Greenfield Festival 2005
Back at work today after an intense music festival this weekend in Interlaken.
Day 1 - Friday: I left work at about noon so we could catch the train over to Interlaken, which takes about 2 hours. It was unbelievably hot today, must have been a bit over 35 degrees, so the train was pretty uncomfortable. There were so many people on the train for the concert, the whole thing including the aisles was absolutely packed. The festival had about 25 000 people, and the scenery is amazing, check out the pictures. My number one reason for being at the festival was to see Queens of the Stone Age, so after setting up our tents we headed over to the Hauptbühne (main stage) to wait for them to play. Before that though was the Eagles of Death Metal, which actually turned out to be quite poppy and not metal at all. Strange. Anyways they were alright but I was getting super excited about seeing Queens. Then the weather started getting bad. Really bad, really fast. About 5 minutes before Queens were scheduled, it started to rain hard. Then the wind got really bad. Then the stage started coming to pieces. The back wall of the stage collapsed and the huge Greenfield banner ripped off and was flapping in the air.
The speakers and amps were falling over and soon the coordinator came out to a booing audience and told us Queens wouldn't be playing. I couldn't believe it. Didn't have much time to think about it though, because we had to run for cover, so we headed to the Zeltbühne (tent stage) to see what was going on there. Pennywise started after a while, which was good, but I don't know much of their stuff. Shane and Jason had really wanted to see The Mars Volta, who were scheduled after Pennywise, but the lead singer had abdominal problems and was forced to cancel the tour. So the new 'act to see' of the night became Die Toten Hosen, which is the biggest punk band in Germany, and probably one of the biggest bands in Germany, period. Die Toten Hosen means 'The Dead Pants', which is pretty strange. The atmosphere for this show turned out to be really electric, and all of the german speakers got really into every song. The set lasted forever, with three encores, and the lead singer even crowd surfed, climbed the sound stage, set off a flare and pretended to fall off the edge, which was about 10 metres high. The only words the whole time I understood were Bayern München and Jagermeister. After the show everyone was exhausted and muddy and sore, so we all headed back to the campground and crashed pretty quickly.
Day 2 - Saturday: Got up in the morning and it was sooooo hot and sunny, complete change of weather.
We hung around the campground until it was time to see the Fantomas, which were supposed to be pretty expermental, and noone really knew what to expect. The drum set was the biggest I've ever seen, and Evan, who is a pretty amazing drummer, explained that the drummer was a pretty famous studio drummer who gets called in when intense drummers are needed. The singer started off by saying 'Try to sing along now' and then started shrieking into the mic, I don't think he said one word in a song for the entire set. He looked really normal too, with a nice button up shirt and everything, but he was crazy on stage. The music was really heavy, and it was completely different than anything I've heard before, but it was interesting. We watched a bit of a couple of other bands not really worth remembering and headed back to the campground.
We sat around and drank and ate some more until it was time to go see Jimmy Eat World, who I've never listened to before. We got pretty hyped up though because we were excited about Green Day, and as a result people around us did too and it turned into a really cool set. After the set we quickly went around to the side so we could get into the front section for Green Day, and got ourselves in a pretty good condition up close. Green Day's show turned out really good. Some guy in a big pink bunny suit came out at first and was slamming back beers and doing the 'YMCA' dance, which was sort of random. Then the band came out and played a really good selection of songs. They were also really active with the crowd. At one point they asked to have a drummer, bassist and guitarist from the crowd to play a song on stage. Evan tried for drums, I boosted Simon in the air for bass and Jay tried for guitar. Unfortunately, nobody got up. The guitarist that did get chosen got to keep Billy Joel's guitar, which was pretty awesome. The set lasted about two hours, which was good. After we went back and hung around the tents again for awhile, then went to sleep.
Day 3 - Sunday: It was really, really, REALLY hot and sunny today, and even though I tried to be good about sunscreen I waited a little too long, and my shoulders and back got really burnt before noon. We decided to walk down to Brienzersee, the lake on the eastern side of Interlaken to get some relief from the sun. There was a ferry stop there and a beach and some grass and tons of people from the concert. The lake was freezing, but refreshing and nice to clean the mud off ourselves. We found a spot on the grass, bought some icecream and chilled out for a bit. Shane and I went diving off the huge white pillars next to the ferry's dock, because the water was deep there. I did my first standing gainer (backflip) and that was pretty cool. After a while we decided it's not worth it to sit on the grass instead of hanging out at the concert, so we headed back and caught the last half of Alter Bridge, which is all of Creed except the singer. It was pretty good, but nothing exceptional. Then came Flogging Molly, an Irish band. Man, were those Irish fans crazy. They just went crazy the whole time. And actually, the band was really, really good, one of the surprises of the weekend. After the set we ran into one of the guitarists and we chatted with him for a bit. We went back to the tents to eat and rest before Millencolin, which I knew nothing about but apparently Jay had seen them before and was a huge fan. The show was pretty good, but I felt really sick so I didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped.
