jackhammer

Bang Your Head Festival Jun 26/27th June. Germany.

The Germans love Metal and one thing they do and do well is copious amounts of festivals that cater for the Metal fan and what they also do well is organisation. Every band was on stage on time. The facilities were first class (including the toilets) and the atmosphere was unbelievably friendly with many families there too.


Myself and fellow MB member The Cat have been best friends for 23 years now and since he moved to Germany last year for work reasons we combined a visit with a festival to get the best of both worlds. The festival line up was also extremely appealing as the BYH festival combines classic Thrash and Metal bands from the 80's with new (usually) German bands. For our enjoyment on the bill was:

Voivod
Sacred Reich
Sodom

which was the order of the bill on Friday and what a 3 and a half hour blitz that was!

Exodus
W.A.S.P (Saturday)


Voivod have always been one of our favourite metal bands and one of the more progressive too and they played a classic mix of old and new. Finishing with their classic cover of Pink Floyd's 'Astronomy Domine'. To say that I was happier than a pig in shit is an understatement and we were in the front row for these without being crushed (the audiences over there are much more respectful of others).



It was exactly the same for Sacred Reich and they were a band I saw 20 years ago (along with the other bands I mentioned) and it was definitely like being a young kid again strutting around to 'Surf Nicaragua' and 'The American Way'. Ending on their classic cover of Black Sabbath's 'War Pigs'. JH= happy camper.

Sodom followed and have a huge following in their homeland of Germany and were another highlight. The rest of the bill was not to our tastes so we carried on drinking and promptly fell asleep before the last band Journey who we wanted to see for a good time and a bit of fun. Considering I had been travelling for 14 hours the previous day, I'm an old bastard and we lost count after drink 15 I am not surprised!


Saturday was a different story altogether and despite the hours of 6 A.M-12 P.M being filled with constant torrential rain we made the most of it and started drinking at 10 a.m. 14 hours later @12 a.m we were still drinking and onto jagermeister by about 7 p.m. The bill wasn't as strong but we still enjoyed the mighty Exodus and had more fun than we thought possible catching the band W.A.S.P. 400 euro's worth of alcohol, one lost pair of trainers (mine-lost in the 3ft puddles of mud at the campsite) and severe hangovers later we made it to Sunday morning having enjoyed a truly excellent weekend full of laughs, great bands, some contrasting weather (it was 36 degrees on Friday), lots of alcohol and sunburn. We are going again next year and there may well be another MB member from across the pond joining us too!

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Piss Me Off

Ooo you've got me in the mood for a festival now! I might track down some Voivod now you mention it and i salute your horrific drinking habits!

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crash_override

Well this show was cool. Besides all the religious propaganda (more from certain bands than others), it was really solid. Good set of bands here, most I have heard/seen before, but some were foreign to me and will remain to be so. See there's good and bad here just like anything else you run into in music. The opening bands were a joke, an excuse to go across the street and get a beer.

Gwen Stacy pulled a 180 on the show and really kicked things into gear, probably the most underrated band on the tour. They should be playing above alot of these bands on the bill, but because of their abrasive style, lack of over the top religious blabber, and not so flattering image. But still, more of the more enjoyable bands musically. My 3rd time seeing Gwen Stacy (having played with them twice) they are better and tighter sounding than ever, new song unveiled shows strong promise for the new future. Overall a strong performance from GS.

Oh Sleeper is a band one of my old roommates would constantly rave about, got me into them a bit. Although I've never been a huge fan, they have some good tracks and I do know most of their songs off their old album. This made the show a lot more engaging, the have tons of energy, progressive elements, heavy sound, and not too much off topic blabber. Solid sow from them, new album out soon.

Project 86 is a band I had heard one song from before this show, and will probably stay at that level for quite some time. Lots of attempted crowd interaction (dispite the crowd obviously not receiving them well), religious blabber, and dragging on of the songs to ridiculous interludes smothered in bland spoken word. Was not pleased by this performance.

Sleeping Giant. Here is a band that seems like the want to be preachers more than musicians. They played 3 songs in their set and drug them on sooooooooo long with annoying crowd interaction attempts and RIDICULOUS religious preaching. This band was more of a task to sit through than anything. I wouldn't recommend them to anyone, terrible live performance.

The Chariot is a group of pure entertainers. Flailing about, throwing guitars amongst each other, tossing stage props into the air randomly, crawlling around on the floor and controlling the venues lighting themselves makes for one hell of a show. While the music was an incoherent burp of noise and un un-recognizable to even some of their fans (myself included), the stage antics and pure presence made up for it and made the show quite enjoyable.

