Scheeßel, Deutschland
Thursday June 22nd
After wrapping up my school obligations and passing my portfolio assessment with an A, I took the train to Venlo where Anouk picked me up and we drove off to 'de Achterhoek' (lol) to pick up Inge. We had to drive through Germany for a while in order to get there, that was when we got lost, did some grocery-shopping at Aldi and passed this lovely bridge:
It gave us a true feeling of being on a roadtrip and on holiday! After an hour and a half we finally arrived at Inge's place, we packed all our stuff in the Ford Fiesta and the real roadtrip could begin.
Somewhere halfway in Germany we had a stop and had some dinner at a trucker restaurant, where they had special parkingplaces for women:
WTF?
After a few more hours of fahring auf the autobahn, we arrived in Scheeßel shizzle in the middle of the night, we put up our tent with some little difficulties but our neighbours were very friendly and almost immediately offered their pocketlamps (?), help and Schültenbrau (beer).
Friday June 23rd
We woke up quite early, it was freezing in the tent at night but in the morning it got hot very early.
Dixiklos 4evah!
We went back to the car to pick up our food, which we couldn't find at first, all these cars in one big meadow, whaa! Fortunately we found it after a while, the lack of Dutch licence plates made it a lot easier. We did some bbq-ing in the afternoon...
... and at 4-ish we went to the festival site. My heart skipped a beat when we passed the Visions-tent and I saw the schedule for the signings, Maxïmo Park did one at 7 o'clock, OMGZ!! Anyway, the first band to be playing was Gogol Bordello.
They were okay, good party music and the girls (not featured in the picture) added something extra to their show.
After them, Scissors For Lefty were playing at the Blue stage. We watched them from a distance sitting in the grass, they were nice, the singer was cute and their music sounded very good.
Ben Harper (& the Innocent Criminals) played at the Green stage, very nice festival band, although it would have been even better if the sun was shining.
After about half an hour I left because there was a long queue at the Visions-tent and I didn't want to miss Maxïmo Park. I ended up waiting for almost an hour and meeting them almost at the end of their signing, so that was pretty close.
Because it was almost time to switch bands and there were still a lot of people that wanted to see them, it was kind of a hurry but it was nice being able to talk to them for a bit. A girl who stood next to me in the queue who I had been talking to took some pics:
All the bandmembers signed my bag, I told them that their gig at The Music In My Head was amazing and Duncan told me they were going to write and record their new album at the end of the summer and it should be released at the end of the year or the beginning of next year, so: yay!
This is that girl who stood next to me, I love the look on Paul's face (and his hat too, of course) in the picture!
And after a couple of minutes, it just was over again. I went back to the other stage to find Anouk and Inge, we watched Elbow for a bit, their show was almost over, but they played Newborn and it was beautiful.
Arctic Monkeys were playing after them, so we tried to get some good spots, in which we succeeded, near the second fence.
But the gig hadn't even started yet and there was already so much pushing and shoving going on, that we couldn't take it anymore. Inge went back first, then Anouk and finally I went too, and we all lost each other. Fortunately I found Inge after a while, but Anouk only showed up after the show had ended.
Because of the circumstances I really felt like "Fuck the Arctic Monkeys", even when I went backwards in the audience, there just seemed to get no end to the mass of people who were watching them, I hate their hype but they can't help it either. It was good to hear "Leave Before The Lights Come On" again and even though I think it's a pity Andy has left them, they're still solidly rocking on. I'm just glad I had already seen them before.
After recollecting ourselves, we got some relaxation time at the tribunes, the festival site actually is a motorcross circuit or something. We saw Fettes Brot for a bit, nothing special, they seemed to be sampling and covering every popular song of the 90s.
The new Muse video was being showed constantly, just like Placebo and Billy Talent.
Manu Chao, party! The trick they did in every song (start off slowly, builing up speed and ending like some sort of punk song) was getting boring after a while, but Anouk and Inge enjoyed it, I think. We left a bit early to get good places for Maxïmo Park. It had become midnight in the meanwhile, but nobody seemed to notice (us neither). It was already very crowded at the other stage, so we were standing quite far away.
"Keine band, keine photos!"
(Warning: bad pics. Darkness + dust = flash, hands and dust or no flash and moved pictures)
Maxïmo Park played a nice show, starting off with Graffiti (I think..), and played other classics such as The Coast Is Always Changing, Kiss You Better ("This song is für die Mädchens"), Apply Some Pressure and all, but also By The Monument (yes!) and Nosebleed. We also sang a happy birthday song for a roadie (not the one that looks like my uncle though) who apparently had his birthday and according to Paul was "a very nice man" (he came out and gave him a hug, awww).
Because we were standing so far away, it didn't really feel like being a part of it, but it was a good experience. I also loved Pauls shirt, it said "This is rude", cheeky.
I can't remember which song they played last, Going Missing I think, and since they were the last act of the day, I had hoped they would give an encore, but they didn't :(
Time to go back to our tents and get some sleep, then.
Saturday June 24th
Welcome to our crib...
Hot summer, hot hot summer!
First band of that day: The Kooks. The pictures don't really show it, but it was nice and sunny and everybody was singing along and dancing, nice. I say nice too much, but it's just the right description.
Chillin' with the heumies
Donavon Frankenreiter, hippie style music which suited the weather perfectly.
Waiting for The Raconteurs...
The Raconteurs! (o rly?) They were great! They played almost all the songs of their album, Jack White seemed to be having fun with his homies, their bassplayer looked great with that hair and the clothes and the glasses, almost surreal... It's just a bunch of great musicians rocking/blues-ing out, very good.
