Sue and I met at this festival 8
years ago.. Wow… how the time flies. We have been staying in the same place for
the last 3 years and the place has the same people every year (Spanish people
for the last 8 years, and Finnish people for the last 14 years) so everyone
knows each other a bit now… We arrived in time to settle in and have a bit of a
rest. The clock in the room was off by an hour so we laid around too long and
missed Vdelli from Australia, whom,
was one of the few bands I really wanted to see on this day.. Pity..
Freak Kitchen (Sweden) has played many times at Sweden Rock but I
had never seen them. They had a pretty large crowd and played what the people
needed, some good old straight forward heavy rock songs with some heavy metal
guitar solos. We did not hang around too long and went off to see if anything
was new.
It
was really disappointing to see they did not take the advice of the people or
the soundmen to move the Rockklassiker stage and it was in the same position as
the last two years. This is just a nightmare whenever anyone is playing on the
Rock stage as it sucks for us watching the band but probably also for the
players and certainly for the soundman. We must start a petition to get this
moved next year. This is just not right and ruins the experience for everyone
at that stage. Just foolish they have not fixed this…
We checked out this young band who
really wish the heyday of the 80’s would return called Dust Bowl Jokies… so what is a Jokie??? I have never heard the
English word?? Anyway, people were really having fun and the band even had
explosions and fireworks, etc.. and a real small following that loved them. It
was like a mix of Faster Pussycat, Skid Row and these types of bands with every
cliché in the book being used…. Fun…
Backstreet Girls (Norway) was much more fun though. The singer was
a lurch like giant compared to the small guitar player and they were quite
silly at times but played straight up Ramones inspired rock and roll music with
a bit of a snotty attitude at times… Lots of fun songs and they even ended the
set with Blitzkrieg Bop by the Ramones….
Eddie Meduza Lever (Sweden) had a large crowd and we tried to check
some of it out but this was very Swedish and if you are not Swedish you will
not really get or understand this bands humour. A bit like a Swedish version of
Slade with some more nasty songs. There is a huge amount of info on this
Swedish legend, who is now dead, named Eddie Meduza.. This gave us some time to
go around to the stands and see what people were selling food wise and also
merch and other stuff. Was cool to see my friend Johnny, who has a great stand
of vinyl and CDs for sale under the Record heaven name.. We had a short chat…
We caught the first 25mins of Crowbar but this dual guitar, heavy tuned
down angry stuff, I get quite bored with. Why have two guitars that both play
95% of the exact same chords? There are no guitar solos, not enough variation
to keep me interested. People seem to enjoy it though so they must be doing
something correct.
Black Trip (Sweden) is a new young band that is very inspired by
Thin Lizzy. They have watched the videos, got the moves, the harmony guitars,
the young energy the band had in 1977 or so…. Nils said they were great at
Muskelrock so we checked them out and stayed for the entire show actually…. It
was really enjoyable but they are not very original at all but do the Lizzy
vibe and 70s rock great. The lead guitar player was really excellent on the
right side. The end of the set they covered Outlaw by Riot and Built for Speed
(Motorhead)… Fun stuff..
Magnum was up next and I guess we stayed and watched about 45mins
and some of it was really cool like the long version of Jerusalem and a lot of
it just did not interest me at all. This mid paced melodic hard rock sound with
the occasional heavier guitar augmented with some cool and some padded synths,
the style I really don’t like. The crowd loved them…
 |
| Rainmakers |
The Rainmakers were a US band I had never heard of and they
actually did bring the rain! It had been dry since the festival started with
only a few drops but half way through their set it really started to rain..
They had some really fun songs like Shithole Town, Monster Movie and others.. I
actually guide liked them but it was hard to describe the style. Quirky rock
music, sense of humour like the Talking Heads but a more music like Jason and
the Scorchers or something.. They are from Kansas City…
We caught a few songs of the Paul Dianno vs. Blaze Bayley before
we left. I would have like to see Queensryche
but the weather had turned quite nasty and we were tired now. The Iron Maiden
thing had a huge crowd and it is sort of weird to see these ex-singers doing
all these songs but clearly there is still an audience for it. Both singers are
now bald and overweight and sing not nearly as well as they did back in the day
(some singers are still great today like Bruce, Gillan, etc..)…. Anyway,,… the
crowd was huge and into it and having fun and that is the way it is supposed to
be…
 |
| Blaze Bayley |
Day 2
11:00 We are already on the bus
and want to see Jake E. Lee’s new band at 12. Spoke to people on the bus and
Queensryche were supposed to have been really excellent. Lots of energy and
focus on their new and early material. Pity we missed them.