Haste The Day, if you can call them that anymore. I have now seen them live 8 times, and they are the primary reason I went to the show tonight. The band had no original members on stage, and looked about as alive as a rotting horse carcass. The two new guitarists couldn't play their way out of a paper bag, but do a fantastic job of looking more like d-bags than Stephen Keech (no easy task), The new bassist is tolerable, but nothing special, and the drummer have no sense of dynamics what-so-ever. That being said, some of the old songs sounded ok, just not the same. When you're used to seeing the old guys up there giving it their all to perform, seeing these hack up there was a huge let down. To top off the horror story, Stephen Keech now has a kid rock hair cut and is attempting to play guitar whilst doing his vocals on certain songs. Not a good idea I might add, not at all. The band, despite their last release being fairly good, seems to be on the fast decline. A band that once inspired me to play, now shames me to even be a fan. Metallica syndrome is in effect, RIP HTD.

Overall, the show was worth 17 bucks. I got a lot of anger out there, I really needed that.

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My MB music journal

RonaldSays

Here's part one of the review I wrote about Rock Werchter on my own blog:

A big line-up and four days of lots of sun shine definitely made me looking forward to this edition of Rock Werchter. To avoid traffic jams we did the whole trip in two parts and left early for the final stage.

Thursday July 2
And eventually...we ended up being stuck in traffic only 16 kms from the festival. After 2 hours we decided to take our changes and relied on the car navigation to lead us around the traffic jam and what do you know? It got us to the festival in no time instead of the 6 hours we heard it took some people to get there. After another long wait in the burning hot sun to enter the festival area we finally made it in. Unfortunately we already missed Eagles of Death Metal, sorry guys. By then we knew he big golden ball was gonna be ruthless this weekend. But then we met Mr. Joe Piler who was gonna try to make it easier for us. Thanks Joe! On to the first band!

Fleet Foxes (Ronald Says 6 out of 10)
These guys can sing very nice harmonies and it all sounds great. But it does get a bit boring for me in the end. Also there's not a lot happening on stage. Still not a bad performance though. But I enjoyed it the most while sitting outside the Pyramid Marquee and getting to know Mr Joe Piler better.

Placebo (Ronald Says 7 out of 10)
Their new album "Battle for the Sun" is pretty good and the songs fit in nicely with their big hits like "Every You Every Me" and "The Bitter End". But we've seen Brian Molko more active in the past. They played a solid set but it needed some salt and pepper.

Oasis (Ronald Says 8 out of 10)
I don't know what to think of Oasis. I never really got into their music and they haven't done anything new for the past ten years. I also don't like the brothers Gallagher's attitude. But on stage it sure works and kind of comes together. They play a solid greatest hits rock show that warms everyone up for closing act "The Prodigy".

The Prodigy (Ronald Says 6 out of 10)
Of course their music is perfect for jumping around and dance away the last bit of energy. But we've seen it all before and it does get a bit old in the end. The stage act isn't really exciting either. Keith Flint and Maxim Reality walk and jump around the stage and scream into their mics now and then. Time for something new? But fortunately good friends including Joe Piler were keeping me company.



Friday July 3
He was all nice the day before but Joe Piler hit me hard today. However the big golden ball burned us out of our tents so we made it to the field in time easily. Time for coffee and some music.

White Lies (Ronald Says 5 out of 10)
I like some of their hit songs and they sound okay on their album. But the main stage was too big for them. Very static performance and Harry McVeigh's voice just didn't sound good live. Bummer since it could have been nice.

Elbow (Ronald Says 8 out of 10)
I have mentioned before that I gave them a shot a couple of times but somehow it doesn't work for me. So I tried really hard this time and I get it now. I'm still not into their music but Guy Garvey is a great singer with a fantastic voice and they kind of suck you into their world of sweet elf songs. Even on the main stage they managed to put down an intimate performance without getting boring which is quite an achievement on a hot afternoon.

Bloc Party (Ronald Says 8 out of 10)
I saw Bloc Party earlier this year and noticed how their stage performance improved. Last time on Werchter it seemed the main stage was a bit too big. This time it fit them extremely well. I think you really have to dig their music to appreciate this the most. And since I like their music a lot I could definitely do so. The fine beats by Matt Tong were powerful and you can't but like singer Kele Okereke who looked like he was having a lot of fun up there. Especially during their hits like "Banquet", "Hunting for Witches" and recent hit "Mercury" the crowd seemed to enjoy themselves as well and were jumping to all the way in the back.

