Festival: Hurricane Festival 2007 - Scheeßel, Germany

Hurricane Festival 2007 - June

I wrote this two years ago after just coming back from the Festival, I was dead tired and feeling a little sick, but I had to write my impressions then because they were fresh, so, here it goes:

Thursday night, day zero:

We went to the festival one night before to set up tent and the likes. When we got there at 8 the place was already packed and it took us a while to find a spot to camp in. It was raining cats and dogs. Our tents were cheap 10 euros tents, so, the humidity got everything inside them wet!

That night we drank a bit and went to the “disco” they had there, it was good music and it was fun, but soon enough we went to bed. We didn’t sleep very well because the tent was small and we were really wet.

Friday, day one:

Woke up late, chilled… took a cowboy shower (cold) in the public bathrooms. A not so great experience by it self.

The bands started at 4, so we went. The bands that I managed to see are the following:

Mc Queen – A girl band from the UK… all I have to say is that they are kick ass.

Les Rita Mitsouko – some French band… it was ok for like 30 mins, after that, so boring!

Snow Patrol – I thought it was a really nice show, the band is good and they sounded great.

Jet- half saw, half heard… I was only interested in “are you gonna be my girl?” and heard it, so its all good.

Die Fantastischen vier – saw a bit and heard a bit… the show was great and the germans were going crazy! That why this is one of the most important bands here… they are very good.

Beastie Boys – well… I was a bit disappointed… first they had no idea where they were, they said “yeah, beastie boys in your area” WTF??? And they played mostly stuff from the new album, that’s instrumental! So, it was a bit boring.

Queens of the Stone Age – this band made my day, they are as good as I expected… I have no words to describe.

From day one I learned is better to stick to one stage if you wanna see the bands close by. That night we changed tents, so it was bigger and better… I slept ok.

Saturday, day 2:

Woke up relatively early. Decided to go to another bathroom and check out the showers. It had common showers but hot water, so I decided to give it a try, cause it was very cold and I didn’t want another cold shower. I come from a naked family (aka, my family never had any problems with being naked and so I never thought the naked body was a bad thing) and I’m very comfortable naked, so, I just thought: “I’m a naked person, its ok to shower infront of all this girls, if there’s a lesbian let her enjoy”, you could actually sort of see the guys side, but I didn’t care either… I would never see this people again, plus, let them enjoy my nakedness… This by it self was quite an experience, I felt like in the military or in prison… it was very amusing.

After all of this wonderful experience, we ate a bit and decided to go to the Green stage, the main stage, and stay there, so we could see Incubus and Marilyn Manson close by.

The bands that played that day were:

Mumm-Ra - Alt-rock, yet again, cool band, nice kids from the UK.

The Bravery - Indie rock, again, very good band, my future husband played the drums.

The sounds - I completely loved this band for a long time, now I loved them even more. The vocalist’s attitude is great… I love her! Plus, they sound amazing… It was a great show.

Mogwai - It’s a good band, but not for the moment, its instrumental and very slow… I was falling asleep! I think they made a wrong choice to have this band on this stage and at this moment.

Arcade Fire - Wao… I don’t know what to say about this band… it was very strange for me… they were like 10 musicians on stage, playing so many different things, all of them doing backing vocals and jumping around… the style of music, I don’t even know! It was very entertaining and I enjoyed the show…

Bloc Party - Great band… nice guys and a good show… I was laughing cause they seem like a very politically correct band (check out pics of them and you’ll see what I mean)… it was a lot of fun…

Incubus - finally, a band I completely adore and the love of my life (Brandon Boyd) on stage! I was a bit disappointed cause they didn’t play some songs I love and they didn’t interact with the crowd that much… the show was short, but I think it was worth the wait, the rain, the cold and everything, I was really close to them and I had a blast!

Marilyn Manson - I wasn’t gonna swim all of that just to die in the shore! I stayed put close to the stage to see Manson… The show was great, but I expected a bit more… It was cool that he played the songs I like, not that I like Manson so much…

Interpol - Saw them from very far (I was completely dead by then), but heard my favorite songs… they sounded great…

Comments about this day: we got rained on (like 6 times), we didn’t eat properly, we didn’t sit down for like 8 hours, we were really close to the stage (so crushed for many hours by many people), we got beat up, we didn’t pee, we didn’t drink anything (not to pee), but I think it was so worth it!

Sunday, last day, the sick day:

So, After the whole marathon that was Saturday I had a good night sleep but woke up feeling a bit sick… I guess the rain and the cold got to me… took another common hot shower and ate a bit more than the previous day… I took my time this day… I said “whatever, its my last day im gonna enjoy it!”… so some of us took our time, we went see the stands, bought some stuff, drank coffee or beer, sat down, chilled… then it was getting late so I got separated from my group and went to the blue stage… it was gonna be a punk day and the bands playing in the green stage were not that important to me…

Bands I saw by myself the last day:

Sugarplum fairy - heard them chillin on the floor in front of the green stage… good band from Sweden, the vocalist, YUM…

Juliette and the Licks - Juliette Lewis from “Natural Born Killers” rocking her heart out! Great band… didn’t enjoy it that much cause I was in line to get in the front… but they were great… she is a great performer and a good singer…

Less than Jake - No words to describe them… they are so nice, interacted with the crowd, and they really reminded me why I loved (and still love) punk so much… they are not conceded, they are very nice and fun! This band was I think one of my favorite from the hurricane festival…

Rentals - please please, no more indie rock!!! This band was not bad, but I was tired of the indie rock, I think I heard like 10 indie rock bands in 3 days… I didn’t want more of it by then…

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes - I was so waiting for them! I was expecting fat mike on bass, but it was Eric Melvin (who looks a lot like my friend Raul from back home), but still it was very funny and entertaining. The vocalist, Spike Slawson from Swingin’ Utters, knew German and was talking with the crowd all the time, I was really impressed! Later on I learned that he also speaks Hebrew and French. They played “The Rocky Horror Picture show” song, “Somewhere over the rainbow” and “Good-bye Earl”, so I was very happy…

Dropkick Murphys - I started to feel sick, very sick at this point, but I really wanted to see them live so I stayed… great band, great show and great sound… but left after half the set to go home and sleep properly…

Conclusions: This experience was completely new for me… and I don’t think im gonna do it again… but for this time, it was very worth it!!