(Erm Jack, you might wanna consider buying some wider pants)
Fuckin' Fussball, half the Nada Surf gig just got cancalled because they were showing the Germany - Sweden gig on the screens, they only played like 4 or 5 songs during the break, I really felt sorry for them!
Death Cab For Cutie, they were lovely! Glad that we saw the entire gig this time, Anouk and I saw them three months ago but we had to leave halfway to catch the train. The beginning of this show was quite similar to that one, but it just got better and better! We still love Edward (the guitar/keyboard player, we don't know what his real name is) and I Will Follow You Into The Dark was pure love.
Edwarrrrd
Ben playing drums (in front of the stage)
Mando Diao.. sweet songs, sweet guys (and they know it).
MTV leute in the tower
The Hives! They were truly rocking out again, we were standing in a warzone, but after we went back for a bit, it was do-able. Pelle was really on his best again, man you gotta love the attitude. Quotes:
"Germany beat Sweden at football, this means we must beat Germany at music" (oder so etwas, lol)
"This is a b-side, but for other bands it would be a single"
Fire at the disco!
After the Swedes had their musical revenge, it was time for America. The Strokes!
The warzone wasn't that bad, but we had to keep most of our attention to keeping ourselves up and keeping all our belongings with us. They were great, I think? It was a rather weird experience, I have wanted to see them live for this long, it was a bit surreal. I couldn't see them well so I was just watching it on the screens, but that's almost like watching tv. Everything looked like on tv too, Julian in the leather jacket, Nick in the tight pants and converse, Fab in his Coca-Cola shirt...
It was great to hear all their songs though, the older ones were obviously the most popular. Julian thrashed a camera, for I didn't really get what else they were doing. Just playing music, I guess?
Well we danced our asses off and it showed! Because of all the jumping all the sand was everywhere, we looked like we had been in a desert for a couple of weeks or something at the end of the gig. Yes we took a picture and no, I'm not showing you :P Oh and they did a planned encore but they didn't even play their scheduled 1.5 hour! Boo!
After that we allowed ourselves some quality cocktail time with a caipirinha. Sigur Rós started at the other stage, it was beautiful.
They used a lot of projections and stuff like that, which made it a dreamy experience. There were singers and violin players and flutes and it was very very nice. We almost fell asleep and we were freezing, but we couldn't let this happen without us.
After the show had finally ended (not meant in a bad way.. but you know, we were tired), we went back to the camping. Inge was already asleep, we lost her during The Hives but she already told us before she didn't really want to see The Strokes (?? I know) so we expected her to be there, and she was. Phew.
Sunday June 25th
Even a hotter day!
You really can see us getting dirtier every day, the sand and dust just was everywhere. I did wash my hair that day though, but showering always seems like too much of a hassle on festivals.. whatever.
dEUS, Belgian heroes but not so heroic in Germany, which allowed us to get way in front though. They were good, I think they were a bit bored with playing that early for not-so-many people. It was nice to see them with Mauro Pawlowski, he fits in the band really well. Oh well and he's hot, but he knows it.
Billy Talent, we went backwards a lot because the others didn't even want to see them and we didn't want to, well, die. I though they were quite okay, they're a lot rougher live than on cd, but I just can't understand the combination of the looks and the voice of the singer, it just doesn't match!
Dirrty
The Cardigans, I fell asleep for a while during their soundcheck but they kindly woke me up by starting off softly. They were okay, nothing too special but not as boring as Pinkpop three years ago either.
Live, I dunno. I used to like them during that The Distance To Here era, but they're just too.. American. With the stamping feet and big gestures, it just doesn't appeal to me anymore.
Wir Sind Helden, toll! They're really popular in Germany, but something like that would never work in The Netherlands, even though the music is nice. I did like their songs, the German language gets annoying after a while but it's well understandable so that makes it more attractive.
We went in the tent for Gnarls Barkley, they showed up 20 minutes late or something, really stupid. Those roadies just kept on checking the drums and the guitars and the keyboard and the guitars again... Really, they had like 8 guitars for a one-hour-gig. Don't be too ambitious, people. A guy standing in front of us offered us a cigarette, "for my Scandinavian friends", haha. We wish! We kindly declined though.
After a (long) while, the band finally came on, and I gotta say: they rocked! They were dressed in gospel/pyjamas-like gowns, and the number of people in the band (about 8) made it sound really organic and full. After they played Crazy we left, because we wanted to get some decent spots for Muse. But when we got out of the tent, it turned out to be raining. And not just a bit, there was a true hurricane going on! Thunder and lighting, the whole area and all the people on it was soaking wet in a couple of minutes. Muse just got cancelled! Not like anybody was going to watch them, it would be suicide I think, but it's just absurd that a headlining act gets cancelled when it isn't something that the band or the organization controls.
We ran back to the camping and arrived at our tent. Some stuff was already soaking, but most important: our sleeping compartment was still dry. We gathered some clothes for the next morning and crept into our sleeping bags, hoping the rain would soon be over. It was kind of scary, but funny at the same time. After a couple of hours we eventually fell asleep.
Monday June 26th
The next morning the rain had finally stopped, fortunately the camping didn't turn into a big mud field. We packed our stuff and very selectively chose what to take home and what not, some things were very very very wet, my mp3 player didn't survive it and even my passport was soaking, but that's okay now.
After returning three bags of garbage, we got our Mullpfand back (5 euro! yippie!) and drove away out of Scheißel. What a weird ending for a weekend like that.
Food stop, I was starving! In the restaurant there was a tv where a summary of the match between the Netherlands (I almost accidentally typed: Neanderthalers, that might be a better description) and Portugal, damn what was going on there??
Fahren fahren fahren auf die Autobahn
We asked for the road in Düsseldorf (twice!), but furtherly the trip went fine. I was back home at half past 5, and I was sooo glad I could finally take a shower.
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