seen The Old Dead Tree in Kohlrabizirkus? Thanks as well.

First messed-up backstage room:

• Deathstars.
  Maybe you have to when you have such a band name and have to build up a reputation. One band I think I really missed out, regardless of what mixed feedback I got about them. If you know a glimpse of German, read my Close-Up review. They were awesome in Stockholm!

First band I actually wanted to see and did watch:

Katatonia

Please. Please go and buy their great albums! Start with "Last Fair Deal (Gone Down The Drain)", go on with "Viva Emptiness", back to the old ones and after a while I slowly even dig the new one, "The Great Cold Distance". Maybe I still have to listen to it on a long, lonely car-ride over the Autobahn.

But... Tonight was adding to the long line of letting-down gigs in the history of me watching them. Maybe it's my bad aura, dunno. Maybe it's circumstances - in this case that they were booked to Kohlrabizirkus, a former market hall which was adding much too much reverberation to their sound, so that the outcome was downright painful for the first three songs. (By the way, reverb is called "Hall" in German which means the building causing it as well - very fitting in this case...)
And maybe this weak beginning is already half of the spirit of the show not getting shape: The band was playing together much better than in Stockholm, but the audience was not really enthusiasticly reacting on Jonas Renske animating them to clap or things like that, and there was still a drift between the stage-acting of Anders Nyström on one side, the Normanns on the other side and Jonas hidden behind his hair in the middle. On the very positive side: This was the best light effects I have ever seen with Katatonia, and the fitted to the mood prefectly.
But hey, music is about the song: Go, buy their albums!

Setlist Katatonia:
Leaders
Wealth
Soil's Song
My Twin
Deadhouse
Teargas
Sweet Nurse
Ghost Of The Sun
Deliberation
Criminals
July
Evidence

WGT day 1 - Sonja unter Fledermäusen

Nee, Alter. Bin jetzt den ganzen Tag auf dem WGT, aber hab noch keine Band gesehen, ehrlich. Erst hat es an der Parkbühne geregnet, dann konnte ich mich nicht entscheiden. Man, und jetzt spielt nur noch eine Band", sagte der Unbekannte, der vor der Agra-Halle auf einer Begrenzung saß, in sein Händi, zündete sich eine Zigarette an und guckte in dieser unnachahmlichen Mischung aus bedauernd und verpeilt.

Dear international readers,
I'm at the Wave Gotik Treffen in Leipzig for the first time of my life. Most of my impression are so utterly German, I'm gonna write them in my mother tongue. If you're interested in them as well, drop me a comment.
Second note: Due to several things, the major of it being work, I was only able to get to Leipzig late on Saturday. So this is where it all starts:

So ungefähr muss es in der Savanne aussehen, wenn eine Herde Nilpferde den Weg einer Herde Elefanten kreuzt: Aus der Tram kommen Trauben von Fußballfans von Lokomotive "Lok" Leipzig, darunter auch der nicht nur hier im Osten obligatorische Anteil von rechtsradikalen Thor-Steinar-Shirtträgern mit Hohlschädel, zur Tram pilgern nicht minder kostümierte Grufties. "Ey gugge mal! Das gipz ja nisch!" sagt die jugendliche Glatze und zückt den Fotoapparat, um das nicht viel ältere Gruftmädel mit Krönchen im Haar zu fotografieren. Währenddessen ist er schon längst von einem dezenteren Gruftie Ende Zwanzig auf der anderen Straßenseite focussiert worden - schön aus der Hüfte mit einer gute Digicam geschossen. Obwohl rein optisch die Tierallegorie nicht stimmt - also: so muss es aussehen, wenn ein Schwarm Fledermäuse eine Rotte Wildschweine kreuzt...

Wie würde es wohl aussehen, wenn man im Zoo mindestens an Schimpansen, Elefanten und Delfine Kameras verteilen würde? Wen würden die aufs Korn nehmen?!?

Apropos Zoo - der Zoo von Leipzig soll "wunderschön" und "super-interessant" sein, sagt Sabine. Wird als Tipp vorgemerkt!

Looking forward to next year's Tuska!

Phew. This was a tough one. At 2005's Tuska Open Air there were many rumors about the strict rules and levels the gouvernment of Helsinki was giving the festival - and that it was pretty unclear if the festival would ever be again on that beautiful location. But now it seems like reason is coming back to the Helsinki Environment Center as BLABBERMOUTH.NET is reporting.

