Rock am RIng 2005
Wow – Rock am Ring is now 20 years old – 70000 visitors came to the 20th anniversary party – and we were invited, too!!! 3 stages – 97 bands – and just 4 eyes… but let´s start at the beginning …
We started on Friday and had no difficulties travelling to the Nürbugring – we arrived at 2 o´clock at out hotel – and 10 minutes later we entered the backstage area and got our press and photo passes in about 2 minutes and the festival started for us with Mando Diao. Ok – not a metal band – but we’re open minded … 😉
FRIDAY:
Mando Diao:
First I have to say that I only knew 2 of their songs even though I got their CD “ Hurricane bar”…Shame on me … But I think the band did a good job on the main stage of Rock am Ring – the sun was shining and their indie-rock music was perfect to start the festival and to get into the right mood … And after a few beer (I drank) they played their hit-single “God knows” – one of the songs I knew…
Playlist:
01. Down In The Past
02. Paralyzed
03. If I Leave You
04. Added Family
05. White Wall
06. You Can’t Steal My Love
07. Mr. Moon
08. Annie’s Angle
09. Sweet Ride
10. God Knows
11. Sheepdog
Incubus:
OK – we go on the the next main stage: Incubus. Still no metal band – but the people (especially the women) really seem to like these guys… But I don´t know why … I think the music is average indie/pop-rock… So if it is not the music – what so special about them – the cute singer !?!? Tell me …
01.Circles
02. Megalomaniac
03. Wish You Were Here
04. Under My Umbrella
05. Sick Sad Little World
06. Nice To Know You
07. A Crow Left Of The Murder
08. Make Yourself
09. Are You In?
10. Pistola
11. Blood On The Ground
12. Hungry Like The Wolf
13. Priceless
14. Pardon Me
Life of agony:
After I fell in sleep with the guys of Incubus one of favourite bands entered the Alternastage (the second stage at Rock am Ring) : Life of Agony!!! And they really rocked and kicked ass !!! They start with their classic “River runs red” – the title song of their legendary debut album “River runs red” from 1993!!! Fantastic!!! And also new songs like “Don´t bother” and “Love let you down” causes enthusiastic reactions in the crowd … The highlight in their set was the song “Through and through” – WOW !!! Hope to see the band on tour soon again…and then they might play “Method of groove” … please… just for me… 😉
01. Intro
02. River Runs Red
03. Don’t Bother
04. This Time
05. Love To Let You Down
06. Lost At 22
07. Weeds
08. Wicked Ways
09. Bad Seed
10. Through And Through
11. Underground
12. Outro
Within temptation:
Then the evening continues with the next highlight – my favourite band from the Netherlands (alongside with The Gathering and Gorefest) : Within temptation. They started their show with 5 songs from their new CD “The silent force”. The reactions of the audience were fantastic and the band really enjoyed their success… and I and the rest really enjoyed the show, too. After their new single “Angels” they played the Kate Bush cover song “Running up that hill” – for me one of the highlights of the concert!!! The only deficit of the show – in my opinion – was the fact that they don´t play any songs from their debut CD “Enter”.
01. Intro
02. See Who I Am
03. Jillian (I’d Give My Heart)
04. Stand My Ground
05. Angels
06. Forsaken
07. Running Up That Hill
08. Memories
09. Mother Earth
10. Deceiver Of Fools
11. Ice Queen
12. Outro
REM:
After the great gigs of Life of agony and Within temptation I decided calm down a bit to end the 1st day of Rock am Ring with REM. Once again no metal music – but REM are one of the best rock bands of the world!!! They created milestones like “Automatic for the people”(1992) and “Out of time” (1991)… and I guess 100% of the visitors of Rock am Ring knew at least 1 or 2 songs of them… I personally really like their show … they played songs of all periods of their career… and yes: I always wanted to hear “Losing my religion” live …
01. I Took Your Name
02. What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?
03. Bad Day
04. Drive
05. The Outsiders
06. Leaving New York
07. Leave
08. Me In Honey
09. Wanderlust
10. Everybody Hurts
11. Electron Blue
12. Electrolite
13. Orange Crush
14. The One I Love
15. Walk Unafraid
16. Losing My Religion
17. Imitation Of Life
18. The Great Beyond
19. Animal
20. I’m Gonna DJ
21. Man On The Moon
Saturday:
Helmet:
The second day of RaR – my head still aches but let’s start with Helmet: Page Hamilton´s band started the day with great rock music. “Unsung” and “Milktoast” are two of my favourite Helmet songs … so a good start for the day…
01. Pure
02. Smart
03. Crashing Foreign Cars
04. See You Dead
05. Ironhead
06. Milktoast
07. Wilma’s Rainbow
08. Unsung
09. Meantime
In Extremo:
The second band of the day for me was german medieval metal band In Extremo. Surprisingly for me the songs and the band really impressed the 30000 people in front of the mainstage. The band delivers a good gig, e.g. the song “Nur ihr allein” – their new single – was great…
01. Erdbeermund
02. Poc Vecem
03. Wind
04. Rasend Herz
05. Omnia Sol Temperat
06. Nur Ihr Allein
07. Vollmond
08. Nymphenzeit
09. Captus Est
10. Stetit Puella
Slayer:
What a contrast to In Extremo!!! After the medieval metal show of In Extremo Slayer brought war to the Warfield, I mean to RaR ;-). They really blow up the ears of the audience!!! What a show and what a selection of songs… and I´m usually not a friend of the band. But take a look at their setlist and check out their last 3 songs ….WOW!!!