Luckily, I started to feel better before System of a Down came on, and everyone including me was insanely excited to see them. I knew it was going to be an amazing show, but we were all kindof worried we wouldn't be able to get into the front section, because they only let in a certain amount and not many people were leaving after Millencolin. All of us Canadians rushed over there after Millencolin and it was a mad push through, and unbelievably every single last one of us got in when none of us should have. Heh. The show started with a huge black sheet covering the stage and the singer started off with the melodic beginning to 'Soldier Side' off the new CD. Then they hit the main riff, and the rock didn't stop or take a breath after that. It was 90 minutes of pure energy from the crowd, and pure agony because of the people hitting and pressing against my sunburns, but it was all worth it. The band only stopped once, for about 15 seconds, to say 'This is our last stop in our European tour, we're going home tomorrow, and we're glad to be ending off here.' The rest was solid music. They played every song I wanted to hear, and they were really, really good live, just as I expected. Definately my highlight of the weekend, even with all the pain. Satisfied, after the concert, we slowly started packing up the campground to head to the train station. Shane and I went to the shower because we felt sooo dirty. Part way through some Swiss dude busted in the door and started talking to us in german, it sounded really important. Then he left the door swinging wide open, and we were standing there buck naked kindof shocked not knowing what just happened, and all the people passing by were looking at us. It was weird. After we finished packing, we started the trek to the train station, and my bag was so painful on my shoulder. As a joke, someone threw up their thumb to a car passing, and surprising, the guy stopped for about a dozen backpackers. He was driving a Ford Focus, and gave Shane and I a ride to the train station, which was great. We found a nice soft section of concrete behind a snack bar to go to sleep, since we had about three or four hours to wait for the train. It took three trains to get home, so our sleep was really broken up and then I just went home, dropped off my bag, and went to work. Needless to say, it's been a long day at work, but totally worth it for the crazy, crazy music filled weekend.
Check out http://www.greenfieldfestival.ch/ if you want more info on the festival.
Day 1 - Friday: I left work at about noon so we could catch the train over to Interlaken, which takes about 2 hours. It was unbelievably hot today, must have been a bit over 35 degrees, so the train was pretty uncomfortable. There were so many people on the train for the concert, the whole thing including the aisles was absolutely packed. The festival had about 25 000 people, and the scenery is amazing, check out the pictures. My number one reason for being at the festival was to see Queens of the Stone Age, so after setting up our tents we headed over to the Hauptbühne (main stage) to wait for them to play. Before that though was the Eagles of Death Metal, which actually turned out to be quite poppy and not metal at all. Strange. Anyways they were alright but I was getting super excited about seeing Queens. Then the weather started getting bad. Really bad, really fast. About 5 minutes before Queens were scheduled, it started to rain hard. Then the wind got really bad. Then the stage started coming to pieces. The back wall of the stage collapsed and the huge Greenfield banner ripped off and was flapping in the air.
The speakers and amps were falling over and soon the coordinator came out to a booing audience and told us Queens wouldn't be playing. I couldn't believe it. Didn't have much time to think about it though, because we had to run for cover, so we headed to the Zeltbühne (tent stage) to see what was going on there. Pennywise started after a while, which was good, but I don't know much of their stuff. Shane and Jason had really wanted to see The Mars Volta, who were scheduled after Pennywise, but the lead singer had abdominal problems and was forced to cancel the tour. So the new 'act to see' of the night became Die Toten Hosen, which is the biggest punk band in Germany, and probably one of the biggest bands in Germany, period. Die Toten Hosen means 'The Dead Pants', which is pretty strange. The atmosphere for this show turned out to be really electric, and all of the german speakers got really into every song. The set lasted forever, with three encores, and the lead singer even crowd surfed, climbed the sound stage, set off a flare and pretended to fall off the edge, which was about 10 metres high. The only words the whole time I understood were Bayern München and Jagermeister. After the show everyone was exhausted and muddy and sore, so we all headed back to the campground and crashed pretty quickly.
Day 2 - Saturday: Got up in the morning and it was sooooo hot and sunny, complete change of weather.
