Freitag, Dezember 12, 2008

October 25, Berlin: In Flames!

In Flames in Columbiahalle (Berlin) am 25. Okt. 2008 – Last.fm

Before I delete:

Setlist IN FLAMES

01. The Chosen Pessimist
02. I'm The Highway
03. Vanishing Light
04. The Mirror's Truth
05. Insipid 2000
06. The Hive
07. Satellites & Astronauts
08. System
09. Pinball Map
10. Delight And Angers
11. Disconnected
12. Colony
13. Cloud Connected
14. Dead God In Me, The Jester Race, Behind Space (Medley)
15. My Sweet Shadow
16. Come Clarity
17. The Quiet Place
18. Only For The Weak
19. Move Through Me
20. Alias
21. Trigger
22. Take This Life

There's mainly three things that kept me from writing a proper review: a) I was distracted from In Flames in a very nice way by Seb, who called me during "Satelites And Astronautes" (one of my all-time-faves) to share a cigarette outside. As I really wanted to meet him and as he had sth. for my man I of course hurried down from our spacy spot with the best view imagineable on the gallery to Seb. So I heard System and Pinball Map from outside. Big loss? Maybe. But worth it.

Secondly I was not successfull in nicking Tom's or Martin's setlist as usual (with handpainted bombs to indicate the pyros), as they both had them in their computers. So I just nicked this list above from an internet board, without guarantee and without the chance to memorize memorable events.

And third I had other things in mind I had to tell Bea, but that's a different kettle of fish...

Maybe I have to credit Tom again, as this was a very special IN FLAMES show with a special mood for me. It already began when he played Sigur Ros as background music during the change-over. And of course he did the brilliant sound again. In which the ballad-esque of the current setlist of In Flames shone through pretty well. So everything began very moody - but In Flames write ballads to dance to, and that we did!

Anders delivered the special announcements again - should it be Berlin which In Flames would remember because of the public or should it be Cologne or one of the other cities? He's the one to give the rockstar necessities the ironic turn which makes his announcements outstanding. And you could see that he was fiddling all the time between songs or when the strings-guys were having their go behind stage together with Biffen. We were already afraid that he had a cold and had to take bronchodilators or something. Biffen said no, he was simply drinking. Well, but not only. Later in Metal Hammer was revealed that he played "Connect Four" with Biffen! Ha!

By the way, GOJIRA ruled, I'm already fixed and got the cd to listen to more of them! So much for one of the concerts of 2008...

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Freitag, September 26, 2008

Wanna change with Cyndi Lauper?

Well, I would: AWESOME show. Was aired in Germany on Christmas 2007. Great I found it on Youtube!

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Samstag, Oktober 20, 2007

10.000 songs

As we speak... I'm listening to my 10.000 song which is scrobbled on Last.FM. Which has definitely changed the way I listen to music. Again.

BEFORE I had "Audioscrobbler" installed, I was listening to songs on my computer via WinAmp. Okay, a) it was impossible to install iTunes on my old Laptop, but b) I refused to install a programm which needs a bank account for full activation. But c) the last.fm community convinced me to the change, as it has so much more features (maybe except for the look - WinAmp definitely is better looking with a zillion customized skins) Times have changed fast, now I rather buy songs on iTunes than on cd - but the fact that I'm moving again is a topic of it's own.

I simpy like the way iTunes manages my music library. I love to mark my favourite songs with 5 stars - and I love to discover new artists this way - who thought Satyricon would ever make it to a top list of mine?! I would have never been able to tell you the difference between Vredesbyrd and Allehelgens Dod I Helveds Rike by Dimmu Borgir. Ok, question is who cares! But I totally love this way on which "Hits on Second Sight" get through the ear into the brain - and songs which annoy get out again! Given that: Yes, I'm listening on Shuffle/Party mode most of the time - skip away or delete what I'm not in the mood for and add as "play now on party list" what I'm keen on.

So, brave new world, eh?! Not really. There's one thing that really worsened: In times before Last.fm I would have burned all songs from harddisc to a cd and would have put it into the stereo. Now iTunes worses the quality of the songs by adjusting the volume. I just wonder what to. Ok, now I delete all songs in bad quality immediately, but te problem stays: iTunes minimizes every song by at least 10 dB. Does anyone know a remedy?

