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Published: August 6th 2007
"Well, you're just a festival whore aren't you?" or words to that effect was what Olaf said to me when we were at St. Kilda Festival and he realised I was wearing A Big Day Out cap and Fall Festival T-shirt! But its been a while since my last music festival, so its about time for me to have my 5th music festival of the year. For those who are interested the others were Falls, Chill Island, Big Day Out and St. Kilda Fest.
Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALI!!!!!!!, and good luck to everyone doing exams.
Before I go any further I have to warn that this blog will be VERY long and I recommend that you don't read it if studying for exams. In fact, I'm banning anyone studying for exams to procrastinate by reading this blog. Thats right, when you are finished you can read it! I wrote a hardcopy of most of this on the train and it came 11 pages and I hadn't finished so feel free to skim and just read those bits that interest you (or better yet, don't read any of it!!). I know I tend to waffle in these blogs but I actually
write it more for me more than anyone else, so I have something to remember the trip by so thats why it is often so detailed! So I will not be insulted if you skip this blog as I will probably obsess over every band that I saw!
But first i need to wrap up the time I spent in Munich. I don't think I mentioned that despite the weather I really loved my time in Munich and think its an awesome city, which is really saying something when the weather was as bad as it was (however I did feel better hearing that most of you are currently suffering through crap weather in Melbourne at the moment!). I believe that when I last posted I said that it was highly unlikely that anything would be happening that night (famous last words!!). Initially it appeared to be true as I had the same problem as the night before where everyone appeared to be in groups, but after a while I just decided to approach and force myself on a group who turned out to be mostly solo travellers who were more than happy for me to join them. I'd planned
on going to bed early that night but one of the guys (Ronan from Ireland) wanted people to go out with to celebrate another guy's birthday (Chris from the US). They wanted people to go out with them to the Hofbrauhaus, one of the biggest beer halls. So the three of us went out to find the place but were relying on Chris, who was really drunk, to guide the way. We met up with a couple of girls that Chris had met in Switzerland and whom he arranged to meet up with in Munich for his birthday and a Swiss guy that the girls had met that night. I wasn't planning on drinking any more that night but before I knew it another of the one litre beers had been set down in front of me. Anyway a little bit after midnight they kicked everyone out of the beer hall and we headed back to the hostel where I sat down with them to say goodbye and before I knew it had a shot of tequila and another beer set in front of me! However this time I was strong and despite extensive peer pressure I managed to avoid
the shot and only have a few sips of beer before I slipped off to bed, finally getting in at about 1:30am.
I woke up the next day at about 5:30am to catch a train that went to Koblenz, the nearest station to Nurburg where the music festival is held. What i had discovered only a couple of days earlier was that I'd always thought that the music festival was in the big city of Nurnburg (Nuremberg in English) which is very easy to get to from Munich. What I discovered was that Nurburg (without the N) is actually a tiny town on the other side of Germany quite near to Frankfurt. So the previous day (Tuesday) I had spent a while before heading to Dachau working out the cheapest route to Koblenz. That meant catching the 7:05 train to Nurnburg (with the N), then the 9:05 to Wurzburg, then the 10:35 to Frankfurt (Main) and then the 13:08 train that would arrive in Koblenz at 14:51. However the problem I encountered in Koblenz was that there were no shuttles running until the next day and thus no way to get to Nurburg that night. The festival didn't start until
Friday but everything I read suggested arriving on Wednesday to get a good camping spot. However everyone I asked in Koblenz had already organised lifts with friends and I couldn't afford the 85 Euro taxi fare by myself so I headed to the information centre to organise accomodation for the night. He directed me to a youth hostel and said I'd be able to walk it. Well over an hour later, and with a climb up a massive hill to the hostel which was in a castle overlooking the Rhine, I arrived at the hostel. Unfortunately the youth hostel took the word youth very literally and the place was packed with a school or club group. For hours they ran up and down the corridor, occasionally bursting into our room by mistake, left all the showers running and made a heap of noise. I'd planned on getting a ridiculously early night but the Aussie guy in my room wanted to chat, and then later we were joined by the guy who ran the hostel. So I didn't get to bed until about midnight and then got up about 7am. I'd planned on doing a couple of things in Koblenz before
catching the first shuttle at 12:30 however when I arrived (needless to say I caught the bus this time!) there was already a large mob of people waiting to catch the shuttle. So I joined them and managed to squeeze onto the first shuttle which actually left about 11am and arrived at the Nurburgring about an hour and a half later.
