Rockwave Festival - Metal Day I (19/06/04)

13:30 - Today we're going to be at the Rockwave Festival, in Athens (well a bit outside of Athens). Today's the first day of the festival and we're going to see: W.A.S.P. (headliners), Soulfly, Gamma Ray, Dark Tranquillity and Firewind (openers). We're not that pleased with the promotion company (we're almost not pleased at all) because we weren't given a photo pass (so I'm afraid there'll be no photos for you to see) nor were we given everything we required in order to make a decent report. Nevertheless tomorrow we're going to Interview Gamma Ray and Queensryche (and probably Nightwish - tomorrow or after tomorrow).
To get to the festival grounds, I've got to leave home at 14:30, grab a taxi and go to the Larissis rail station. From there, Eleni and I are going to take a train departing at 15:20 and we'll be at Sfendoni (the name of the station where Rockwave Fest is going to take place) at about 16:00. Hope nothing goes wrong with the train etc. We're going to meet another editor (Alex) at the fest grounds.
I'm going to write a small report tonight (and I'll do the same thing with tomorrows lineup but a more complete report will be added to the site after the festival is over.
Cheers!

16:30 - Arrived at the festival grounds. Firewind had already started playing and there were about 3.000 people there by that time. Firewind were not bad at all, quite full of energy power metal, for starters. They played for about 45 minutes. Main attraction for the Greek audience were guitarist Gus G. and keyboard player Bob Katsionis (who are Greek too). Oh I forgot to mention how some "girlies" working for the promoter, at the press stage, wouldn't let us sit under the umbrella and I had to call their supervisor to "whip" their bimbo asses. No respect for the press nowadays. Finally we got a chance to sit under some umbrella shade as we were about to perish…

17:15 – Dark Tranquility appeared on the huge stage of Rockwave Festival, shortly after Firewind had finished. Mikael Stanne (vocals) and his guys threw a cool show for the fans who had now exceeded 4.000. The played for about an hour or so and played a set-list varying from their first works up till their last studio release (Damage Done). Among the songs were: "Single Part Of Two", "Damage Done", "The Wonders At Your Feet", "Final Resistance", "Monochromatic Stains", "White Noise / Black Silence" etc. The crowd seemed to be enjoying Dark Tranquility's show, not only because they had to warm up for the next bands that'd come on stage but because Dark Tranquility really are good performers! I noticed the sound getting better and better as time passed by. Oh I forgot to mention something concerning photo-reporters. We were not allowed by the promoters to shoot photos of the whole show from the press stage (!?). They even pissed off a guy who's been working for the Greek Heavy Metal Hammer Magazine for like…15 years?

Yeah, they had the nerve to tell a person who's been all over the globe, at some thousands of concerts not to shoot photos. Who else? Those dumb bimbos working for the promotion company (or something that had to do with the promotion). Have you ever noticed how some people who's jobs are to "sweep" the floor or to "fill up your drink" in concerts bully you around as if they're some great kick-ass owner of the whole fucking planet? A guy shot 2-3 photos and those bimbos approached him and told him "do you see the security guy?"…the guy said "yes, I do" and they went "oh well do you wanna say hi to him"? Jesus Christ. I'm glad I made those bimbos not wanting to talk to me (as they got spanked for not letting me NOT die under the sun). In any case…Dark Tranquility played a song off their new album which is going to be released in…um….they claimed they had no idea when it would be released…so the song's title is "One Thought".

18:41 – Gods of Heavy Metal have mercy on me for I know this band very well and every time I see them live, I wanna tattoo their band name on my forehead! I'm talking about Gamma Ray! Kai Hansen, Dirk and the rest of the guys were here upon short notice after Running Wild had cancelled their appearance. I was wondering how Gamma Ray would make it with only a few days ahead till the festival but…We're talking about Power Metal giants! The crowd went even happier than before, German power metal ruled the skies and I witnessed yet another triumphant live performance of these superb musicians! Boy do they have what it takes to make a crowd headbang! They played songs like: "New World Order", "Rebellion In Dreamland", "Land Of The Free", The End Of The World: Armageddon", "Heavy Metal Universe", "Somewhere Out In Space" and…finally when we all thought time was up…they still had six minutes left…and they played Helloween's "I Want Out" and blew the crowd to pieces!

What a fantastic performance! I almost fell off the press stage from headbanging (which would be a severe body blow if you think that I was 6 meter above the ground, haha)! They promised they'll be back to Greece next year after they've released their new album (early next year). During their appearance, Kai made the crowd sing along with him (during Heavy Metal Universe), played with them (during Somewhere Out In Space), jumped up and down like crazy and threw his flying-V guitar high up in the air more than twice! I simply can't wait to see them perform again! I only wish they had more time…Oh my, it's getting crowded up here (on the press stage). Dark Tranquility showed up, I think I'll go thank Niklas Sundin (guitar) for his Interview he gave us through e-mail about a month ago (and I did thank him – quite friendly guy).

20:00 – After Gamma Ray were unfortunately done with performing, I sat down on my chair, sipping my margarita to cool down my throat, wondering what the crowd's reaction would be to the next band, Soulfly. A couple of minutes later, Max Cavalera and his gang were out on stage making the crowd create huge mosh pits! People going wild, banging into each other (with joy), kicking the crap out of each other under the sounds of Brazilian roars. Max came out wearing his national t-shirt of Brazil, holding his flag of Brazil painted guitar, with his usual peculiar hair style. They played songs off their latest album, "Prophecy" and songs from their short past like "Eye For An Eye", "Umbabarauma", "Back To The Primitive", "Tribe" etc. What the crowd enjoyed most though was none other than Sepultura's "Territory", "Inner Self" and "Roots Bloody Roots"…a real massacre! Cavalera always possessed the necessary energy, the perfect tempo to make a crowd break through the point of inactivity.

21:30 - It was sunny when we came to the Festival grounds (extremely sunny a.k.a. extremely hot!) but now darkness had covered our heads and a cool breeze would soften our anticipation to see a band we'd never seen before in Greece. W.A.S.P. was the main feature of the day and I suppose that most people at the festival (from a total of 8.000) were there for W.A.S.P.. My curiosity grew bigger by the moment as what I'd heard and what I'd read about Blackie Lawless surely wasn't preparing me for something great (I had my doubts). It makes sense, I mean, reading about him not giving 100% on stage anymore and having trouble with other promoters around the world (from time to time) had made worry about what was to come. Alas for those bad speculations, Blackie Lawless dominated the entire crowd with his stunning appearance! This was a "Best Of" set-list with songs like "L.O.V.E. Machine", "I Wanna Be Somebody", "Animal (Fuck Like A Beast)", "Chainsaw Charlie (Murders In The New Morgue)", "Blind In Texas", "Wild Child", "Hellion", "On Your Knees" (opening track) and two tracks from their latest release ("The Neon God – Part I"): "What I'll Never Find" and "Sister Sadie (And The Black Habbits)". (I know I'm missing 2-3 tracks but I'll fill 'em in as soon as I remember which ones I'm missing hehe). Note here that Lawless told the crowd "I don't know why no fucking promoters would bring us to Greece for 20 years now" simply stating what country I live in (concerning promoters I mean).
W.A.S.P.'s set-list seemed kind of short as they only played about 12-13 songs. Nevertheless we all enjoyed it! I really hope to see them sometime soon again.

23:15 And so day 1 passed into history and we were smiling at the fact that it was a good Metal day (overall) and we all headed back to our homes to get some rest (well except for those who camped at the festival) because….day 2 had a lot in store for us!