Rock am Ring by neko: Friday, June, 3rd 2005 - Nurburg, Germany So, back to Germany then. After last weekend's sleep deprivation i get about one day of rest and then the rest of the week is again full-on, work as well as going out related, so by the time i have to get up at 5:30am on Friday to catch my £0.01 Germanwings flight to Cologne/Bonn, I'm already more than knackered again (can you spot the common theme in my reports?). It's been cold and raining in London for weeks (apart from the day i was away in Lisbon, of course) and I really had no idea there was a heatwave in mainland Europe going on. Or even that it is June now and officially summer. So it comes a bit as a welcome shock as we land and it's like 30 degrees and sunny here. Sweet. Rock am Ring is this massive German festival held on the Nurburg ring, which is located pretty in the much out of nowhere, about an hour South of Bonn. So since I'm not really a big camping person (usually quite difficult to find Internet access and somewhere to plug a hair straightener in) so I head to a hotel in Bonn, where I later meet my friend Sushy who'c soming along with me today. She's got a car and knows the way, so today I don't even have to do any thinking, it's great. We head off at about 6pm towards the festival, well aware that it's not the 1h drive there that's gonna take up that much time, but more so the time it takes to find a parking somewhere in this absolutely massive area and then find the right places to get in. Once we're in, this festival really is a big as everyone says it is, and since it doesn't spread out that well in the main areas it's very very crowded. Full of drunks as well. While I usually quite enjoy my drink as well, I still wouldn't walk around, puke right in front of somebody's feet and then continue drinking. About half of people here seem to be in that state though here, ewww. And it's only 9pm. Anyways, Green Day are on the main stage now and that's where we're heading to. Or should I say try to head to. It's so massively crowded like nothing else I've seen before. We are standing far enough away from the stage that we can't see anything of it at all anymore (and not really hear it that well either), and it's still crowded where we are and people are pushing. Pretty mad. Green Day are an amazing live band. I'd seen them before and expected no less from them here. The fact that it is so crowded obviously only speaks for them, but its of course a bit annoying as we can't really see or hear much of it (and are too lazy to push forward). It's good stuff though, I' love to see them in a smaller place now. Now, one thing I forgot to mention is as well, that obviously with my arrival here now the weather has gone cold and it's started raining (It must be either me or the prodigy bringing the bad weather). So after Green Day we're cold and tired and I can't bear all the people here anymore so we go and chill a bit in the nicely heated car. As it starts raining heavily now there's not much incentive to go and see Slipknot on the Alternastage at midnight before Prodigy. After a quick stop to sample the local Caipiroshkas (i'm impressed they sell them at the festival!) we're back at the Alternastage about 1:30am, catching just the last tracks by Slipknot, who are actually really good. They get a very mad audience obviously, lots of crowd response, which isn't too unexpected after having seen numerous fans with slipknot shirts around the festival all day. As they finish, the audience completely changes. Most of the Slipknot kiddies are leaving and joining the crowd are all the nice people like you and me. Prodigy were supposed to be on 1:45am, but with Slipknot finishing slightly late this seems now more like 2:15am. After Madrid last week this doesn't seem all that late anymore actually, ha ha. Their set then goes something like this: Wake Up Intro Poison This is the second time I hear the new track Razor and I'm still not sure what to think of it. Although I think I now know why I'm not too keen on it. The beats in this track are absolutely great and hard, everything a Prodigy fan could wish for. But somehow the vocals fitted the Flint version, but don't really fit into the Prodigy version. Most of the time when writing a Prodigy track Liam takes some vocals and treats them as samples, and then that works really well with his music. These vocals here belong to a full track, but just don't really match Liam's production I think. It could be a bit due to the festival sound as well, but I really can't get much out of the vocals from this track here. The great bit about Razor though is how it fades into Back to School. One of the most perfect links (without actually requiring a link) ever. Overall the gig is so so. I can't really put a finger on it why I'm not all that much into it as usual, since there's nothing in particular that's wrong, but it just doesn't feel 100% right. It's a good gig, and the band do all their tricks to make it great, but if I'm really critical, it seems almost too enforced tonight. The show is being filmed (for MTV I think) and the whole performance is way too much focused on the cameras. They know well how to play the cameras and this is of course what the band have to do (I'm sure the recording of this will look great), but when you're in the audience you can tell that this gig compared to others is lacking that spontaneous and mad element and it's more a tried and tested route the band are going. Again, nothing wrong with that as for