The looks of the season

Haha. I shouldn't be ranting about fashion. But I do. Let's say - if everybody looks alike wearing H&M the subculture is always much more unique and uniform in the same way. And certain moments of youth culture you'll never see in Paris or Milano on the catwalk but on everyday's street. Do you remember the summer when everybody wanted to look like J.Lo? If you're not 16 anymore and not up-to-date what's hot at schools you can see all those waves coming already on the Hamburg Hafengeburtstag. I don't know where those merchants get their inspiration from, but when they offer J.Lo-style headscarves, it's gonna be an "In" thing. This year I haven't found a typical "in" accessoire at Hafengeburtstag. But - late but the summer isn't over - a hair band made for ballerinas seems to be coming, as the Dom shows.

Long preface, sorry for that. I just never festival-travelled as much as this year, and some typical style and/or behavior stayed in my mind: First fest of the year I noticed was Hurricane Festival in Scheessel/Northern Germany even if I haven't been there. But I met thousands and thousands of visitors at the train stations in Hannover and Hamburg. The Hurricane is a pop/alternative orientated festival, where most of the highschool classes of Northern Germany go to celebrate their last exams. So most of the people look like "normal" end-of-term pupils. Fashion-gem of the festival: silicone wristbands. Strange behaviour of the weekend: Shouting "Helga" ("Helga" was already popular f.e. in Wacken quite some time ago. But it seems to be an evergreen).

At Rock Hard Festival, Graspop Metal Meeting and Bang Your Head maybe only the last was a step from the norm, but I already expected people running around like in the Eighties, and they were. Maybe I didn't expect people at all to wear Glam style, but it was only a few, even with Twisted Sister headlining.

Helsinki's Tuska fest was different. First of all - while there was barely a summer in Germany and "Flip-Flops" turned into more expensive and noble models, everybody seems to wear trecking sandals in Helsinki. I only had my one pair of all-weather-all-circumstances festival boots and was quite envy. While Andy was getting nuts at watching all the ladies in top-notch, sexy cloth - wearing outdoor sandals. LOL!

To give you a glimpse on the fashion: I just found the gallery Hel Looks on the internet. Well, yes, the many glam rock people cought my eye as well.

Something that was present on all the festivals this years were cuddly toys: Whether the pink SM-bunny someone was holding up all day in front of Apocalyptica and Dimmu Borgir at Tuska or the 15 little cuddly toys thrown at Dissection in Wacken or the brown bunny held up high all day in front of the main stage - this year was the year of the plush!

Ah yes, something more about the Hel Looks: Noticed the plastic bags on the first pics there, where people are heading to Tuska? What a funny thing about the conservative Finnish alcohol politics: While you are barely allowed to take alcohol with you on the festival area in Germany (because the festivals get the massive amount of their income by selling alcohol) you could of corse take a huge plastic bag of alc into Tuska Metal Fest as long as it wasn't bottled in glass. And while you had to show your passport to get into the drinking area you would bump into a drunken person and his bottle of home-distilled goods just a meter outside. A bit hilarious, isn't it?

all apologies...

Dear reader! Now I'm back - back not only physically but mentally as well. Back from an overdose of Finland. Nah, not really. First a trip to Tuska Metal Fest in Helsinki, then two days at home doing laundry while it's raining cats and dogs outside. In the end I was so frustrated I visited the filthiest launderette of Hamburg St. Pauli to get my clothes dry again! Subsequently I joined another Finnish travel party named Children of Bodom on their tour de force. I'll post the funny sidestories of that here during the next days, but in the correct chronology. So don't look back in anger and view the archive during the next days...

Host, Hostage and Hospitality - inside the Hate Crew pt. 1

Preface. Maybe the most important: Don't go to Geiselwind. Until you really have to. Maybe for a p. For example if you're travelling on the Autobahn from Würzburg to Bayreuth. Ok than. Stop at the Autobahnraststätte. Which other reason should someone sane have to stop in the nowhere in Mittelfranken???

Well, maybe I wasn't sane either, because I went there to drive Children Of Bodom to the Earthshaker Festival and back again.

Already getting there is trouble: I looked on the map and Markt Bibart seemed to be the closest railway station to out hotel, even the ICE is stopping there - but you won't get a cab there after 8 p.m. So I was stopping in Kitzingen, and - nice surprise: The cab driver was a very nice lady!