The Killers (Ronald Says 8 out of 10)
With The Killers I just don't know what to expect. I liked them in the beginning and after that not so much anymore. Their sets becoming to pompous. But lately I seem to like them more than ever. Not so much their latest album but their performances have improved a lot. And this time was no exception. They played a strong sets with lots of their hits including many of their first album which I like the most. Singer Brandon Flowers seems to have loosened up a lot and was enjoying himself. Moving around the stage and smiling he certainly has grown bigger lately. Maybe they will finally grow into the big rock act they want to be so much.

Coldplay (Ronald Says 8 out of 10)
Let me start by saying I don't like Coldplay's music. Their first album was alright but after that it all sounded too sweet and polished (someone once said it is music for bed-wetters and I agree). But fair is fair they proved why they are one of the biggest band at the moment. Chris Martin was running across the stage and was already sweating after two songs. Of course the rest of the band is fairly invisible but they played all the hits and the crowd loved it. I kind of lost interest halfway and got more interested in Joe Piler since I'm no bed-wetter.

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Saturday July 4
I was able to sleep a little more and definitely felt better this day. So after coffee, a bacon and egg roll and a 50 cent toilet festival dump it was time to rock!

Triggerfinger (Ronald Says 7 out of 10)
Hooray for good old honest rock to wake you up. And Triggerfinger did exactly that. They were the opening act today and sure opened my eyes and ears again. All dressed in black this not so young band (bass player Paul Van Bruystegem even played Werchter in 1975) sure kicked ass. Singer Ruben Block looks pretty comfortable on stage. Although some of his little speeches didn't really seem to go anywhere he looked pretty relaxed. Good music did the rest.

Social Distortion (Ronald Says 2 out of 10)
I'm not even going to write a lot about this. Just horrible. Go away and never come back. They did the worst Johnny Cash cover ever.

Rodrigo y Gabriela (Ronald Says 7 out of 10)
A man and a woman with flamenco guitars on a big stage. Now that must be hard to entertain around 50.000 people (I assume not all 80.000 were there). But Rodrigo y Gabriela had no problems with that at all. Playing heavy metal riffs mixed with flamenco sure caught everyone's attention and then never let go.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs (Ronald Says 7 out of 10)
It's back to the 80s for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Their older albums leaned heavily on guitars but their latest one is mixed with a lot of electronics. And this works well on stage. Especially with a singer like Karen O. in her colourful outfit. Although it becomes a bit too arty farty sometimes their energetic performance sure is great to experience.

Franz Ferdinand (Ronald Says 7 out of 10)
If you need the crowd to get fired up get these guys. With their no nonsense songs and easy to sing choruses they sure have the crowd jumping in no time. Going through all their hits they played a nice festival set. However I've seen them doing better. They played their best songs in the beginning of the set and I've seen Alex Kapranos looking more relaxed. And what happened at the end of the set? They were all banging the drums in a song at the end of the set that abruptly ended. After a short discussion Kapranos then sang a few lines of 'Jacqueline' before seemingly angry leaving the stage. If you know leave a comment.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (Ronald Says 10 out of 10)
Oh yes! By far the best concert of the festival. They were playing very aggressively like they had the devil on their backs. Nick Cave (without mustache) was looking like the devil himself now and then with piercing eyes and angry looks. They played a great set with songs of their latest album "Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!" that is by far one of their best albums lately. Someone holding a sign saying "Give me your guitar". Nick answering "I'm not giving you my ****ing guitar!". The last song of the set "Stagger Lee" never sounded more frightening and better. A well earned 10!

Kings of Leon (Ronald Says 7 out of 10)
I kind of had to get into Kings of Leon. Saw them twice before on this stage and wasn't impressed. But then I listened to their albums and liked it a lot. And now they had their major break through so what would their performance be like? Well it was definitely a lot better. They played a strong set and they looked a lot more convincing than the previous times. They could do a lot more about their appearance though. It's all a bit static. And what's up with drum player Nathan Followill? He's playing without emotion and looks like a cold blooded psycho who drowns kittens for fun.

2ManyDJs (Ronald Says 9 out of 10)
If the Dewaele brothers show up you know that you will have a great time and people will go wild. Great set with unexpected and original tunes mixed in a crazy blender (including Sepultura's "Roots Bloody Roots"). Great visuals of the record covers with crazy hilarious animation. It didn't take long before everyone was jumping including Joe.



Sunday July 5
Three days of burning hot sun, sweat, lack of decent showering and too much hanging out with Joe was getting the best of us. Time to take it slow and fortunately we could hang out with Seasick Steve to start our day.