most people in the audience (and especially in front of the TV) this is the first time for a while or ever that they'd seen them so it's of course important that it works. And it does. Just doesn't make it break into my hitlist of greatest gigs though. Additional to the above it's also a bit due to that weird audience. There's a lot of people going mad for it but in many cases you get a bit a feeling as if they're just doing that for the sake of it, rather than because of The Prodigy. Just your typical drunk festival audience at 3am in the morning. Again, nothing wrong with being drunk at a festival at 3am in the morning, I don't blame anyone, but it just doesn't make it my favourite show. So, hmmm, a bit a strange one. It finishes at 4am and we jump straight into the car and drive back to Bonn while the sun is rising yet again. Get to bed at 6am eventually. Rock im Park June 4th 2005 - Nuremberg, Germany After an amazing 2hour sleep I'm up again to catch a train to Nuremberg for the "Rock im Park" festival. This feels like a homecoming, I've been to this festival about five times already, including 98 when Prodigy played, I really love it here. Also my old flatmate from London lives here now, so I visit and can stay with her and we spend the afternoon drinking local white wine in her garden, lovely. We're off to the festival after 7pm and get there just in time to see Green Day. Oooh, Rock im Park is so much nicer than Rock am Ring was yesterday. Not as crowded and less weirdos around. Green Day are absolutely excellent once more, really enjoy their gig tonight. Then we wander around a bit. The setup of the festival has changed quite a bit over the years. The second and third stage used to be in tiny tents a couple of years ago, then the second stage got moved into the icehockey hall, and now this is the third stage, while the second one is open air and about as big as the main stage at other festivals. And the second stage, or officially the 'Suzuki Alternastage', is where Prodigy are on tonight. yippeee! We head there at about 10pm to see Slipknot. I've seen these guys a couple of times live, even once before at Rock im Park in 2000, when no one in Germany knew who they were and they played the smallest stage in the early evening. One of the best shows I've ever seen actually. So while I don't really ever listen to Slipknot, I think they're a really great live band, and today turns out to be no different (that should be enough Slipknot praise now to get me slagged off by my forum members for the next couple of weeks, ha ha). As last night, the audience changes drastically after Slipknot. All the metal kiddies are leaving but the place quickly gets filled again. Not long to wait! Almost on time, Prodigy come one and what we experience next is one of the really great gigs. The setlist goes pretty much like 'normal', but there is a great element of surprise and madness in what they do tonight. Wake Up Intro They aren't playing the new track Razor tonight, not sure if down to time restrictions or whatever. However, it's definitely the best performance of Back to School tonight I can remember, with both Keith and Maxim doing these cool vocals, almost going to whispering level and then building it up again fully. Amazing. Another long standing favourite is still the action radar link, as i stated many times before. Again, the great live drums (thank you Kieron) make it just that bit better and standout. And then Keith during Mindfields... While appearing to be at his absolutely best tonight already anyways, during this track Keith steps down and dares a balancing act along the fence which is in front of the crowd, looks pretty mad (and dangerous)! The sound tonight is great and the audience is keen. In the middle they're all crowd surfing and jumping, while where we are on the side there are people into it, but still leaving enough space to enjoy the show. Maxim and Keith are both like on fire and it's all in a way more relaxed but also more mad than last night. There's the odd new sound a la Howlett in between tracks as well, but unfortunately the Caipiroshkas that evening seem to have erased that particular part of my memory. Rob also seems to have settled in with the band now and his presence seems totally natural and in line with the overall gig now and fits in well (although you still can't hear that much). Usually they'd leave after Mindfields, but they just about remain and Liam starts the first few beats to Dead Ken Beats, and then stops, just totally teasing the audience. Oh please! Just play that tune! He plays another, slightly longer bit and then stops, which of course once more provokes massive cheers. Then finally they start the tune full on and it's once more an amazing performance of this great track. I love it. I quite like this directly after Mindfields and as last one before encore. Nothing against Mindfields, but Dead Ken Beats is just slightly more powerful. Now the band leave, but with all the Germans shouting "ZU - GA - BE" they come back soon again and start Poison / Release Yo'Delf. The already amazing show then peaks one last time with the final SMBU. I know I say this at least once a weekend lately, but this is another standout gig (and that's not just due to the free bar afterwards), definitely one to remember. I just knew Rock Im Park wouldn't let me down. back to prodigy live [go home] (If you copy this, please link back to this URL) www.nekosite.co.uk - copyright © 1998-2005 by neko - all rights reserved |