Next surprise: There weren't enough rooms in the hotel next to the festival area, so they booked one "small hotel" with "just 14 rooms" only for the band and crew. I think I wasn't the only one expecting the worst - last time we had such a hotel with Zyklon in eastern Germany there was no bar and even the mini-bars were borne away.
This time the Hotel Ziegelmühle was the complete opposite: A glittering party was already going on in a huge common room with a self-service bar. Everything was decorated in a style of typical German "Gemütlichkeit" - but it fits neatly to the place. The rooms were a blast, all except two were huge apartments and we wasted the space in splendour as "single rooms". The service was friendly, no one lost a syllable on the party's remains the other day - perfect! If you're looking for accomodation in the nature of northern Bavaria - go there!

Unfortunately the local traffic regulator spoiled most of this warm hospitality the next day: The short-cut to the festival area was blocked because of a lack of planning, several other streets were blocked because of road buildings as well - we needed about half an hour from the hotel to the festival site and even longer back again. The place in front of the festival area was a dis-organised desaster, people were running everywhere, there was not even a short cut for the working staff.

And the dis-organisation went on: The only toilets near to the dressing rooms were in the same hall as the event stage, so the artists had to wait in the long queue with the public (hello? did anybody think about the last minutes before stage time?). But really hilarious was the VIP tent: There was extra security in front of the VIP tent even though the entrance was exactly in the backstage, so artists had to stay our if they left their proper passes f.e. in the dressing room. But it was pretty easy to get inside from the festival area, so that lots of fans where in. The one-hour-signing session got a extra-time when the musicians entered the VIP tent to hang around with fellow musicians because people who couldn't get an autograph in the queue got a second chance right now. Running the gauntlet if you had to get to your shuttle or to an interview appointment - sorry to Tom Rune, I think I owe you a beer, but I had to get Roope out in time...

How hilarious that

Beer for breakfast

Just back from a warm and sunny trip to Hellsinki/Finland. Warm - yes! It' was a bit warmer than in Hamburg and much warmer than we expected. We already started with a shock in Hamburg in the early morning: Our friendly driver didn't know by then that Gluecifer have split up. So we were pretty close to an accident even before we got on the plane. The Finnair flight was nice and normal - and announcing 1168 km to go.
How could I forget that those few kilometers sometimes mean a change in culture? *grin*

So we were warmly (again) welcomed by our host for the next few days with an ice cold Lapin Kulta. And it was close to impossible to become sober on the whole thursday... So being in Helsinki started to feel like a smooth hangover without being drunk the day before - almost surreal. We stayed in Tikkurila, or, as Pekka Kasari (see below) told me "the place where the most (in) famous night club of Finland is". Well, the suburban kids running around on the streets at night didn't look like they're old enough to enjoy it themselves...

We spend most of the thursday in Kallio at Janne's new job - em, bar. At "Saloon Arizona" we learned to know nice people like "Space Pekka. actually we're four Pekkas here who come to the saloon regularly". Nice, weird alcoholism.

Well, I have my theory on drinking alcohol & Finland, but I doubt I have enough time for that right now.

There at Saloon Arizona the next funny thing happened on the tv screen while we were drinking and talking: A kind of TV reality soap (well, literally) cleaned up the CCPC studio of good old mate Sande. Hahahaha! First I wasn't sure if it really was Sande on the screen, maybe because of the huge guy standing beside him. Two days on I was introduced to him - hey Pasi. Nico marvelously managed to stay outside of this tv thing.

The friday the famous Tuska Metal Fest started, and I skip the review of all the bands and most of the circumstances here, go to the Web magazine if you wanna read who played how. 'kay, it's in German, I know...

Well, it was too much fun, all in all!

Shrike's Time Tomblog....

What big story behind a short "I do" ... To tell my side of the story: It was the spring of 1999, I was the newbie at Germany's mighty Rock Hard megazine. We were at Dynamo Open Air - and I had crutches because of a hurt leg, despite of that it was a gorgeous party in the backstage tent, I was really drunk (I only mention "Bierschlacht"//"beerslacht" to those who have been there as well...) and the last comrades have been to the hotel already long ago. I don't know exactly how, but I ended up at the Red Cross tent at the end, and they were so friendly to order a taxi - and put a young Finnish guy in as well, saying sth. like "take care of him, we're not really sure but he might be at the same hotel as you are". When we were getting to Eindhoven he was getting more sober - and that's the way i learnt to know Jukka from Kallio, Helsinki.
Thanx for paying your share on this ride, dude!

We met again on that festival, and he helped me out with some email-adresses during the last 5 years - but yesterday we met again in the blog world. This is Jukka's BLOG updated daily, a fun to read and a really good source if you want to know what's up with Stonerrock - or however you would call it. Cheers to Helsinki!