12:00 We saw the first half hour
of this new Swedish band Riot Horse.
This was a great way to start the day with some bluesy 70s hard rock style
stuff. The band played well together in their 3-4min short song format. I think
they have a way to go before they take it to the next level. The guitar player
just was a bit of a let-down for me… it is his role to really make the songs go
to the next level with better soloing, more emotion, pushing the bass player..
they all seemed a bit too relaxed… I still enjoyed their songs and will check
out their record.
The crowd for Jake E. Lee’s Red Dragon Cartel was not that big but the people
slowly came. Sadly, the first half of the concert was completely
fucked up as
Jake’s guitar cut out three different times during three different songs when
he was soloing. I don’t know if it was his cables, pedals, the amplifier (this
seem to be the problem..) or what but it sucked the energy out of the show
completely. The last half they tried to make it up but the momentum, as shot.
It was great to hear a lot of the old Badlands songs like Zep inspired High
Wire, Shine On from Voodoo Highway, etc… I liked this band and saw them once
back in 1992, I think.. He of course played Bark at the Moon.. Cool to see him
back.. he started slow but was ripping at the end…
 |
| Jake E Lee's Red Dragon Cartel |
13:10 We saw the entire set of
this new Swedish band, Mamont. They
have had recently played in Copenhagen but I missed them but I picked up their
record but had only heard one side. They were fantastic! A great mix of psych,
stoner and doom with some 70s mixed it. The lead guitar player on the left he
was great and did a lot of solos. The whole band played well and the singer was
really passionate and into it as well. I have no idea what the set was but they
were very good and a huge surprise..
15 the weather was very nice now
so we sat up on the hill and heard most of the Cloven Hoof concert and that was not what I had expected. It is
only the original bass player and a lot of young people and they play more like
90s heavy metal or something.. Lots of guitar heroic like solos, screaming
vocals at times.. The young singer who also did a lot of lead guitar he was
great, no doubt but the songs were just a lot of energy and fast solos and it
did not really speak to me at all. Nothing epic.. I don’t think they even
played any of their old songs at all.
 |
| Transatlantic |
16 Transatlantic was not a band I had actually expected to see but in
the end, they were really fantastic. This is a prog superstar band with guys
from Spock’s Beard, Dream Theatre, and the Flower Kings. Ronnie, the guitar
player from the Flower Kings totally blew me away. That guy was killer…. They
sounded a lot like early Kansas at times for me and they had really good songs
with lots of solos, which was excellent. Amazing sound as well. The crowd was
good until it started to really piss down rain during the bands last long song
and people were sent scattering for shelter or their rain coats, etc… A very
good concert… I briefly met my friend
Mats which was great..
17 We went to go see Black Stone Cherry but ended up leaving
as the sound was just awful. The bass was so overdriven that you could nearly
only heard bass, drums and vocals… Totally shit sound. I tried to tell the
sound guy but he did nothing. There were a lot of people who also said the sound
was shit.. This was the only band with bad sound yesterday.. It was not the
sound system but the sound man…. Anyway, they had a lot of energy and all the
sounds sounded the same to me, when you can’t hear the guitars clearly.. We
left.. I had hoped to catch some of
Turisas but we missed all but the last 1 min, just in time to take a picture.
Damn..
19 A huge surprise was a 30th
year old UK band called The men they
couldn’t Hang. It was UK folk music mixed with some inspiration from Wales,
Ireland and Scotland. They had two male singers, mandolin, two guitars, bass
and drums. A lot of fantastic songs and they had a really great sense of humour.
People were dancing and generally acting very silly but having a great time…
20 Another huge surprise was just how
great, The Crystal Caravan were.