The Rock Am Ring music festival takes place on a car racing track in Nurburg. They have a twin festival called Rock Im Park which takes place in the centre of Nurburg, but the RAR is the more famous and is the original of the two. The festival was actually a sell out for the first time this year, all 82,000 tickets were sold.
When I arrived I was pointed to a already overly packed camping site, and then to another equally full one. My bag is not light and it had started to rain so in the end I completely ignored all direction and walked in the opposite direction until a found a busy site but which had enough room for my tiny tent. It was great to be finally using the tent, sleeping bag and sleeping mat
after having lugged them halfway across Europe. The tent was definately cosy (it looked bigger in Barbara's backyard!) and whilst it was fine for sleeping in there was definately no room for anything else, such as sitting up. I had a siesta for a couple of hours and then headed off to explore. The first people I met were a couple of German girls, Anna and Jacky, who were talking to everyone walking down the path. They couldn't believe that I would go to a music festival by myself especially when I didn't even speak the language. They took me back to meet all their friends who all made a lot of effort to speak English and were really nice to me. Jacky especially made a lot of effort to explain what was being said by everyone. However except for a couple of hours each morning I didn't really see them again much for the rest of the festival (or for the matter drank any alcohol). You see a large majority of people go to music festivals and just go to see the big names, and spend the rest of their time getting trashed at their tents. But I'm such
an obsessive live music nut (and I'd been suffering withdrawal symptoms over the last couple of weeks) that I spent the whole day at the stage. And when the bands that you can't see because of clashes are as famous as Muse, Linkin Park, Korn, Good Charlotte, The Used, The Hives, Slayer and Papa Roach, you know that you have a pretty good line-up on your hands. Although I was annoyed that Amy Winehouse and Dave Matthews cancelled.
So on the Friday I ate some food, had a big drink of water, went to the toilet and got a good spot on the front row of the alternastage (the second stage), where i stood for the next 12 hours. I have to say that I think you have to be a bit of a masochist to be on the front row as there are always crowd surfers and you always get squashed but its also one of the safest places as you have something to hang onto and are near the security guards if you need to get pulled out. Also in my previous experience, you eventually forget about the pain you've endured and only remember how good the music
was!
The first band I saw at 16:00 was Little Man Tate, who were really good despite the fact that the only song I knew was "House Party at Boothy's". At 16:50 it was time for Melbourne's own The Cat Empire. Because they only had a 35 minute set they couldn't be as indulgent as they are normally are with the length of their live songs, so the songs were normal length and really good. •They played an awesome set, consisting of "How to Explain", "The Car Song", "Sly", "In My Pocket" and "The Chariot". Felix was the front man for the set because he spoke some German, but he also definately stole the show as well.
At 17:45 it was time for a band called Gogol Bordello, who were really weird but lots of fun. Their costumes were hideously over the top, but worked perfectly for their antics and style of music. At 18:50 it was time for yet another band I was really looking forward to, Razorlight. They are a really popular British band, although I only know the song "America". The lead singer gave off a really arrogant aura and almost succeeded in turning me off the
band, but he was an incredible singer and overall it was a really awesome set.
20:00 was the final of the bands that i didn't know (although there was only 2 on this day) called Jan Delay and Disko No. 1. They were fun to dance to but for some reason the music didn't seem to work and I was never completely gripped by it. As soon as they finished i began to get excited because it was when the line-up became really good. At 21:15 it was time for My Chemical Romance. Last time I saw them was at Big Day Out and I was a bit disappointed, although i think that was more to do with the crowd. This time they were incredible. The leadsinger, Gerald Way, seemed either possessed or having some sort of religious awakening whilst on stage and was just brilliant. They played most of my favourite songs, "Welcome to the Black Parade", "Mama", "Helena", "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)", "The Sharpest Lives", "Teenagers", "Famous Last Words" and a couple more. Most German people were really annoyed that MCR was playing because it meant that a lot of Emo people turned up for the festival
and they were all fiercly anti-Emo.
