Sonisphere, Romexpo, 25-27.06.10

Sonisphere was HUGE! The number of people, the number of bands, the quality of the bands, the length of the festival… it was by far the biggest festival Romania ever held and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. I’m tired as shit, I can barely keep my eyes open and every inch of my body is sore, but it was well worth it.

Random thoughts:

– hands down for the security dudes, who decided my lip balm is a national threat, while the two dudes who beat each other to blood were simply fun to watch from the fence without getting involved. The people who tried to stop the fight got a lot of kicks in the process and it took a few blokes to calm the hysterical dude down, but I guess the entertainment value of the fight was more important than actual safety for the bodyguards.

– hands down again for the security company for not having a fucking clue about the specific of the event. They kept stopping the mosh pits (that were obviously being created at the speed of light), even though they were being pretty civilised and I was actually feeling safe standing in the first line of non-moshing people next to them. The funny part came during Rammstein, when they couldn’t stop the moshing anymore and eventually gave up and settled to forming a circle around the pit to protect the bystanders.

– short is definitely not good when it comes to giant concerts. Thank God for my boyfriend who lifted me up during all the important moments and for the people who upload youtube videos so I can actually see what went on stage at all times.

– Some people have no idea what to expect from a 50000 people metal festival, apparently. There were some reaaaaally scared girls next to me (one was on the verge of tears), a few people panicked once the moshing started, another was completely hysterical over the fact that someone spilled beer on him and oh my God the germs! Yes it was sweaty, it was loud, it was hectic, but you were coming to see the Big Four of thrash metal and Rammstein, not Therion. Of course there were going to be mosh pits and crowd surfers and drunkness and craziness!

– Before Rammstein, the cramming was so intense that one of the guys next to me *really* needed to go and couldn’t get in and out, so he chose the „being surrounded by his friends and peeing in a cup” solution. Later during the concert, a lot of cups with liquid were being thrown in the air, so we bathed in a lot of weird shit. I like to think that particular cup didn’t have the same fate, but I’m not getting my hopes up. And people were worried about the beer…

– Except for the security issues, the organisation was very good, I didn’t have to stand in line too much at the toilets or at the food&drink court, the access was done smoothly (except for the second night when it took forever to get out because they wouldn’t open the second gate. Thankfully they learned from their mistakes and the third night everything was ok again).

Day 1

Orphaned Land

Orphaned Landhad the distinct pleasure of playing at 3 pm on a Friday, so I didn’t get a chance to see much of their recital and neither did most of the audience. Too bad, because they seemed pretty interesting and I think I would’ve enjoyed their concert.

Paradise Lost 

Paradise Lost had another distinct pleasure specific to large festivals and that was to be the sacrificial band on the altar of sound engineering (maybe Orphaned land were sacrificed too, I couldn’t tell). I was kinda anxious about their show, but I couldn’t make up much. The instruments were loud and got mixed up and covered the voice and there was just chaos and noise.

Volbeat

When Volbeat came along, the sound was starting to stabilise and I had the pleasure of enjoying a very upbeat and dynamic performance. The surprising thing was that people actually started dancing during their show. It’s not that their music isn’t good for dancing, considering it has tons of rock’n’roll influences, but more than half of the audience was there for Manowar and Manowar fans take themselves waaaaaay too seriously, so I guess that proves how infectious Volbeat’s enthusiasm was.

Manowar

Manowar was the highlight of the first evening, but definitely not in the way you’d expect it. Let’s make this clear, I don’t like Manowar one single bit. I think they’re pompous, artificial arrogant, self-centered and wouldn’t know fun if it hit them with a stick and the only thing worse then their attitude is their army of like-minded fans. This being said, their show was absolutely hilarious.

There was a giant fuss about how they were supposed to be the headliners and at the last moment, they were downgraded to only 45 minutes. The funny part is that less then half of those 45 minutes were dedicated to actual singing. What happened during the rest of the time, you might wonder? Well, for the most part they:

a) complained about the organisers who obviously don’t know and understand the value of a band like Manowar. I believe the word „motherfuckers” was uttered.

b) had a neverending guitar solo, like all self respecting power bands. The solo was so long and so intense that the chords from the guitar broke. That, or they broke them on purpose to look like the solo was so long and so intense. 

c) commemorated Ronnie James Dio (ok, that was a nice touch) and called him „their friend”, which prompted Wendy Dio to say she’s disgusted by the fact that people are now calling themselves Dio’s friends left and right when they were never his friends to begin with. And to eliminate all doubt, she specifically mentioned Di Maio. Not a nice touch anymore…

d) had a 10 minute speech in Romanian. I appreciate the effort, but the execution killed me, especially when they were complaining they have such little time and used it by talking. It was along the lines of something something warriors, something something strong, something something defending the Carpatho-Danubian-Pontic space from invaders. I was trying very hard not to crack up and face immediate death at the hands of Manowar fanatics.

