Rock Im Park

Phew. Well, I guess I should begin at the beginning. I'm on the train to Berlin at the moment, so I don't have much to do except write a huge post. On Friday the 1st I caught a morning train to München from Salzburg. I had checked the timetable and seen that there was a train from München to Nürnberg every half hour or so, so I figured I'd just jump on the first train to Nürnberg once I got to München. However, I didn't stop to check what kind of train it was before hopping on. I will not make that mistake again. The trains listed in the Eurail timetable book were all ICE (Intercity Express) trains, which made the trip in about one hour. The train I was on somehow managed to take nearly three hours. Eventually it was over and I met Maria, her sister (Jenna), and 3 of their friends in Nürnberg central station. From left: Maria, Sarah, Jenna, Meg, Jamie.



It was absolutely pouring when we got there. The girls had planned to camp out at the venue, but looking at the weather they decided they didn't like that plan much anymore, so we went to the hotel I was staying at and luckily they had a big room available with 4 single beds and a couch. So the girls settled in and then we went down to the shops to buy some supplies. There was a cheap clothing store nearby, and deciding I didn't want to ruin my sneakers, I bought this pair of shoes for 8 euro.



Pretty pimp, huh? After a lot of messing about we eventually made it to the venue. They had strange rules about what you could and couldn't bring in - any drinks were ok, but they couldnt be in any kind of bottle, not even screwtop plastic. My Camelbak really came into its own, and enabled the girls to bring vodka in with them. I stuck to just buying some beers. We somehow managed to miss most of both Korn and Travis, and then the girls went to see Scissor Sisters, who I absolutely loathe. I wandered off to check out the Dance Tent, and found a little outdoor area where a DJ was playing classic hard rock and metal (RATM - Killing In The Name and Metallica - Seek And Destroy were played while I was there) so I got my rock on there for a bit. Then I went to see the last half of a German punk band called Die Ärzte who are wildly popular here. I would tell you how to pronounce that but I still don't know. Every time I would attempt it in conversation with a German person, they'd say "What?", I'd repeat myself, they'd say "What?" again, and I'd pull out the program and point to the name. Then they'd say "OHHHH, you mean...." and say what to my ears sounded like exactly the same thing I was saying. Anyway, they were OK. It was an odd experience having the frontman crack jokes in German and being more or less the only one in a crowd of about 20,000 not laughing. One of their best songs was played as an encore and was clearly one of their more popular. There were swastikas flashing up behind them as they played it, but I later confirmed with a girl that yes, it is an ANTI-Nazi song. After Die Artze finished the main stage was closed, so I walked to the S-Bahn platform and was happy to find that I'd arrived 10 minutes before the last train left, at 12:30am.

I awoke the next day and got up to the girls room to find them all shattered. One of them had got back to the hotel at 9:30 in the morning. They only had their hotel room for the night, so I let some of them shower and crash in my room while I went out with two of them to eat and look for a new hotel for them. After spending the whole night loading up on vodka and Red Bull and then in the morning taking some herbal pills which someone had recommended to her as giving an "energy boost" (i.e. chock full of stimulants) one of the girls had a panic attack, for the first time ever. Being experienced in these things, I walked around Nürnberg's old town with her for a while, talking to her, so I got to see a little of the city. After she'd straightened her head out a bit I headed to the venue by myself to see The Used, who weren't bad. Then I had nothing to do, so I went and checked out one of the minor stages, and caught some of a hardcore band called Lost Alone, who were actually quite good. Then I talked to some German lesbians for a while and then met up with Sarah to see Muse. I don't like Muse, so I can't tell you whether they were good, it just sounded like Muse to me. Some of the girls were fans though and later told me that they were good.

After Muse was Linkin Park, the first band I really wanted to see. I'm not a huge fan and wasn't expecting much, but actually they really rocked hard. They opened with One Step Closer - interesting choice to open with probably their biggest song, but it got the crowd immediately involved and meant I wasn't just waiting around to hear that. Other highlights for me were Papercut, Numb and Breaking A Habit... but as soon as they opened with One Step Closer, I was pretty sure I knew what they'd close their encore with. The first track they played after coming back on was quite a slow, melodic song that I didn't know, but then the lead singer said "Well, that's about it from us. Oh wait, Justin... you got anything you want to say?". In reply the guitarist simply started playing the intro to Faint and the crowd went berserk. Faint and One Step Closer are easily my favourites, so Faint was one of my highlights of the day.

After Linkin Park finished, I caught some of the White Stripes, but didn't pay much attention as I'm not a fan. I met Maria and we chatted until Evanescence hit the stage. Once again they exceeded my expectations. I'd been told that the singer's voice is studio engineered and that she can't sing in real life, but that isn't true. In fact, with both Linkin Park and Evanescence, my impression had been that a lot of their slickness was production work in the studio, but I was impressed with their ability to reproduce their sound live. Evanescence were a lot of fun, a very different vibe to Linkin Park, which was very energetic. At Evanescence people weren't really jumping around much, but the crowd was definitely into it anyway. Highlights were Bring Me To Life, Whisper, Call Me When You're Sober and the encore My Immortal. After Evanescence the day was over and we caught a cab back to our hotels and slept.