From about Gogol Bordello onwards I had been fairly squashed at my spot slightly to the left of centre but overall overall I wasn't too uncomfortable as there hadn't been many crowd-surfers. However when the Arctic Monkeys came on at 22:35 that all rapidly changed. Suddenly the front row was pressed right up against the fence and wave after wave of crowd-surfers came over the top. I've learned through experience that the only way to protect yourself from crowd-surfers is to help them into the arms of the security guards. Unfortunately most of the girls in the front row didn't know this and just covered their heads and had big heavy guys come crashing down on top of them repeatedly. Eventually most of them had to get pulled out. I hate crowd surfers because it means that you have to constantly alert for the next one, however what I did see of the Arctic Monkeys was really good although to be honest they didn't have much of a personality and just played their songs without giving much on the perfomance element. The highlight for me was "When the Sun Goes Down".
One thing that
I hate more than crowd surfers is people who get into the mosh and then bitch at everyone about being squashed by them, when no-one has any choice as they too are squashed. Unfortunately I got stuck next to one such girl during the break and it seemed like she might ruin the next performance but as soon as The White Stripes came out I forgot all about her. They were both incredible, but Meg White was particularly brilliant. She played the drums with such attitude and skill that I was completely in awe of her. They played a few songs off their album as well as most of my favourites. They really delivered on "Hotel Yorba", and also played "Seven Nation Army", "Dead Leaves on the Dirty Ground", "My Doorbell", "Little Ghost", "Jolene" and stacks more.
And then it was time for the late night special starting at 1:50am so I was pretty tired, hungry and thirsty at this point but at least the German-equivalents of bogans had all left by this point and so I actually had more space than I'd had since The Cat Empire. And the second that Evanescence began to play I forgot all about
my various aches and complaints for the entire set (and well beyond). I know a lot of people reading this (studiply) don't really like Evanescence but they were brilliant. Amy Lee is amazing live and the whole thing gave me a buzz for ages afterwards. The sang all their big songs, "Tourniquet", "Whisper", "Going Under", "The Only One", "Sweet Sacrifice", "Haunted", "Weight of the World", "Call Me When You're Sober", "Lithium" and "All that I'm living for". The "My Immortal" sing-a-long was huge. However just like when I saw them in Melb, they played "Your Star" as their final track which is my least favourite of their songs - except this time they made it heaps rockier and I loved it. The only thing I didn't like was that they cut the male vocal section out of "Bring Me to Life" which is my favourite part of the song. But otherwise they were close to perfect.
So at this point it was about 3:30am so I headed back to my tent on a high after having seen three of my four favourite international bands in one night (MCR, The White Stripes, and Evanescence - I was only missing the Scissor
Sisters). And there was still two days of the festival left!
I got to bed at about 4:30am but was up at about 11am as I had a full day ahead of me. You might think that I would be crazy to go back to the front line (I did mention the word masochist before!), but this time I was only going to the front for a measly 10 hours although it was at the centerstage. I arrived at about 13:30, after having eaten, drunk and toileted (thats right, its a verb - "to toilet") but even though I arrived fifteen minutes before the first band I still didn´t get a front row spot straight away. The first band was called Fair to Midland and started at 13:45. What they lacked in talent (they were okay musically), they more than made up for in energy and crazy antics. At 14:30 it was time for the first band of the day that I was excited about seeing - The Fratellis. I think they are one of the most fun British rock bands at the moment and they were really good live. Unfortunately the crowd got large and the crowd surfers appeared
in force. The highlights were definately "Baby Fratelli" and "Chelsea Danger".
After they finished the crowd settled down and I got some more room. AT 15:25 it was time for Thirty Seconds to Mars. I didn´t really know anything about this band but they were amazing live. At one point the lead singer climbed the scaffolding of the stage and sang from the top. The vibe in the crowd was awesome (I realised how much Aussies use the word awesome and how much I use it so I´ve been trying to hard to come up with synonyms but its hard!) and they were one of the coolest bands of the day.
Next it was time for Aussie band Wolfmother at 16:30. They were my first band I´d ever been at the front of a huge crowd for back at the turn of the new year, and at the time never thought I would do it again - but there I was!! They were really good and are still an amazing live band, although I do think they were better in Falls when the entire crowd was completely in to the music. They sang all their usual big hits, "Woman", "Joker
and the Thief", "Apple Tree", "Dimension", and a few others - but I can´t remember them singing "Mindś Eye".