Accept

As wacky as that might sound, I think I would’ve liked Manowar better as headliners. Of course then we wouldn’t have been treated with gems about the motherfuckers who denied them their 2 hours of fame, but the rest of the hilarity would’ve still been there probably, topped with even more wackiness and zero self-awareness due to more time to expand themselves. Also, then I could’ve properly enjoyed Accept as well, who had the misfortune of being a good decent heavy metal band, with serious and professional musicians coming in right after the kings of embarrassment. Unfortunately, after Manowar I was in the mood of making fun of everything and Accept seemed tamed and boring for me. I realise now that I was being ridiculous, but when it comes to something as subjective as a concert experience, you can’t argue with mood.

Day 2

I can’t talk about the second day of Sonisphere without remembering that this was supposed to be the day when Dio’s amazing voice would grace our ears and my life-long dream of seeing him live would come true. Little did we know when Heaven and hell cancelled the tour that we would never have the chance of seeing or hearing the metal god again. Rest in peace, Dio, you will be sorely missed.

Anthrax

It’s funny how the bands you expect the least from end up impressing you the most. Coming from the position of the opening act and the least popular band of the Big Four, Anthrax defied all odds and gave the best and most crowd-animating performance of the night, if you don’t count Metallica. Belladonna was in excellent shape, full of energy and without any airs of self-importance, the music was simple and powerful and everyone had loads of fun. I was singing Indians for hours after their show ended!

Megadeth

On the opposite spectrum, Megadeth turned out to be a major disappointment. I’m not a huge fan of the band, but I do like most of their music and I was looking forward to seeing them. Unfortunately, I almost fell asleep from the boredom. Maybe for the lifelong fans it was acceptable to see a spiritless Mustaine as long as their favourite songs were being played, but for a casual listener like me, his complete lack of interest killed the show. It wasn’t as bad as showing up drunk or stoned on stage, but honestly, it made me wonder why the fuck is he even touring if it’s such a chore for him.

Slayer

Slayer is one of those bands that don’t mean absolutely nothing for me and don’t click in the slightest. Sure the famous Raining blood guitar is cool and I’m sure they have other good songs here and there, but I can’t take seriously a band whose main selling point is that they are satanists and yet the lead singer candidly says that he’s actually a catholic and they only do the satanist imagery thing because they think it’s cool and it impresses people. If that is not textbook selling out, I don’t know what is.

Metallica

I always had the impression that Metallica is a band for teenagers who want to brag about being metalheads but haven’t listened to anything other then Metallica and the kind of band that lives from its memories rather than current triumphs, but I’m now gonna take back everything bad I ever said about them.They were fucking great last night, they made an awesome show, the atmosphere was excellent, the setlist was pretty good (I would’ve replaced one song or another, but heh, you can’t have them all), they completely fired up the audience and you could tell everyone (band and crowd) was having a great time.

I keep talking about the impact of the crowd and atmosphere during concerts and I want to clarify that it doesn’t mean I don’t care about the music or that it’s any less important, nor that enjoying a live show means that I’m going home and buying that band’s whole discography. But the truth is that music appreciation is such a subjective thing, that your mood or the things going on around you can heavily influence what you feel about it and there’s a time and a place for each type of music. There are bands that are so complex and interesting that you just have to have silence and pay good attention to their music to properly enjoy it, then there are bands that are so emotionally loaded that you can’t appreciate them properly unless you’re sinking yourself into the music and forgetting everything else around you and also there are bands that have a powerful sound and they’re best listened to in a lively setting, together with more people, like a pub or a live show. The best bands are all of the above. Metallica is probably part of the third category.