This is a young new Swedish band that has made 2-3 records of high energy rock
and roll. I have the first couple but had never seen them and they kicked our
ass. One of the
 |
| The Crystal Caravan |
 |
| Alter Bridge |
21:45 Now you had to choose
between Rob Zombie and Uriah Heep. It was an easy choice for us.. Uriah Heep, of course.. I saw them for
the first time in 1982 but I think this was the best ever. Mick Box was really
killing it on the guitar today and what a great sound mix. They had poor sound
last time they played. The classics were of course the best and it is a pity
they always play the same ones, Sunrise, Gypsy, Look at yourself (The best
song), July Morning, etc… They did play two new songs, one of which was pretty
good. What did really surprise me was how amazing and intense the drummer of
this band was. He hit he drummer and played more intensely than anyone we saw,
including Mr. Portnoy from Transatlantic… Amazing drumming… they played a great
set.. We missed he encore though as we wanted to get a good place for Alice
Cooper and one more beer and have pee…..
01:00 Alice Cooper…. What can you say??? The guy is still totally
amazing. He sings great, he performs great, has a killer band, great stage set
up…. Just damn fun mix of the old songs. He opened up with Hello Hurray and No more Mr. Nice guy, Dept of Youth,
Billion Dollar Babies., and a mix of some newer songs as well. He had an
amazing female guitarist how did more than 50% of all the lead guitar.,… very
intense style of playing.. The graveyard
set as I will call it was so cool. They popped up some different gravestones on
the stage and then later on the backdrops for 4 famous dead rock musicians and
then performed one of their songs. They started off with Jim Morrison and Break
on through to the other Side, then John Lennon and the songs Revolution.. next
up was Jimi Hendrix and Foxy Lady and finally, Keith Moon and My generation.
They played the complete songs, not just a few hints but the real full songs.
Alice did a great job of singing them all. The Hendrix one was the most
difficult for him to try to sound like Jimi.. Wow.. so cool… We got all the hits like Under my Wheels, 18,
Schools out, I love the Dead, the ballad of Dwight Fry, etc… The huge Frankenstein
character was really awesome as well. Like a
large Iron Maiden Eddie figure. Fantastic concert.. Dark Angel was playing when we left but we had been there hearing
bands for more than 12 hrs now..
Set List: Hello Hooray, House of
Fire, No More Mr. Nice Guy, Under My Wheels, I'll Bite Your Face Off, Billion
Dollar Babies, Caffeine, Department of Youth, Hey Stoopid, Dirty Diamonds>Jam,Welcome
to My Nightmare, Go to Hell, He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask), Feed My
Frankenstein, Ballad of Dwight Fry, I Love the Dead, Break On Through (to the
Other Side) Revolution, Foxy Lady, My Generation, I'm Eighteen, Poison, School's
Out (with Rob Zombie)
Day 3
This was Swedish national day
celebration and they had some specific things going on including some funny
music for kids and adults on the main stage with the Electric Banana band. We could only seem them from a distance with
a lot of pink and some people in banana suits… Skillet (USA) was on the Sweden Stage and I heard only one song by
them as I walked over to see Talisman.
Skillet was a strange mix of pop music and heavy metal riff guitars. The singer
also played violin. It was a strange mix but people liked it.. They had a big
crowd. Talisman had reunited just for this show and this was the first time
they had played since Sweden Rock 7 years ago, the singer Jeff said. It was a
large crowd but I know for sure I don’t care for this sort of melodic metal,
with the sweet singing, almost pop but mixed with metal also but more melodic,
smooth, fast ripping guitar solos, etc….. I watch a few songs but then headed
over to the 4 Sound stage where I really wanted to see Jaguar. Garry, the
guitar player was just sitting on the stage so I spoke to him a bit and he was
super cool and excited to play. He said all was well but he had a bit of
arthritis these days so sometimes it was a bit more of a struggle to rip it up!
Set List: h Beautiful, Story
of A Quarryman, Midnight Blues, Who's Been Talking, Slow Train
?, ?, Sloe Gin, The Ballad of John Henry
?, ?, Sloe Gin, The Ballad of John Henry
18 Kverlertak (Norway) was next up on the big stage. I had never heard
of them. They are a 6 piece band with a powerful front singer and three guitar
players (all riffing and very few solos). This was really angry, rock music
with a punky, hardcore edge. The singer started the show of with this amazing
owl mask. Wow.. that was cool…. This was a band that really lacked variety
though. All the songs were about the same high speed and it was more rock and
roll than metal, which was good but I got very tired of the singer yelling or
screaming at me all the time… They really suffered from terrible sound though.