Next at 17:40 was the best live performance on this day and whose first album "Employment" is one I´ve been listening to a lot lately ... the Kaiser Chiefs. Their lead singer was probably one of the most energetic live performers I´ve seen and really whipped the crowd into a frenzy, and their songs are so catchy that everyone sang them at the top of their lungs. One of the guitarists crowd surfed whilst playing their guitar which was awesome (I support crowd surfing when it furthers the art!!). Too many highlights to list ... "Everyday I Love You Less and Less", "Ruby" - a lot of fun to sing along to, "I Predict a Riot", "Oh My God" - probably my favourite cause it kinda feels like a appropriate song to listen when travelling with the chorus line being, "Oh My God, I can´t believe it, I´ve never been this far away from home, and many more kickin´songs (I´ve been reduced to "kickin´" in an attempt to avoid "awesome"!).
I´d decided that morning that If I was crushed during the
Kaiser Chiefs than I would get out during the break before the next band but I had been fairly comfortable and decided to stick it out for a while - basically I´d been lulled into a false sense of security.
The next band I saw I think is German and is called Mando Diao. They reminded me of the Arctic Monkeys although I didn´t know any of their songs. Like the Arctic Monkeys, the crowd surged forwards and the crowd surfers were unrelenting. In fact the crush was much worse and as I wasn´t enjoying the music I considered getting out - but decided to wait out this band as I expected it to get better. However when the next band - a German band called Beatsteaks - came out things went a little crazy. The crowd surfers were endless and as they were coming so fast the security had no option but to pull them off, most of the time squashing the first few rows - and for some reason all the crowdsurfers are fat and all people in the front row were thin (not the best combination!!). I was pushed up against the fence so that my feet
no longer touched the ground, so that when someone fell in the middle of the crowd and took down a lot of people around them, the front row got dragged along the fence trying to not fall as well. My t-shirt had risen slightly so that the skin on my stomach was against the fence and as I got dragged along the fence my stomach was getting scratched. And worse, the leadsinger of Beatsteaks only laughed at the potentially very dangerous situation occuring at the front of the stage and kept playing which meant that people kept dancing and sending crowd surfers over to fall on those people who had fallen over. That really pissed me off cause it was a very dangerous situation, and at Big Day Out a girl fell in the mosh area during My Chemical Romance and they stopped straight away and made everybody step back until they were sure that she was okay. I rapidly decided that no band was worth this pain and level of danger so asked a security guard to give me a hand out. He ignored me despite all I needed was someone to steady me as I got out, so
I asked a nicer one who helped me. As I left I noticed that all the crowd-surfers exited at the left of the stage and then were directed right back to the easiest place to crowd-surf again, congratulations on the organisation of the festival there! The other major problem I found at the festival is dehydration. You aren't allowed bottles in the festival area, unlike in Australia the security has no water that they can pass out to those people in the front and even when I asked for some water at the medical tent they had run out already (that is after I finally got their attention because the medical staff were busy watching the music). I decided that as I had waited all day I should try to stay for the final band, and moved more towards the centre for a better view. However Beatsteaks started playing a song that caused a sudden reaction in the crowd where all the Germanic equivalent of Bogans started hurling themselves at each other. This of course created chaos which meant that I was pushed all the way through the crowd right back to the second or third row, and slightly on
the left. Beatsteaks finished by stage diving right where I would've been, which made me more thankful I had decided to bow out of the front of the stage.
And then it was time for the Smashing Pumpkins. They were a good band, however overall I was fairly disappointed. I expected them to be so good that even though I don't know their music I would still love them, but to be honest I don't think I really like their music to begin with. They had little personality, and stood completely still the entire time playing their music, and reminding me strongly of the Simpsons episode where the crowd sway to their music without any emotion. So they were good for a while, but eventually I got bored and left early because I decided that there was little reason to hang around except that they were famous. I decided to skip Groove Armada at the dance tent because I was too tired and couldn't be bothered waiting until 2:30am, but I found out the next day that they didn't even turn up so I didn't miss anything.