During all the evening I was wondering which song should will represent me as my 10.000's song. Or whether I should just wait and have a look which song is the one with the fabulous number. Again it struck me: "What if...", yeah, what if that song is a complete dork, not representative nor in any kind intended to have the chance to have a listen to? When I just had a ruff look into iTunes about 20 songs away from the mark I saw Goodbye my Lover. Well, that is not planned at all. I re-counted carefully (without deleting any song) and was really looking forward to have The War by Angels & Airwaves - as it could fairly good represent my last week. But I didn't have the patience, skipped Johnny Cash as I'm not in the mood today - and ta-dah, here I present my number 10.000:
Dark TranquillityTherein

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Donnerstag, Juli 19, 2007

When we were young!

TIAMAT on their 1995 tour - which I sorrowfully missed to finally see them - well, was it 1996 or 1997? But I know someone, who was on this tour...

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Donnerstag, Juli 05, 2007

Emperial

Musikfotografie/

photographed music

Das hier ist das beste Konzertfoto, dass ich seit Urzeiten gesehen habe. Ein wirklich flüchtiger, eingefangener Moment: Samoth von Emperor auf dem Hell-Fest in Frankreich. Ganz in das Spiel seiner 6 Saiten vertieft. Unglaublich!

This is the best fucking live pic I have seen for ages: Fotographer/graphic artist/musician Niklas Sundin captured this rare moment of a Samoth totally lost in his tunes:

 

Click on the image to view on black:

 

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Freitag, Mai 25, 2007

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!

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Montag, Mai 14, 2007

Don't Tell Mum!

Wow! Eurovision is over again. And what a result - a Lesbian boarding school wins against a trash Drag Queen. Look sharp - unlike the German commentator surmises this is not the final win of an Eastern state, but the Gay Community reclaims their red-letter-day. Even the motto and decoration of the Finnish hosts was camp enough: "True Fantasy".

Besides, the ESC finally is an total European Mash-Up: Lithuania presented Italian tenors and Albania a classic bariton, some countries came with Hispano-Songs (f.e. Norway), the winning song is a French chanson. And the best with Marija Serifovic is that "Generation Otpor" did not only fight themselves the way to Democracy but now sung themselves the way to Europe. Well deserved!

 

So much fo the official program. But the best was the sideshow:

  • Best band & best show: Apocalyptica and the additional freakshow ballet.
  • Best self-mockery: The Isralian host when telling the points: "This land has pushed the button".
  • Best voting of a country: Norway
  • Best tongue-in-cheek: The dutch host "xx points go to Kelly Osbourne, umm, Serbia"
  • Most handsome eyecatcher: Official Host Mikko Leppilampi
  • Even more handsome: The Swedish host, who was friendly enough to present the Icehockey results as well
So don't worry. At least every artist can at least go on tour in his direct neighbouring countries. Maybe except of Ireland and UK. Ya basta.

 

By the way, I bet I know where most of the after show parties ended, at the infamous and great Lost&Found Bar. Don't tell Mum!

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Samstag, Mai 12, 2007

Thumbs up for THE ARK!!!

4 hours to go...

So don't tell you haven't been warned when THE ARK will seduce your nerves at the Eurovision Song Contest. Or rather keen on Gay Trash Camp Transvestites from Ukraine? Rather not. Not after this preview.

As the Semi-Finale already proved, the fans of Eastern Block post-folklore or whatever are more alert in voting this year than ever. So none of my favourites did make it to the Finale - neither Israel nor Denmark, Switzerland, Czechia or Andorra (Green Day in cute) did make it. Ok - who of a Anti-Semite-Surrounding in somewhere East would vote for a punkrock playing Jew who is actually good at what he's doing? *Sarkasm mode off again* What I especially liked about the Israelian band was their wit. But ok, they will make it anyway. As all the other good bands. Buy their albums. And read you tomorrow. And vote for THE ARK!

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Donnerstag, März 08, 2007

Video of the Day!

NECROPHOBIC doing "Blinded By The Light, Enlightened By Darkness" live on Close-Up Boat:

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Donnerstag, Februar 01, 2007

Veranstaltungstipp - Kult-Metal

Wer nächste Woche noch nicht weiß, was er machen soll, dem sei diese Show hier empfohlen:

Ein paar Stichworte dazu: Marco Hietala ist heute der Sänger von Nightwish, TAROT gibt es aber schon viieel länger. Als deren alte Garderobe mit den Spandex-Klamotten abgebrannt ist, haben sie in Finnland einen nationalen Feiertag ausgerufen ;-) Nein, aber mit aktuelleren Klamotten ist die Musik auch besser geworden, also: hingehen. Ist sonst sowieso nix los in HH die Woche...

