Sexta-feira 2 Jul 2010, 5h:24
Fri 25 Jun – Tuborg Green Fest 2010 presented by Sonisphere Festival
I got to Bucharest, a little disappointed … there was no sign of metalheads on the train(coming from Timisoara, via Craiova). When I came to Bucharest fro the AC/DC gig (from Oradea, via Cluj) there were enough long-haired dudes&dudettes to start a conversation over a beer and a cigarette (or more beer and countless cigarettes).
On Thursday evening I still couldn't believe that what was about to happen was really going to happen …
Okay. On Friday we got to the venue by the time Orphaned Land finished their stuff… I listened before to their “Jewish Muslim Metal” and I really liked it. From the "outside" it sounded even better!… I actually got goose-bumps, but maybe it was because those were the first loud riffs of the festival that I heard…
We got in the Golden Circle quite quick, the rednecks from security were not very annoying… of course, being in Romania, something had to suck: for about 40.000 people "they" arranged a single entrance/exit to the venue.
Then came Paradise Lost's turn . I personally liked them a lot some time ago, when they released "Icon" and "Draconian Times", after that (again, this is my own personal opinion, so please, don't start bashing me) they turned depeche mode. Anyway, that was Paradise Lost on stage!!! I would have really loved to hear them. I mean hearing them completely. Cause from where we were standing (20 meter away from the stage, dead center) you could only hear the drums and the bass. You could see the front man move his lips and you could (if you tried really hard) hear the guitar. On my way to the beer tent I tried communicating with the "sound guys", but they didn't really give a fuck… or maybe my sign language sucks. With the goth scene very much alive (at least in the part of the country that I live in), I expected the crowd to go wild, as there were quite a few dudes&dudettes with black eye-shadowing and Paradise Lost T-shirts… but the crowd reacted quite anemic.
But I really felt sorry for the guys when seeing who they opened for: the abomination called Volbeat! Fuckin' pretty american-wanna-be boys. Beautiful hair, beautiful clothes and "accessories", a shit-load of beautiful guitars for what?! Unoriginal, lame "country-metal"… they kids went mad, of course, but I heard some guy sayin' "My kid won't be allowed to listen to this kind of crap after the age of 5!…". lol. How the fuck did this abortion of a band get on that stage is beyond my comprehension. I know times change, but fuckin' everything up for the sake of "commercial" is so "uncool"!
The pleasant surprise of the evening was, for me, Manowar. Don't get me wrong, I think Manowar is the gayest band in the world, but seeing the way those old guys played their asses off and really enjoying themselves while doing it, kinda reminded me what "metal" stands for. And the crowd felt their energy and commitment! They sang along, headbanged and roared when the bassist started speaking Romanian. Yeah, he didn't have any idea what he was sayin', as he repeated the words he heard in his ear piece, but that was really cool. "Hello Bucharest!… you expected me to say Budapest, didn't you?" lol, man, he was awesome!… "Spatiul Carpato-Danubiano-Pontic"… "Cotropitorii"… that was priceless! And the heavy metal was good, too!
Accept… I knew their opening song, "Metal Heart" as a cover, sung by Dimmu Borgir. I didn't really love the way Accept sang it… So, after their second song, we left. Not my cup o' tea.
Smart thing, too, that we left earlier. Cause, of course, the mayor didn't give a shit about some demented, drunk, filthy and probably drugged metalheads. So the public transportation didn't get a "supplement"… we rode the last tram without a ticket (there was nowhere you could by one) and then horrified the christians riding the subway. Of course, just because we were wearing Slayer T-shirts and had long hair, some security guys instantly showed up…
On Saturday we got there on time. There was a huge line of people, several hundreds of meters long, waiting to get in. The "competition" was handing out flyers, promoting other festivals and concerts, but nobody cared, the BIG FOUR was coming!!!