So after a really awesome afternoon, and okay evening which was worse for
having been so squashed I would have to be crazy to head back to the front row again on the Sunday! Right? Well, I have used the word masochist before! And anyway it was going to be 9 and a half hours on the alternastage which should be a walk in the park.
When I arrived at about 15:00 a band called the Kilians were just wrapping up. I got my spot on the front row in time for the next act at 15:35. This was a singer called Colbie Caillat, performing with an unnamed soft rock band (I hate when singers don't acknowledge the band they play with in the name of the act. So that was fairly pleasant and relaxing and she was a good singer. At 16:25 it was time for a band called Pohlmann who was again pleasant to listen to and reminded me of Carus and the True Believers (just not as good). At 17:15 it was time for Paolo Nutini (and his unnamed band) who was pretty cool, although not really my type of music. Up until this point I'd had lots of room at the front and there had been no crowd surfers,
but Maximo Park changed all that. They were really good and lots of fun and I wasn't too crushed. Then it was time for the first band I had been waiting for, The Kooks at 19:25. I thought that the crowd surfers would stop at this point, however the band played a much harder rock style than the CD is and the crush got worse as did the crowd-surfers (would I had hoped would be off watching Korn on the centerstage). The band even commented that they'd never seen so many crowd-surfers, but they made it hard for them by getting everyone clapping and jumping. They were really good, and when they finished the crowd cleared out and changed over so that I was no longer getting squashed.
Then it was time for Mia. My first impression was not favourable as she was so cutesy and her music was kind of irritating. However in the end she won me over and she was lots of fun to watch. She reminded me a lot of Kylie - very energetic and the sort of music that you would listen to at a gym. So she wan fun and suddenly it was possible
to dance without being squashed (and even more rare it was possible to really move your feet). One of the best parts was when some cannons filled with silver paper exploded over the crowd (and about a metre from me) right near the end of her act. So she was lots of fun to watch, but at the same time I don't think that I could listen to her CDs.
After Mia it was time for Travis. I don't really know many Travis songs except "Why Does It Always Rain On Me? which of course was their final song and lots of fun to sing along with. Again the music isn't necessarily the type I would normally listen to but the bands was lots of fun and were one of the few bands that talked a lot and came across as really nice guys. I especially enjoyed their teasing of the metal bands on the other stage (basically the sang a couple of 'metal' songs for a few seconds which were completely over the top).
And then it was the big one and the final of my four favourite international bands - The Scissor Sisters. Of course they were amazing,
and maintained their spot as my favourite live band (although I think Evanescence and MCR were slightly better musically this time, but the Scissor Sisters are so consistently the most entertaining act I see). They sang their usual songs; "Laura", "Shes my man", "I Don't Feel Like Dancing", "Comfortably Numb", "Filthy / Gorgeous", "Tits on the Radio", "Kiss you off" and finishing with one of my favourites, "Music is the Victim". They were so much fun, and I still had space to dance because the first headlining act (a very popular and possibly retiring band called Die Artze) were playing on the other stage. So that meant that the crowd was nicely large (ie. not quiet but not too squished).
I then grabbed some food and watched a little bit of the final band Wir Sin Helden, who seemed okay but I was tired and ready to go to bed. I woke up at about 7:30 the next morning and was surprised to discover how easily I was able to pack up my tent. Then I went to wait for the bus for Koblenz, which unfortunately seemed to be where a very large amount of people were heading. I managed
to get my bag in the lugagge area of the bus but didn't get a seat. However the coach driver let heaps of people on, and then decided that no one without a seat could stay on. So i had to get off along with heaps of other people, get our bags out of luggage part which caused chaos and then he finally left after holding up traffic for ages. I jumped on the next bus which the bus driver was happy to pack people on. From Koblenz I quickly caught the first train to Frankfurt, and from there I took the cheapest route from Frankfurt to Nurnburg, and then Nurnburg into Prague (and on the train I handwrote most of this blog).
(Just a quick note - because this blog took me a while to write and I've been VERY busy I am leaving Prague tomorrow so I know that some of you would probably have travel tips but unfortunately I won't have time to do them - its the 7 of June today - unlike what it says on the top).
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Ali
non-member comment
Thanks dude! Respect, represent, recognise......word.