We hung around the campground until it was time to see the Fantomas, which were supposed to be pretty expermental, and noone really knew what to expect. The drum set was the biggest I've ever seen, and Evan, who is a pretty amazing drummer, explained that the drummer was a pretty famous studio drummer who gets called in when intense drummers are needed. The singer started off by saying 'Try to sing along now' and then started shrieking into the mic, I don't think he said one word in a song for the entire set. He looked really normal too, with a nice button up shirt and everything, but he was crazy on stage. The music was really heavy, and it was completely different than anything I've heard before, but it was interesting. We watched a bit of a couple of other bands not really worth remembering and headed back to the campground.
We sat around and drank and ate some more until it was time to go see Jimmy Eat World, who I've never listened to before. We got pretty hyped up though because we were excited about Green Day, and as a result people around us did too and it turned into a really cool set. After the set we quickly went around to the side so we could get into the front section for Green Day, and got ourselves in a pretty good condition up close. Green Day's show turned out really good. Some guy in a big pink bunny suit came out at first and was slamming back beers and doing the 'YMCA' dance, which was sort of random. Then the band came out and played a really good selection of songs. They were also really active with the crowd. At one point they asked to have a drummer, bassist and guitarist from the crowd to play a song on stage. Evan tried for drums, I boosted Simon in the air for bass and Jay tried for guitar. Unfortunately, nobody got up. The guitarist that did get chosen got to keep Billy Joel's guitar, which was pretty awesome. The set lasted about two hours, which was good. After we went back and hung around the tents again for awhile, then went to sleep.
Day 3 - Sunday: It was really, really, REALLY hot and sunny today, and even though I tried to be good about sunscreen I waited a little too long, and my shoulders and back got really burnt before noon. We decided to walk down to Brienzersee, the lake on the eastern side of Interlaken to get some relief from the sun. There was a ferry stop there and a beach and some grass and tons of people from the concert. The lake was freezing, but refreshing and nice to clean the mud off ourselves. We found a spot on the grass, bought some icecream and chilled out for a bit. Shane and I went diving off the huge white pillars next to the ferry's dock, because the water was deep there. I did my first standing gainer (backflip) and that was pretty cool. After a while we decided it's not worth it to sit on the grass instead of hanging out at the concert, so we headed back and caught the last half of Alter Bridge, which is all of Creed except the singer. It was pretty good, but nothing exceptional. Then came Flogging Molly, an Irish band. Man, were those Irish fans crazy. They just went crazy the whole time. And actually, the band was really, really good, one of the surprises of the weekend. After the set we ran into one of the guitarists and we chatted with him for a bit. We went back to the tents to eat and rest before Millencolin, which I knew nothing about but apparently Jay had seen them before and was a huge fan. The show was pretty good, but I felt really sick so I didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped.
Luckily, I started to feel better before System of a Down came on, and everyone including me was insanely excited to see them. I knew it was going to be an amazing show, but we were all kindof worried we wouldn't be able to get into the front section, because they only let in a certain amount and not many people were leaving after Millencolin. All of us Canadians rushed over there after Millencolin and it was a mad push through, and unbelievably every single last one of us got in when none of us should have. Heh. The show started with a huge black sheet covering the stage and the singer started off with the melodic beginning to 'Soldier Side' off the new CD. Then they hit the main riff, and the rock didn't stop or take a breath after that. It was 90 minutes of pure energy from the crowd, and pure agony because of the people hitting and pressing against my sunburns, but it was all worth it. The band only stopped once, for about 15 seconds, to say 'This is our last stop in our European tour, we're going home tomorrow, and we're glad to be ending off here.' The rest was solid music. They played every song I wanted to hear, and they were really, really good live, just as I expected. Definately my highlight of the weekend, even with all the pain. Satisfied, after the concert, we slowly started packing up the campground to head to the train station. Shane and I went to the shower because we felt sooo dirty. Part way through some Swiss dude busted in the door and started talking to us in german, it sounded really important. Then he left the door swinging wide open, and we were standing there buck naked kindof shocked not knowing what just happened, and all the people passing by were looking at us. It was weird. After we finished packing, we started the trek to the train station, and my bag was so painful on my shoulder. As a joke, someone threw up their thumb to a car passing, and surprising, the guy stopped for about a dozen backpackers. He was driving a Ford Focus, and gave Shane and I a ride to the train station, which was great. We found a nice soft section of concrete behind a snack bar to go to sleep, since we had about three or four hours to wait for the train. It took three trains to get home, so our sleep was really broken up and then I just went home, dropped off my bag, and went to work. Needless to say, it's been a long day at work, but totally worth it for the crazy, crazy music filled weekend.
Check out http://www.greenfieldfestival.ch/ if you want more info on the festival.
posted by Devon at 16:26
0 Comments:
<< Home