Bucovina, Arenele Romane, 12.12.15

Seeing Bucovina live was a very intense experience, for quite a large number of reasons. 

First of all, it’s Bucovina. It’s the Romanian band I love and respect the most, I love their music, I love their professionalism, I love their attitude, their message, their love for the country displayed through music… they’re just great.

Second, because it was awesome to see this band rewarded with so much appreciation from the fans. The atmosphere was amazing, as it always is when Bucovina climbs the stage, with a lot of singing along (seriously, you *have* to listen to Straja live once in your life, it’s just magic). By their own admission, it was the largest concert they had (Wacken didn’t count because the people weren’t there for them) and also it was the largest merchandise line I’ve ever seen at any concert. I even had a friend who couldn’t attend the show ask me to buy an album for him because he wanted to support the band. And the line and the high attendance were exactly that: supporting the band and it filled my heart with joy to see it. Especially since they told us the story of the album package, that couldn’t be done properly by a printing firm  because of the holiday rush and was done a few nights before manually and had a manually written code that would allow us to receive the real digi-pack for free in…. some time.  It would be adorable how low budget everything is for them, if Bucovina weren’t one of the most popular metal bands in Romania. In this case, it just made me realise how underground and under-financed metal is in our country. But still, it was lovely to see those who do enjoy this genre support it in any way they can. I bought a t-shirt 😀

Third because oh my god the setlist! Being an album launch, they played the new album from beginning ’til the end, they played some of their early blacker works and everything else in between. It was perfect, I don’t think anyone left without hearing all the songs they liked. Bonus round, after the already expected encore, they had a second encore with Mestecanis, because the audience kept asking for it, even though we already heart it as the opening song. 

Finally, because of Colectiv. Bucovina have always been very outspoken about social issues and most of their concerts have at least one speech about something other than music. Having lost a lot of close friends in the fire, including their sound engineer (who was decorated post-mortem for going back inside the club multiple times to save others), one would have to be naive to think the fire at Colectiv wouldn’t be a major theme for this event (it already was by the mere fact that suddenly, the venue had 8 exits, instead of just the one we were used with. It makes me wonder why did 61 people have to die for the organisers to finally pay attention to normal safety rules). However, I never anticipated it would be so powerful and moving. This was a very sensible issue for us, regular concert goers. On one side, because the metal community is small and you start to get to know each other; we all knew at least one of the victims. On the other side, because we all realise we could’ve easily been in their place, in Colectiv or in any other venue, because most of them were just as dangerous. So for me (and I think for everyone else) it was very emotional when Crivat kept tying the messages of their songs to this accident. When he introduced Veacul Ruinei by saying stories die, and people die as well and are forgotten, but they come back to life when we remember them, as we should remember all the people who have been in our midst so many times and died as heroes trying to save others, I just lost it and started crying. Even as I’m writing this, I have a lump in my throat.

Another intense moment (though in a very different way) was when he encouraged us to have a giant mosh pit and then a giant wall of death, to demonstrate for our politicians what we can/will do to them if they don’t take the necessary measures for something like that to never happen again. The whole venue split into two (the first time I see it split all the way to the back) and even though there were quite a few people who preferred to watch from the side (like myself), there were also a lot of guys who decided to jump in and release all the anger and frustration bottled up.

I think I’ve said before that when I listen to this band, I feel patriotism just flowing through me and it makes me proud to be a Romanian. Colectiv and all the solidarity demonstrated in relation to it made me proud of my fellow Romanian metalheads. Combining the two of them generated a wave of emotions that it’s hard to explain and may be hard to understand for someone who hasn’t experienced it. Even the small random acts of kindness were moving in this context, like the fact that in the middle of a giant bathroom line, there were two guys who let me go first just because, or how the very very tall guy in front indulged me in all the permutations I was making so that I could see and in the end moved aside to clear the way for me, or how another guy (who, come to think of it, I know so little, and only from meeting each other at concerts) gave me his hoodie because I was shivering. Happiness is built from little things and that night had so many of them, in so many different forms… maybe I didn’t properly appreciate them at that moment because of the amount of excitement and emotion, but now that I look back, it was very special.