Seasick Steve (Ronald Says 7 out of 10)
An old guy in a chair and a drummer on a big stage. What to expect? Well, good old honest blues and rock. Maybe the stage was a bit too much but still a good performance. Steve is a nice man who plays great blues songs. Not a bad way to start the day at all.

The Mars Volta (Ronald Says 7 out of 10)
Whoa! I never made it through any of their albums and was curious if I could make it through their concert. From the moment they climbed the stage they went full-force and never looked back. Lots of noise and heavy rock tunes. They even unleashed the anger of the rain gods that poured heavy rains on our burnt faces. But even that couldn't stop them and neither did it stop me.

The Script (Ronald Says 5 out of 10)
Choosing between this band or Limp Bizkit was easy. I don't wanna see Fred Durst with his head up his ass ever again. But this show wasn't going down easy either. Kind of your regular boy band with instruments. Soft poppie tunes that are just too slick. I guess I will just spend some time with Joe next time.

Kaiser Chiefs (Ronald Says 6 out of 10)
If you wanna have fun get these guys on stage. So they did for the fourth time in a row. Everyone having a good time, jumping, singing the easy lalala chorus lines and a slimmed down Ricky Wilson bouncing up and down the stage. But this time it did get a bit old. Even Ricky climbing the light pole was copied from last year. Like their latest album nothing changed so it's time for something new. At first I was in doubt but in the end I chose to see this performance. Big mistake because I heard Ghinzu playing the Marquee at the same time turned out to be the revelation of Werchter. Ouch!

Nine Inch Nails(Ronald Says 8 out of 10)
I'm not a huge fan of Trent Reznor's NIN projects. But you know he's good for a testosterone packed rock show and this was no exception. He brought a ceiling filled with lights and rocked everyone's socks off like a rock truck running you over. It was rough, it was sweaty and it was good. Apparently for the last time as well.

Metallica (Ronald Says 7 out of 10)
Metallica loves Werchter and Werchter loves Metallica so they were here for the 7th time. I think it was my 4th time and I have mixed feelings about the previous times. Sometimes very good sometimes a bit too much leaning on routine. This time it kind of fell into the last category. Of course they always are true professionals and probably never will play a bad gig. They have enough good songs to choose from and their last album has some great songs that work well live. It was just all too much prepared and not really spontaneous. For the real fireworks we had to wait until after their performance.



So that was it for Rock Werchter 2009. Another good edition with lots of good music. I think that they should play a bit less safe next time. With big bands you can please a lot of people and sell out the festival anytime but it doesn't really result in many surprises. Next year better traffic control and maybe a little less sunshine. But make sure Joe Piler is there again. I like him...

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adidasss

That's a pretty insane festival. Very jealous. Thanks for the reviews...(:

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DanContogiannis

Man, I wish I was in Europe this summer for festivals.

Black People Are Cool

I saw Sonic Youth in massey hall. Best time of my life other than car ride there and back from my friend's mom's friend. The car had dog hair all over and the lady who drove dragged me into the Condom Shack so she could buy a ***** modled after a carrot. Than I had to lsiten to her blab on about her idea of good music, Bob Noxios, Posion, and Kiss, Than she critized me for listening to Public Enemy and Techno music, because the electric guitar is the only means of making good music. THAN! She called her boyfriend to cast him about Sonic Youth... He replied "Durrr' I saw dem on the Simpsons. Hick Hick!" But uhh yeh the concert itself was great. Front row! At one point our arms were right on the stage than the securities guards told us to '**** off', but than during the enchore everyone went back up for the rest of the show. I don't really remeber the setlist, The irish guy I sat beside managed to nab 1/3 setlists that were being handed out by a rody... Than nearing the end the bearded fella' from Broken Social Scene shuved past me to get to his backstage seat. Great time.

Mojo

BYH looked like canny. I've always wanted to go to some of the forgeign metal festivals, a lot of them seem to have much more "extreme" metal bands on the bill than the likes of Download are gonna get but no one ever really seems up for it but me. Luckily Download don't do a bad job on the smaller stages most of the time.

Voivod covering Floyd? Christ. Were you tempted to just go home after that?

I've tried numerous, numerous times to get into their Nothingface album (a few people have told me I don't stand a chance if i cant get into that one) and it's just never worked. One of their tracks came on the other day when I had my iPod on shuffle and I quite enjoyed it, so I shall be revisiting them again I think.

Anyway, great idea for a thread!

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adidasss

It's THEN...THEN FOR GOD'S SAKE!!!

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“Think of what a paradise this world would be if men were kind and wise.” - Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle.

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