For pictures check: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2023177&id=210100424&l=24a4f41a28

Festival: Rock im Park 2009 - Nueremberg, Germany

Rock im Park 2009 - June 2009

Ok, so after two years I went to another festival (in 2008, sadly, I missed the Hurricane with Foo Fighters, argh!). My sister and I decided to go to Rock im Park, which is in Nuremberg (close to where she lives, Wuerzburg). It was perfect, close to her and we actually have relatives living there, my grandma’s cousin, a 70 something lady, charming but can only speak german, so with my poor german and her husband’s poor english we managed to comunicate.

We arrived on friday morning to Nuremberg and had brunch with our new grandparents (Nuremberger sausages and sauer Kraut, breakfast of champions!), then had a small tour of this beautiful city and then left for the concert.

Day 1-

First of all we got very lost when we arrived at the venue, got out really far from where the stages were, and then got really lost inside again. We finally arrived and we had missed New Found Glory, sadly. The bands we managed to see were:

-All American Rejects: I had a great time, is actually a pretty good band, the biggest problem for me was the sound! I couldn’t hear anything from where I was!

- The subways and Guano Apes: why do I put them together? Because these 2 great bands had a very band sound! I couldn’t hear anything, just the drums, basically… so sadly, I cannot say I heard them.

- Chris Cornell: we moved to the other stage and had much better luck, Chris Cornell is amazing, this man can sing! He sang some his new stuff, some of his old solo stuff, and some songs by Soundgarden and even Audioslave. It was a lot of fun and I was really close to the stage.

- MIA: aus berlin… this berliner has actually a lot of fans… I was surounded by gay men and it was fun… too long for my taste though, and I actually thought that I would see M.I.A!

- The Kooks: After being smashed for a very long time and almost falling 100 times or more, this amazing band came out on stage… it was a great show, I was really happy to have waited.

After this we left and missed all the buses we could miss, and ended up going home by taxi. Our welcome home was hot tea and homemade butterkuche! We were lucky enough to sleep on a warm bed and have a shower available.

Day 2-

After a big brunch (again) we left to the concert. It was eassier to arrive at the venue this time, it was raining so we took our raincoats and some sandwiches again. The bands I saw.

- Dragonforce: Alot of fun, this metal band is as good live as they sound on CD. It was great fun.They coud only play like 4 songs hahah.

- Papa Roach: a band I saw in 2002 back home, and had a blast. This time around it was a lot of fun as well, too bad I wasn´t able to see them close by.

- Enter Shikari: this band was very strange, we were´t paying much attention but what we heard was very interesting, I must say.

- Placebo: even though it started to rain (anoying, but not that bad) me and my sister enjoyed the show a lot…Placebo is great live, and the new drummer, yum… it was a blast.

- The Killers: I think one of my favorites of the whole festival, had an awesome time…my sister actually tried to go see Manson after this, but there was so many people trying to go to the small stage (to see Manson and then Korn) that she had to come back, but to have a great time with me (she had seen them live before in Munich in March)… the only bad thing, they didn´t play “Bones” which is my favorite song, but they played “When you were young” so it´s all forgiven.

We played guitar hero in front of a lot of people outside the stages, it was great fun. We played “Everlong” by The Foo Fighters, I played bass and my sister sang…other people played the other instruments, it was amazing! hahaha

That night we also had to take a cab, but we got home better, without getting lost. We also had Tea and cake for us, a warm dry bed and a shower. Priceless.

Day 3- Bye Bye Nuremberg :(

After leaving our bags at the station we managed to arrive via S-bahn better than ever before.

- Machinehead: great show really,it was raining but sunny and we had two rainbows for part of the entertainment. The sound was good,so I have no idea what happened on this stage on the first day!

- The Prodigy: Ok, one of my favorite 90´s band, they rock! we had a blast even though it was raining a lot, very worth it!

Going to see Bloc paty in the other stage it started to rain really heavily, tropical rain sort of type, even though we had raincoats, we got pretty wet… they played “It´s raining men” and we started dancing around… afterwords, when it got better, they played “Walking on sunshine” and we kept on dancing not to feel more wet and unconfortable than what we were. I was OK, but my sister got really really wet.

-Bloc party: this is a band that I would so recommend to see live if you have the chance. Its a great show and they sound just like they do on recordings…wonderful… it was my second time seeing them and so worth the rain and everything.

- Slipknot: to finish with a cherry on top, this amazing band. I didn´t know I knew all the old songs, hahaha… they are great, an incredible show with a lot of lights, effects and fire!

After that we left Nuremberg to go back to Wuerzburg. We actually changed in the hauptbahnhof and I threw away my shoes, which were completely ruined and wet.

Conclusions: Amazing experience, a lot of great food, great city, great times, guitar hero and great bands…but, I´m not quite sure I would go back to Rock im Park, it was hard to move from one stage to another and the location was too small for so many people, I couldn´t even see Korn. Next year, I´ll try the Reading or Leeds Festival, maybe the one in Budapest, we will see…

If you want to see pics of this experience go to:http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2029963&id=210100424&l=9a2d131627