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Donnerstag, Dezember 07, 2006

Stockholm Glamour Syndrom

What a concert - what an evening! I entered the Grünspan way too late for Emily Rose and Big Boy yesterday evening - who were according to some friends of mine not worth checking out anyway - to be right in time for the first song of the Backyard Babies. They like "People Like People Like People Like Us" - and St. Pauli is like them and loves them. Even though it was not half as crowded as I expected. The Grünspan was full but far from sold out. Let's keep at the venue for some time - it is one of those old theaters which is breathing show-biz history in every stone, but which is well decorated in a mix between the modern requirements of an almost daily disco and red colour all over and a bit of kitsch to underline the history. Backyard Babies did their best to stretch this impetus and played in front of a curtain of glitter - seems like Clamour For Glamour, right?! Ah, wrong band, but yes!

Wrong band? Next song is a The Clash cover, but I have to admit I don't have a clue of their back catalogue, I'm glad I recognized that it has be one of theirs. But the ret of Hamburg knew, and celebrated the Backyard Babies even more enthusiastic. So, yes, the definitely "earned the crown" and gave it a break with an acoustic version of "Made Me Madman". Just to run even harder the next minute and give it the first tunes of "Run To The Hills". To celebrate the mutual love, Nicke compares the Hamburg pirats with his own heritage, "St. Pauli people are the German Vikings".

This was obviously flattering and it his the target. This show was much more quiet in comparison to the last Hamburg gigs of the babies - but the certain love was in the air, and everyone was singing along until the last note of "Minus Celsius" has disappeared and I started out for the third half of the party and to celebrate with some old friends/work mates from Rock Hard Megazine

Setlist BACKYARD BABIES:
People Like People Like People Like Us
The Clash cover
We Go A Long Way Back
Brand New Hate
Heroes & Heroines
Star War
Cockblocker Blues
Earn The Crown
Made Me Madman (Acoustic Nicke)
Roads
Blitzkrieg Loveshock
The Mess Age (How Could I Be So Wrong)
Highlights
Look At You
Dysfunctional Professional
Fill Up This
UFO Romeo
Minus Celsius

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Dienstag, November 21, 2006

Vorfreude auf den Eurovision Song Contest (today's language: German)

"How do you think about Germany?" - "It's a shit country." Seppo Räty.

Seppo Räty sagte das mal in derselben selbstverständlichen Ehrlichkeit, mit der heutzutage Kimi Räikkönen Nervplauderer wie Kai Ebel zur Verzweiflung schweigt.

Die Deutschen haben 2006/2007 richtig gute Chancen, ihr Image gegenüber den Finnen aufzupolieren: Michael Schumacher ist endlich abgetreten (da mindestens 2,5 von 5 Millionen Finnen Motorsport-Fanatiker sind, bereits die halbe Miete auf dem Weg zur Völkerverständigung). Dei Deutschen haben zum Erfolg von LORDI beigetragen - da können sie ihn auch im Mai 2007 in Helsinki richtig feiern. Fehlen nur noch wenige Kleinigkeiten: Zum Beispiel mal wieder ein richtiges Ralf-Siegel-Lied, so dass vielleicht Schweden mit HammerFall als Teilnehmern gewinnt (das würde auch in Finnland für kaum geteilte Begeisterung sorgen, schließlich wär damit die schwedische Minderheit gleich mit unter dem Hut). Hach ja!

Was man sonst noch in Finnland bei einem Besuch tun oder lassen sollte, erklärt Markku in der Radio-Sendung Radio Free Finland. Welche Probleme zum Beispiel ein Messer löst... Der beste Podcast über Finnland, den ich je gehört habe!

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Mittwoch, Oktober 25, 2006

SATYRICON is ... black metal...

Taste is sometimes hard to defend: I always had a strange and kind of antagonistic fascination/dislike on Norwegian Black Metallers Satyricon. Latest after their pathetic Wacken 2005 appearance (yeah, I know, some fans thought different about this concert) I thought they were done.