And on a funny note, the capital sin of an artist coming to Bucharest is to confuse it with Budapest. It happened a ton of times with a ton of artists and let me say, it’s one of the most offensive things ever during a show. And of course, Metallica had to do it as well. It was hilarious, everyone was getting ready for the climax of Master of puppets and we were all yelling and cheering and all and Hetfield yelled „give it up, Budapest” and…. pause :)) All the excitement building up deflated instantly and everyone went completely silent and with a blank stare. After that he said „Bucharest” 10 times a second to repair the blunder… too late 😛

Day 3

Anathema

Anathema is one of those bands that isn’t that well suited for live settings, I am simply incapable of resonating with their angstiness and moodiness when I’m standing under the blazing sun, surrounded by thousands of people (especially when they’re all talking at the same time). So their performance didn’t do anything for me and starting with Kashmir was a terrible, terrible idea. I’m generally not in favour of performing cover songs in concerts (the crowd is there because they love *your* music, not anyone else’s), but I can’t say it bothers me immensely. Starting your show with a cover, however, is extremely off-putting and it makes for a really bad first impression. It also didn’t help that everyone was expecting Rammstein so badly, they’d all sit on the ground and prepare mentally and physically for the carnage that was to follow and screw all the other bands. That was pretty lame, you may not like a band (and that happens a lot during large festivals, you can’t like every single thing), but you still owe their performance some form of respect.

Stone Sour

This state continued throughout all the other recitals and it was very annoying. Stone Sour started their show in force and with enthusiasm, but they eventually toned down a bit as it was getting clearer and clearer they were disappointed by the weak reception.  Not cool at all. Despite of that, Corey impressed me by putting a ton of energy and passion into his performance. Another artist would’ve probably given less in front of such a lousy audience, but he didn’t, I admired him for that. He is definitely an excellent frontman and I would LOVE to see him again (with Stone Sour or Slipknot) under better circumstances. And he has such a beautiful voice… it’s beyond me how someone can be so aggressive and scream his lungs out one second and then have the most soothing and warm and charismatic voice the next second.

Alice in Chains

Aaaaand then Alice in Chains got the silent treatment. I was pretty upset because I was looking forward to both Stone Sour and Alice in Chains and it’s not that much fun to be the only one singing and clapping in your corner. The fans were few and rare, apparently 🙁 Alice in Chains proved they were real professionals, however, and gave their best. I loved the choice of songs, by the way.

I used to be a huge fan in my teenage years (Layne Staley was in fact one of my first musician crushes), but after his death and the band’s hiatus, I kinda forgot about them, so seeing them at Sonisphere was a very pleasant surprise. The best surprise of it all was how well they sound with William DuVall. Premature death tends to turn the deceased into an icon and Layne was already pretty much an icon to begin with, so DuVall had giant shoes to fill, but I must say I’m impressed. He’s found a good balance between not being a Layne copy-cat and not going out of his way to change everything to prove he’s not a Layne copy-cat and the music sounded very much alive.  

Rammstein

Finally, the band everyone was waiting for came up on stage. To sum it up, BEST.FUCKING.SHOW.EVER. I knew they were spectacular and entertaining, but I had no idea it was going to be *that* awesome. The audience was on fire, Romanians are generally expansive people, who scream and cheer a lot at concerts, but last night we outdid ourselves, and that was thanks to Till&co. I’m a bit disappointed they didn’t sing Engel, but overall it was a great performance, with lots of fire and pyro, with a funny Flake who walked that gym thing throughout the whole concert (I guess now I know why he’s so skinny :P), with the flatable boat thingy, with the “unexpected” fan set on fire, with Till’s big cannon dick full of… cream… It was soooo fucking awesome!

And the best part was when they gave crowd sailing Flake a Romanian flag that had a Rammstein symbol and he actually took it and wrapped it around his back. I didn’t think he’d actually do that, I heard lots of things about how they’re not all that nice to the fans (especially not in the classic “we love you guys, we will be back, you’re the best crowd ever” cheesy style) and waving a country’s flag is something I wouldn’t have expected them to do. But it was really nice when he did it. And Till spoke a flawless Romanian, people usually have trouble with our pronunciation, but he nailed it. I think I missed a lot of small things they did because I couldn’t see very well (I barely saw the screens, not to mention the stage) and my boyfriend would lift me up whenever there was something more special (otherwise I think I would’ve had to see most of the performance on Youtube), but being there… it was incredible! The energy, the atmosphere, the feel, the band, the public… just awesome. I felt like run over by a train after the concert, being in the audience was hectic, especially where we were standing (we needed the security to intervene to calm us down). More then 12 hours later, I’m still a bit dizzy and maybe for someone who’s used to having big bands/ Rammstein play in their countries very often, this sounds lame, but for us it was incredible. We were all like “dude, do you realise what you’ve just seen?”.