Anthrax were first on stage. The crowd exploded as Scott appeared, big smile on his face and the usual "Fuck you!!!"… Despite their energetic performance of by-now anthems, there was no mosh-pit!!! "Metal Thrashing Mad", "Indians", "Antisocial" but no "Belly of the Beast"… They "apologized" for taking two and a half decades to come this way… It really was a dream coming true. I was surprised the crowd didn't ask for an encore…
Megadeth, my favourite of the big four came next on stage. I pinched miself to make sure it was really happening… but when I saw Vic Rattlehead coming up behind the stage, in a big orange cloud of smoke I thought to myself "mmm, this is good, I'm glad I did this!" When Mustaine and Ellefson started playin' the masterpieces, "In My Darkest Hour", "Peace Sells…", "Hangar 18", "Symphony Of Destruction", "Sweating Bullets" I got into "the zone", headbangin' like the world was ending, screaming my lungs out… the sound setup wasn't perfect, I could barely hear Mustaine's snarl but I couldn't care less, Megadeth was 10 meters in front of me!!! They didn't really "socialize" with the crowd, but what the hell, nobody's perfect…
Then came Slayer! The band that produced the songs we used to listen when the grown-ups weren't looking, that the "concerned citizens" labeled as revolting, forbidden, nauseating, blasphemous, abominable… them and the porn magazines smuggled into the country during the communist years :D
"Raining Blood", "Angel of Death", "South of Heaven", "Seasons in the Abyss", the anthems of our rebellion. I didn't really see them play as I joined the mosh-pit!!! You should have seen the looks on our faces: kids in front of the christmas tree. And there were metalheads of all ages, from teens to people damn near forty!!! Simply awesome!
And then we waited… and waited… for the primadonnas, the band formerly known as Metallica. Their show was… decent. But when you're touring with the Big Four, people (I know I'm not the only one when I say "people") expect… more. Cliff probably turned in his grave when he heard the bass solo. Hammett's solo was, again, decent. Not outrageous, not mind-blowing, just decent. I mean, c'mon!!! "Nothing Else Matters"?!?!?!?!?! WTF?!?!?!?!?!
And (we saw this on YouTube the day before) everybody was expecting the "Am I Evil" reunion, the Big Four, all o' them, up on that stage, singin' their asses off, just like in Sofia. Well…
On the last day, we skipped the Luna Amara and the Anathema gigs (I think Anathema has "lost it" lately. Again, just my opinion). The Stone Sour performance? I found it not worth mentioning. We tried to get as close as possible to the stage, Alice In Chains being my number two from the lineup. A bit weird seeing them on the same stage as the Big Four, grunge being the one that pushed thrash back in the underground, for a while. On my way to Bucharest I saw a thrash metal documentary. Near the end it presented a previous tour, with Slayer, Megadeth&Anthrax and Alice In Chains as the opening act. Being an unknown band back then, they had all kinds of shit thrown at them, for playing something so "un-thrash"… a couple of month later the grunge phenomenon took the world by storm. Well I guess "grunge" and "storm" don't really go together, but you know what I mean…
And AIC really delivered! Unfortunately I never saw them with Layne Staley, but the "new guy" was awesome! And the resemblance (vocally, that is) is shocking, at first. "Them Bones", "Man In The Box", "Angry Chair", "Dam That River", "Would?"… just beautiful. Although the sound wasn't perfect, again! For a second there, I think Jerry smiled when he saw me singing along, from the top of my lungs (don't say he didn't, let me enjoy my delusion!).
Rammstein… I'm not really into that industrial stuff they play, but they got some sweet melodies :D
Before this, I said that AC/DC's Black Ice gig was the best show I ever saw… of course, you can't really compare the two, but now I can say, without a doubt, that "Rammstein live" is something that should be on everybody's bucket list. Ever since I saw them, I keep telling everyone, even if they're not into metal at all "You gotta see Rammstein!". Everything, from the huge German flag, to the fiery stage, the gas pump, the flaming nozzles on their faces, the stink-ventilators, the boat trip, the contrast 'tween the singer and the keyboard guy, the very way every guy in the band dresses, looks and acts, the costumes, the attitude… it was simply mind-blowing. Rammstein was in a league of their own! And the crowd went mad: ""Du Hast", "Sonne", "Rammlied", "Ich Tu Dir Weh", "Mutter", "Mein Herz Brennt", "Benzin", "Du Riechst so Gut" sung by 40.000 people… At the end of the show I thought "How the fuck do I describe this to someone that wasn't here?!"… For a few minutes, all us were speechless. Then my friend said "If they come here 10 more times, I'll be here 10 more times!"… during the days before the festival she had a dilemma: Should she go see the Rammstein show or the Massive Attack gig? "Fuck Massive Attack!…", that's the exact quote :D
Funny coincidence: that very night the German soccer team whooped England's butt and Vettel won the F1 GP. "Deutschland, Detschland uber alles, uber alles in der Welt!!!"