The bass was just so overdriven that if you were standing where most of the
audience was you just had a lot of low end, screaming voice, kick drum and some
thin sounding guitars that were just noisy with no definition.
19 Blues Pills, are a young new blues from band living in Sweden but
composed of a French guitar player, American bass and drums and powerful
Swedish female singer. They played nearly the exact set as I saw the week
before at Freak Valley but they did not do the opening jams and just played the
songs on the records as they are on the record with no variation. All the songs
are 3-5mins long. They are great players and could really jam it out but they
don’t. Maybe one day. The crowd was really into it and they sounded great
despite being drowned out by TNT on
the Rock stage.. This really sucks that you can hear the band on the other
stage better than the stage you are standing at. I still don’t understand why
they don’t change the placement of the stage. It really sucks..
 |
| Blues Pills |
23:30 BLACK SABBATH! IT is always great to see Black Sabbath and Ozzy was
in a funny state making these “Cuckoo Cuckoo” sounds from backstage before they
started. They opened with War Pigs and the sound was massive and powerful. Ozzy
sounded quite good on this day but many times his vocal timing was slightly off
since he reads all the lyrics from the monitor for every song instead of just
knowing when to sing. The set was very focused on the early stuff, which Ozzy
can sing best. Tony was struggling with his solos early in the concert and
really lacked his normal speed but he was killing it by the time Age of Reason
came around and played some great solos.. IT seems he was improvising his solos
a bit more. Awesome concert.
Set List: War Pigs, Into the Void,
Snowblind, Age of Reason, Black Sabbath, Behind the Walls of Sleep>NIB, Iron
Man, Faries wear boots (with drum solo), God is Dead, Children of the Grave, Paranoid
Day 4
 |
| The Hawkins |
10:40 I am on the bus with the Spanish and Finnish people from our hotel and I am going early as I want to see a bit of Horizont at 11:45 and Monster Magnet at 12. At 11:30 was a young band called The Hawkins. A Young four piece band that really rocked. I filmed one of their songs but sadly had to delete the video to make room on my camera. I liked what I heard.. Rockin'...
 |
| Horizont |
Set List: Superjudge, Medicine,
Nod Scene, Dopes to Infinity, Last Patrol, Look to your Orb, Powertrip,
Spacelord, ??, Tractor
My friend Gustav said we should
see some of a band his friend Charlie plays in called the Night Flight Orchestra, which is a Swedish all-star group that
get together to play classic 70-80s style rock like Boston or Styx. This was a
band of great musicians and they were having fun and actually they played a lot
of guitar and keyboard solos (although he was mixed too low). The crowd was
having a good time as well. The weather was amazing on this day.
15 The RODS hit the stage at 14 and just rocked the place for an hour.
I had last seen them in 1982 opening for Foghat, who were actually playing
later today, which is funny. I was scheduled to do an interview with the band
later today. Anyway, they played a great set. I had hoped to hear Waiting for
Tomorrow and Nothing going on in the City (which they did play part of during a
medley with Crank it Up and Power Lover). They played tracks from most all
their records, which was cool. This was a band that still has the original
members and they all were smiling and having such a great time playing together
again. Great to see. Solid concert…..
Set List: Hold On For Your Life, Devil's Guy, Let Them Eat
Metal>Born To Rock, Evil In Me
I Just Wanna Rock, Burned By
Love>Drum Solo, The Night Lives To Rock, Fight Fire With Fire>Too Hot To
Stop, Hurricane, Cold Sweat And Blood, Nothing Going On In The City>Crank It
Up>Power Lover, I Live For Rock And Roll
16 Next, we went and sat down on
the grass and heard some of Foghat.
This is a band that were so great when I saw them in 1980 on the Boogie Motel
tour with Blackfoot opening. Today, the band more or less played exactly the
same concert as they did 5 years ago, which is a bit sad to see. I also felt
like the songs were just a bit off today and lacked this sort of stoned groove
they used to have. The crowd did not seem that into it to start but really dug
it at the end.
Set List: Road Fever, Home in My
Hand, Slide solo, Driven Wheel, Stone Blue,???????, Slow Ride
I had never seen Sodom before so
we left Foghat after 30mins and went and saw the Sodom concert. They had a pretty good crowd and it was hot in the
sun watching them. What a great energy. The pit really started up when they
played Blasphemer from the first record. I don’t ever listen to this kind of
music at home anymore but I really still enjoy to see these bands live
actually.. We made it back to hear most
of Slow Ride by Foghat actually.