On day 3 Sarah wanted to get in reasonably early to catch some Scottish band called The Fratellis. Personally I didn't like them, but she seemed to love it. After that was 30 Seconds To Mars, which is the band of Hollywood actor Jared Leto. I figured they were only famous because of his celebrity and that they'd therefore suck, but they were actually good enough that I'll check out their catalog when I get home. Next up were Sydney act Wolfmother. I'm not a huge fan of them but I had to admit they put on a really good show and the crowd loved them. They seemed to have a lot of local support. After that was Kaiser Chiefs, who were decent but not that interesting. We tried to check out Papa Roach, but for some reason they cancelled at the last minute. There were some people in tears. We didn't figure out they'd cancelled until a band called Killswitch Engage hit the stage. They were one of those metal bands where the singer sounds like someone with a cold coughing their lungs up. We couldn't take much of that, so we wandered back to the main stage where I decided to go bungy jumping. I've always been a bit wary of it because of the possibility of messing your back up, but having talked to people in Interlaken who did it, I decided it would be OK. They had a big crane in the main arena, attached to a little platform, on which you got hauled to the top. After shelling out my cash (50 euro, compared to over 100 euro in Interlaken) I found myself at the top, staring out over the arena and Nurnberg in the background. It's a little daunting jumping into what looks like certain death, but I mentally shrugged my shoulders and just leant forward off the platform. Next minute I was plunging towards the arena floor. The drop passes very quickly and I felt the rope reach its limit and yank me back skywards. I didn't feel much stress on my body at all. It was fun and I might well do it again sometime, in some other setting.

During the second half of German band The Beatsteaks, who were good, Maria and I started to move into position for Smashing Pumpkins. I was pretty excited as I've been waiting like a decade to see them. The circle on my expertly drawn MS Paint diagram below is where we ended up.



So we had a pretty sweet spot when the Pumpkins hit the stage. They put on a really amazing show and I'm not just saying that because I'm a fan. Even the diehard Muse fans among the girls admitted that the Pumpkins put in the best performance of the festival. I had an awesome night. Songs they played that I know the name of that I remember are Cherub Rock, Today, Disarm, Tonight Tonight, Bullet With Butterfly Wings, 1979, 33, To Sheila, Stand Inside Your Love, Glass and the Ghost Children, Untitled, Tarantula and Doomsday Clock. Those last two are off the (unreleased) new album. Tarantula is the already-released single, and I only know the name of Doomsday Clock because Billy announced it. I'll take a look for a complete setlist on the net. It's hard to pick a highlight for me because I loved all the stuff they played, but I would have to say 1979. There are several different versions of BWBW that they play live, but the version we got was good, and I really liked the shortened version of Glass and the Ghost Children. Inamongst the well-known songs, they played several songs off the new album, which sounds really good. It sounds like a return to the straightforward rock approach of the Gish/Siamese Dream days. Also, I had been a bit worried that Billy's singing was getting worse, because I think the vocals on Machina tend to be a bit screechy. But Billy's performance of the quieter songs like To Sheila and 33 was excellent, so no worries on that front. It seems like the vocals are toned back a bit on the only album version of a new song I've heard so far (Tarantula).

When I was on the net briefly this morning I discovered that the Pumpkins are playing again in Berlin on the 6th. A set at a festival is necessarily a little shortened, so I'm keen to go see them again on their own terms. Tickets appear to still be available, so I'll see what I can do when I get to Berlin.

What else? Oh, Groove Armada were supposed to be playing at midnight on one of the smaller stages on the last day, but they didn't show, so I guess they cancelled. And um... I bought a pretty nice Rock Im Park t-shirt. Also, at the concert, you hand your ticket in and in return get a cloth wristband, which serves as your ticket for the rest of the event. They're washable and everything, so apparently some people just leave them on indefinitely. The idea is that people will come up and chat to you on trains or at parties or whatever if they also went to that festival. There were people at the event wearing as many as 5 of them, including ones from previous Rock Im Parks. I'm probably going to continue wearing mine until Prague and see if anyone talks to me about it.



OK, so I wrote all the above on the train and now I'm in Berlin. Hostel seems OK but a bit overrated, nowhere near as good as the ones in Munich or Salzburg. It looks like the Pumpkins gig here might be sold out, but I'm going to check at the venue tomorrow and I'll try to find some scalpers on the day of the event also. Wearing the Rock Im Park wristband has so far attracted one comment.

That's all I got. Thanks for reading!