I even thought less about them when they spread on Blabbermouth about their video to 'K.I.N.G.' "The video has all the ingredients of a good rock and roll video and sets a new metal video standard for good photography and clever editing."
Well, yeah - the editing was quiet clever, but not exceptional. But what really sucks is the cutting. The video is cut slightly off-beat. But only slightly. So I don't think it's intentional.

But... but... in the meantime especially the track K.I.N.G has been in my personal charts several times - and I'm sure it will be one of the most listened-to tracks in 2006 in the end. So judge yourself whether those just uploaded pictures are caricature or hommage.

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Freitag, Juli 14, 2006

Wolfmother II

I've got tickets! ... for me & Bobo

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Dienstag, Juli 04, 2006

Wolfmother!

Even though I'm sceptic about 90 percent of all British music hypes of the moment, I'm still enthusiastic about the Island monkeys' latest outputs at least twice a year. This time it's a bit like with AC/DC: First Wolfmother came all the way from Down Under to England, then the press digged them and now they are truly the great tune of the moment, and I especially like this edition of their video for "White Unicorn":

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Montag, Juni 05, 2006

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.

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Sonntag, Juni 04, 2006

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

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Sonntag, Mai 28, 2006

The last and final LORDI: Everything Euro

OK. So why do I actually care about an event like the Eurovision - where there was no hip music during the last 32 years since ABBA?

Well, actually there was. At least in some of the last 6 Grand Prix. Ok, I confess now: I did watch Eurovision during at least some of the last years since 2000. And, I confess secondly - I mostly had a favourite. Well, not in 2005, that year way a major downer and the trend was between a major backlash towards the so-called good old times and the division of Europe into the disco-pop and naked ladies-loving countries and those old-school schlager affictionados. Unfortunately neither Wigwam nor Vanilla Ninja were an exception. Only things I could stand that year: Zdob si Zdub.

Ok, ok - if you're German you couldn't even watch the Eurovision without getting deaf dumb and blind before Stefan Raab took over in 2000. Well, after that it was the turn of the lame again, but it was a start... that there's other music than soft'n'sleazy pop ballads and boring pseudo-entertainment called Schlager. Yes, and there's Anoraks in Germany as well, starting with the commentator of the national television, Peter Urban (Commentary in German about him). These Anoraks didn't even get the humour of Silvia Night or LT United. I think all those Anoraks are fossiles and will not be there for long - the next Eurovisions will be about different musical genres, and the traditional Schlager will be the least of it - like Lordi already commented on their press conference. By the way, I posted my personal best of the last 10 years in Eurovision on iTunes.

Politics are seeking the sides of the monsters - Matti Vanhanen is cited even in Süddeutsche Zeitung.

After I already pdf-ed the German tabloids in the past postings, here's the best of the German press: The TAZ was pretty close to it in their prelimenary report:
"The conservatives are furious, that those Gothics show the world in Athens, what Finland is, too: A strange place on earth."

And were the most precise in the analysis afterwards. DER SPIEGEL is amused that Lordi still could shock - "when Alice Cooper dreams of Orks and Ozzy Osbourne of Klingons" same to another coverage in the same magazine.

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Samstag, Mai 27, 2006

More Eurovision, more LORDI!

Tonight LORDI celebrated their Eurovision success with a free concert in the middle of their hometown Helsinki (like already announced in Finnish television the day of the win) - while the "scandal" about the unmasked pictures in several European tabloids, especially in the Finnish tabloid "7 päiväauml;" is causing bigger outrage.

On the same time CHILDREN OF BODOM and their fans are outrageous about the posted canard on Englands THE SUN and "set things straight" on the band's homepage. Yes, COB are no LORDI. Who could fall for that seriously???

Funny enough by the way that no one really took care of the high-res pics published in BILD... But to get back to some serious coverage: Helsingin Sanomat went shopping with LORDI in Athens - and is still linking to the earlier article in which Finland was facing an apparent identity crisis. LOL!

As Janne Jalkanen put it: Anyone who promised to move to Sweden if Lordi wins: You don't have to." Right!

Some people brought up the question about how Lordi actually could win, even though there's big communities of Russian or Turkish or former Yugoslavian supporters are spread all over Europe: First of all, there was a "I vote for Lordi" sticker spread in every bigger Heavy Metal magazin all over Europe (f.e. Rock Hard, Metal Hammer Germany, Metal Hammer UK...). Second, even though the sales of their past albums were not this overwhelming, there is a certain sympathy in the whole metal scene all over Europe - and several people who have never watched the Eurovision did it this year. So LORDI wasn't a dime pathetic when saying: This is not only a victory for Finland but a victory of rock music. A victory of the minority!"