16:30 Now you had to choose
between Powerwulf, Pain of Salvation or
Y&T. I had my interview with the Rods at 17:15 in the VIP area so we
decided to see Y&T at the main stage. Y&T said this was their 3rd
time to play here and the first time was back in 2003. We saw part of their set
like 5 years ago. They were a great band in the 70s and most of the 80s, never
becoming totally commercial and sticking with their mostly hard rock roots. The
set was a real mix of their popular hits and hard rock songs. I was able to see
the first 40mins of the show up through Black Tiger (although I could hear the
rest of the show in the backstage area very clearly).
Set List: Mean Streak, Don't Stop
Runnin', Don't Be Afraid of The Dark, Hang 'Em High
Dirty Girl, Midnight In Tokyo,
Black Tiger, Winds of Change, I'm Coming Home, I Want Your Money, Contagious, I'll
Cry For You, Rescue Me, Summertime Girls, Forever
 |
| Y&T |
 |
| Dave and Garry of the Rods |
The Rods interview did not go that
smoothly. Me another guy from a Norwegian radio show were sitting and waiting
as the guy before us went 30mins overtime and had like tons of pictures and all
the bands records he wanted signed, it was bit annoying. The band, one of the
shortest in the history of metal and rock were super cool guys and we talked
about the tour they did in 82 with Foghat and Danny Joe Brown, what they did
for a living today, the state of the music business, etc.. sadly, my SD card on
my recorder would not let me record so I had to record only some of the
interview on my camera with video and that filled up as well. So I could not
even get a picture with the band, pity. We agreed to stay in touch and I would
send them the live recordings I made of them in the 80s…
18:30 Five Horse Johnson totally kicked our ass! This was one of my favourites
today for sure. I just love their mix of stoner blues with harmonica with a lot
of attitude. I will for sure have to get their new record.. They were in a really good mood and very happy
to be playing. The crowd was really into it as well. Fun band.. Saga (Canada) was still playing so we could
hear some of them while we waited for Avatarium.
20 Avatarium played a very solid concert. I had only seem 2 songs at
Roadburn but it was nice to hear the entire concert. This was the only band
really playing doom at the festival this year. They had a lot of great songs
with some cool synthesizer-organ, heavy guitars and great solos and a beautiful
and wonderful female lead singer who also plays the occasional acoustic guitar.
All around a very good band. The crowd was into it.
Set List: Moonhorse, Bird of Prey, Boneflower, Tides of Telepathy,
Deepest Sorrow, Pandora's Egg, Avatarium
23:30 Ok.. Ted Fucking Nugent….. this was my first concert in 1978 and it is
always good fun to see him live and he brings a lot of attitude and killer
classic songs. The set was all the hits and same songs as last time he played
here except for Turn it Up (from Cat Scratch Fever) and the new song, Shut up
and Jam. Strange that in shut up and Jam, that they sing nearly the entire song
and it did not even have a guitar solo much less a jam… The band for sure did not even have a
rehearsal before this show as they were not that tight all the time and Ted was
not really ripping it up that well. A bit rusty… the version of Strangehold was
the clear highlight of the show. Great version. This was one of the loudest concerts
at the festival this year but also too much bass in the sound mix.. I had a
really good time…
Set List: Gonzo, Just What The Doctor Ordered, Wango Tango, Turn It
Up, Stormtroopin', Free For All, Wang Dang Sweet Poontang>I Can't Quit You
Baby, Fred Bear, Hey Baby, Shut Up And Jam, Cat Scratch Fever,, Stranglehold, Great
White Buffalo>Spirit of the Wild>Great white Buffalo
For those who are thinking about
coming I thought I would just give you a breakdown of what it cost us this
year. For two people we spent 1660kr on drinks, 860kr on food, 400kr for two
t-shirts, and 20kr for a program over 4 days. This of course does not include
the ticket, train from Copenhagen to Solvesborg (1050kr), hotel (4000kr) and
the buses back and forth to the festival (80kr per person each way, so we spent
1550kr)… it is far from a cheap festival but a great experience if you can
afford it..
My favourite bands this year…..
Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, The Crystal Caravan, Five Horse Johnson and the
Rods!
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