Artmania, Large Square Sibiu, 13-14.08.10

Day 1

Swallow the Sun

There was a time when I would’ve gushed over a band like Swallow the sun, with their doomy gloomy air, their elegant outfits and their cute blonde guitarist, but unfortunately for them, that time is gone. At Artmania all I could do was sit down, drink a lot of water and look for shade while they were singing. Granted, a hot sunny day may not be the best for spreading Finnish melancholy, but I have a feeling they wouldn’t have done a whole lot better under different circumstances anyway.

Kamelot

Seeing Kamelot live was not exactly the best experience and a far cry from what I expected it to be, sadly 🙁 It didn’t help that I was sick as shit, could barely stand and ended up throwing up in a garbage bin after the concert, but it was the sound that killed it all. You could barely make out Roy’s voice and for some reason they decided they need a reaaaaaaally annoying echo that was so loud and strong at some point you couldn’t even realise which one is Roy’s voice and which one is the echo. No chance of actually understanding the songs if you didn’t know them beforehand (and for this reason I can’t say anything about the two new songs, all I could make out where some drums and a distorted guitar). Roy is sadly starting to lose his voice, even with the crappy sound, you could tell he’s struggling with a lot of parts. And I think he was feeling a bit sick himself, it was very very hot (and he was wearing his regular long black coat in which I’m surprised he didn’t melt) and he was panting like after running around a football stadium and at certain moments I couldn’t tell if it was the general “I’m so into the music, I’m pouring my life here” thing he does, or if he was actually going to collapse on the stage (I know I was about to collapse, I’m surprised I didn’t).

However, despite of the critics, it was a nice concert, I really liked the setlist and the best thing was that, despite the heat and the crappy sound (crappy being an understatement), they managed to create a great atmosphere. They seemed to really love the crowd and the crowd definitely loved them. We were cheering, clapping, singing along… it was really awesome in this matter. And Roy is incredibly adorable. he’s so sweet and he was really nice to the audience (I can’t remember exactly what he said, but he was very warm and sweet and he seemed genuine in being excited about how the crowd received them). So all in all it wasn’t that bad, mostly because the guys were professionals who managed to overcome through stage presence what they lacked in sound quality (I can’t tell if they sang well, except for Roy panting and struggling on a few notes, I couldn’t notice anything else related to the actual music because of the… sound). It wasn’t like I expected it, but it wasn’t the band’s fault. Also, March of Mephisto was EPIC!

Sisters of Mercy

In case you missed the part about throwing up in a garbage bin after Kamelot, I wasn’t exactly in the best of shapes that night, so I had to watch Sisters of Mercy from one of the tables in the back of the square. I was very amused by the fact that people were offering me bear to repair myself, assuming that I was sick because of excessive drinking (I wasn’t, by the way).  Maybe all this prevented me from properly enjoying the show, but honestly, as blasphemic as this sounds, I never understood the fascination with this band and I’m not sure if being healthy and in the middle of the crowd would’ve made the experience more memorable. Well, at least everyone else seemed to be having fun, the band included.

Day 2

Sirenia

I might have fallen on my head, but I kinda liked seeing Aylin live. Granted, her voice and accent are annoying as shit, but she has good stage presence, I was surprised by her confident frontwoman attitude after being in the band for such a short time. And the weird thing is that she didn’t sound like a retarded child while singing the older songs, she only had that irritating style when singing from The 13th floor. I don’t really understand that, but it showed that she has potential, so maybe it’s a good thing that they haven’t ditched her yet. Nonetheless, I still detest Sirenia with a passion and I am completely appalled by how Morten turned from one of the best song writers with Tristania into a shitty one in Sirenia. I have no idea how someone can change style so radically almost over night.

Dark Tranquility

Even though my boyfriend was ecstatic at the thought of seeing Dark Tranquility, the prospect of going through a whole hour of someone throwing up in the microphone (as I saw it) didn’t make me too happy. However, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be, since Mikael Stanne turned out to be a lovely frontman and he made the experience somewhat enjoyable for me. I don’t want to imply it was a bad performance, I can appreciate their professionalism and enthusiasm and they’re obviously very good inside their genre, but they’re just not for me.

Serj Tankian

Serj was really lame with his “me me me” attitude and with his speeches about Bush while being a country that had absolutely nothing to do with that. It was his regular propaganda about how Americans and capitalists are all idiots and Bush is the most idiot of them all (something about the “fucking Bush administration”, something that “will never happen again” and about communism and businesses and other irrelevant crap like that). I didn’t pay that much attention because he’d have a stupid speech before almost every song, so at some point I got bored of listening to him. I found him very lame.

And the lamest of it all is that while he’s trying so hard to appear like the rebel and supporter of freedom and free speech that teenagers identify with, he’s so incredibly self centered it actually hurts. He lost all the genuineness he had when he was in System of a Down and apparently turned into precisely the kind of person they used to hate when they were younger. For example, there were about 50 people on stage and yet everything was about him. I get that he’s the brain of the project, but he could’ve given at least an ounce of credit to everyone else. But nooo, it was how he did and he wants and he is. The only thing that surpasses his ego is his hypocrisy, if you ask me. His music is not half bad, but his attitude and the neverending speeches completely ruined the show. I felt like screaming „dude, how ’bout some actual singing?” during his tirades, I think they took up almost half of the show’s time.