Appendix:
Links to all the videos of Lordi:

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Donnerstag, Mai 25, 2006

LORDI at the ESC: Would you love a monster man?

Would you?! Hahahahahaha! This is a big, wide, grinning cheers to Finland: Congratulations, Tomi, for winning the EUROVISION Song Contest!

This was not only the first victory of a heavy Rock band, this was the first Eurovision with a real Heavy Metal band participating (if you don't count WigWam from Norway and everybody a bit softer in this genre, of course)! Further on they won 292 points which is the highest score according to the official press statement by Finnish broadcasting company YLE.

The press statement reads like it was an easy highway to the top - but it wasn't. This victory was against all odds, made up by Finnish Authorities in parts themselves, the Athens organizers and many, many adding up to a big wall which Lordi victoriously climbed:
One really severe step were the pyro restrictions, a bill made by a company of fellow Germans. But the organisers of the Tuska Metal Fest and some other private funders took action to bring Lordi on stage with pyros.

In Germany the tabloids were heavily campaining: Old Schlager-Fart Nicole was given the opportunity to rant about Lordi. An article of it's own was made up against "Monster Awa" aka Keyboardist Leena.

But the frenzy broke loose when LORDI finally won the Eurovision: "Would they have won without the costumes?"
What a question? Would have KISS or SLIPKNOT have had their success without their costumes and make-up? Would some of the last 5 years' winners have won without their sex-appeal? Is earth flat?!?

So that's why everybody seems to be hunting for "unmasked" pics. But the results on that seem to depend. So did UK's THE SUN set their readers for a blunt canard (even though it's funny if you like Children of Bodom). Sweden's Aftonbladet is having really poor pics as well, so seems like BILD has paid lots more, see here the whole coverage. (Yes, it was my first try with the new scan-to-pdf function of our scanner...)

To be fair:
Every heavy metal fan all throughout Europe who at least could stand LORDI a little bit supported them in any way, and if it only was that he bought beer for his or her colleagues on one of the many "I vote for Lordi" parties. So it's a victory against all those Schlager freaks and anoraks, who were too undecided between "the ballad from Ireland" and "the old ugly singer from Sweden". But this is a different story told in a different article...

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Mittwoch, Dezember 14, 2005

Hello-hello-hella

Waltari played the small-but-famous Logo club in Hamburg two weeks ago. So, whithout any spoiler for all those who were planning to go to another German concert - here's the playlist of that spirited and bubbly gig:
  • Far Away
  • Not Enough
  • Dreamworld
  • Stars
  • Dawning Of Doom
  • Helsinki
  • Piggy In The Middle
  • Exterminator Warheads
  • Shades To Grace
  • Darling Boy
  • Walkin In The Neon
  • One Day
  • Forest
  • ---
  • New York
  • Move
  • Atmosfear
  • ---
  • So Fine

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Samstag, Juli 23, 2005

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

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Montag, Juli 18, 2005

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!

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Samstag, März 19, 2005

Punk Rock

Today was a real "punk rock day" - me, my new flat mate and his friend were drilling holes in the wall - for the kitchen shelves, for example.

So it was spent with cooking, clearing, clearing and clearing...

And: Punk Rock. Because I was testing the impact of my music collection on the two boys, and it worked out fine ;-)

Played, in no particular order and among others:

  • Green Day: American Idiot
  • Foo Fighters: One By One
  • New Order: Get Ready
Only the soundtrack to Kill Bill I they did not stand - I don't have a clue why...

(Written offline, published later)

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Donnerstag, November 25, 2004

The lists of 2004 I (more to come for sure!)

Hey ho, let's go... I still think that the last month of 2004 will bring some more, but I already got the first poll list of 2004 - stating the best band, the worst gig and things like that. I still don't have a candidate for The Band 2004 those who did cool records didn't tour Germany like ChaosBreed, My Dying Bride or Mannhai. Some of those who toured brilliant like Velvet Revolver or Monster Magnet failed after one or two good songs on the record. So... I think my artist of 2004 will be the HipHop outfit, OutKast. Ok., there are much to much songs on the records which are average - or at least they don't appeal to the metal-loving ear, but they do not only have the best song & best video, even the fun versions of that thing are as funny as this.

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