Friday, August 1, 2008

Wacken Open Air Festival!!

Hey y'all, we are en route out of Germany and back to France. Tonight we play a small festival of 3500 in a town named Selestat with the Entombed from Sweden and Mass Hysteria from France.

Last night was our first time at the famous W.O.A. Where once a year it seems 100,000 Metalheads converge from all around the world upon the little town of Wacken and turn in into a well oiled metal machine for the 3-4 days. The festival has been active since the 90's and last night was the biggest ever. It was sold out a month ago at around 90 thousand for the weekend. Each paying 100 euros including camping.

We hit the 'Party' stage around 5 after doing some interviews with various international .com magazines and shows. I have no idea how many people were there for us but let's just say it was very healthy. Jean Luc said we might have played for 15,000. Hard to tell you know? Nothing quite like the audience chanting your name to get you going, and go, we did!! It's was rocking and fucking hot too, hot sun beating down on us. Karen got a little sunburnt even. The crowd was great for us, felt great- lots of fans made it from al over the world to see us and we met people from France, Portugal, Brazil, Australia and Japan!

We got to meet and watch Girlschool which was a first, they used to open up and pal around with Motorhead back in the day.

After our show we got to watch one of the most fun bands we've seen in forever: Airborne from Australia. They were super rocking Ac Dc style pub rock but for a HUGE crowd. They are young, long haired and cute, jumping all over the stage in a sea of fog. Fucking great, really impressive and the audience went nuts for them. We really only watched the two rock acts Airborne and Girls School who we met backstage and did and Metal Hammer interview with where they played us songs and we were supposed to recognize them. I can barely repeat the band names we heard but I am proud to have recognized the only cool band they played, Deep Purple. Luckily Jackie and Enid were just as clueless as Karen and I. They were super cool and easy to get along with. Together we sat in front of the 'black stage' to watch the headliner IRON MAIDEN!!!!!!

There were SO MANY people there I can't begin to guess how many. All I know is Jeremy and Karen got trapped out amongst the people and Jeremy thought he was gonna have to get airlifted out by a helicopter with a ladder. He said it was like standing in line for 20 different rollercoasters only none of the lines are moving. And each ride is an hour and a half wait, the length of the concert. I didn't even venture out it was so overwhelming already with fans taking pictures while we're eating and stuff. Karen got to meet Steve Harris, Maiden's bassist but it was super brief, he din't exactly stick around to party.

Maiden was pretty great I have to say, they brought out a giant mummy style 'Eddie' monster from behind the stage and even had a guy in stilts walking around as an Eddie from the album 'somwhere in time' where Eddie is mostly skinless muscle and a future helmet with a laser eye! Spooky!! I was pretty chuffed! And still have. '666, the number of the beast' ringing in my ears!!

What a blast!

Xox R and the pussies!