01. Disciple Of The Watch
02. Stain Of Mind
03. Chemical Warfair
04. Hell Awaits
05. Mandatory Suicide
06. War Ensemble
07. Blood Red
08. Dead Skin Mask
09. Show No Mercy
10. Rain In Blood
11. South Of Heaven
12. Angel Of Death
Mötley Crue:
Ok – again a big contrast to the previous band – but that´s RaR and that´s why all the people love it … the great variety of band and music styles… I´m not really a friend of the band and their music – but the show was ok – despite the fact that I now really know that drugs are not good for people… 😉
01. Shout At The Devil
02. Live Wire
03. Wild Side
04. Louder Than Hell
05. Girls, Girls, Girls
06. Dr. Feelgood
07. Looks That Like
08. Red Hot
09. Primal Scream
10. Sick Love Song
11. Kickstart My Heart
12. Anarchy In The UK
MARILYN MANSON:
I´ve seen MM for the first time in 1996 at the Dynamo Open Air in the Netherlands where half of the audience threw mudd at him and forced him to stop his show. This time the reactions and the show were much better. He now has wide repertoire of hit singles and songs and his show has really been improved. So it was perfect entertainment.
01. Love Song
02. Disposable Teens
03. Mobscene
04. Tourniquete
05. Personal Jesus
06. Great Big White World
07. Tainted Love
08. Fight Song
09. Nobodies
10. Dope Fiend Segus
11. Rock Is Dead
12. Sweet Dreams
13. Beautiful People
14. ACSS
Iron Maiden:
What can I say about Iron Maiden? Founded in 1976 – and still one of the best live bands in the universe…with one of the best singers in the world. And this time (in contrast to their 2003 gig at RaR) they really fulfilled my expectations. A great selection of songs (they only played songs from their “older” albums), a good sound and an enthusiastic audience. But I still do not know why they need 3 guitarists… 😉
01. Murders In The Rue Morgue
02. Another Life
03. Prowler
04. The Trooper
05. Remember Tomorrow
06. Where Eagles Dare
07. Run To The Hills
08. Revelations
09. Wrathchild
10. Die With Your Boots On
11. Phantom Of The Opera
12. The Number Of The Beast
13. Hallowed Be Thy Name
14. Iron Maiden
15. Running Free
16. Drifter
17. Sanctuary
Garbage:
I really like the self titled debut CD of Garbage with the hit-singles “Stupid girl”, “Queer” and “Only happy when it rains”– but I don’t know any songs of the following CDs “Version:2.0″, “beautifulgarbage” and their new album “Bleed like me”. So my expectations were just to hear some of the old debut songs – and that’s it … but all the presented songs were great … Shirley did a great job and I was really surprised and I really enjoyed the show …Definitely one of the best bands of Rock am Ring 2005… Thumbs up!!!
01. Bad Boyfriend
02. Supervixen
03. Stupid Girl
04. Sex Is Not The Enemy
05. Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go!)
06. When I Grow Up
07. Vow
08. Metal Heart
09. I Think I’m Paranoid
10. Run Baby Run
11. Push It
12. Only Happy When It Rains
13. Why Do You Love Me
Sunday:
Shadows fall:
Last day of RaR 2005 and we were really tired – so we decided to watch just 5 bands. Shadows Fall started out our day. But this new emo-so-what-the-hell-are-you-calling-it-core is not impressing me so much… So the thing I was remembering was the fact that the singer had long hair … 😉
Lacuna coil:
What a beautiful voice and what a beautiful girl – ok – she’s 32 right now and not a girl anymore… but she is still beautiful. I’ve seen Lacuna Coil now for the 4th time and I knew their records since their debut EP “Lacuna Coil” – so I can really say that their development is impressing me!!! They improved their live performance constantly and perfected their music style!!! Thumbs up for the band!!!
Billy Idol:
Back to the main stage with Billy Idol: He performed a great Best-Of –show wit additions from his new album. It was really cool to see and hear classics like “White Wedding” or “Rebel Yell” for the first time live. So the gig really surprised me in a positive way – and I now know that you can still rock at the age of 50 !!!!
01. Super Overdrive
02. Dancin’ With Myself
03. Flesh For Fantasy
04. Body Snatcher
05. White Wedding
06. Scream
07. Eyes Without A Face
08. Rat Race
09. World Coming Down
10. Ready Steady Go
11. Jump
12. Rebel Yell
13. Mony
HIM:
I’ve seen the band for the first time at their 1st german gig with Sisters of mercy at a festival in Gelsenkirchen in 1998 – the guys were really friendly and I did my first interview ever in english … how thrilling … 😉 But since these days their live performances and their releases are not impressing me so much… in my opinion their live performance is without any power and enthusiasm…every cd-release sounds like it’s predecessor… one of the most overrated bands… so I really don´t like their gig at RaR.
01. Right Here In My Arms
02. The Sacrament
03. Wicked Game
04. Soul On Fire
05. Heartache Every Moment
06. Killing Loneliness
07. Join Me In Death
08. Poison Girl
09. Buried Alive By Love
10. Vampyre
11. You Sweet 666
12. Funeral Of Hearts
Velvet revolver:
What an all star band: Slash (Guns n´ Roses) and Dave Kushner (former Suicidal tendencies) on guitar, Duff McKagan (Guns n´ Roses) on bass, Matt Sorum (Guns n´ Roses, The Cult) on drums and Scott Weiland – the voice of the Stone temple pilots as singer. Fantastic!!! And their show was also fantastic – great stadium rock-metal music with perfect musicians. Nothing more to say despite the fact that Scott Weiland is the ultimate evidence that drugs can destroy human beings!!! 😉
01. Sucker Train Blues
02. Do It For The Kids
03. Headspace
04. Superhuman
05. Fall To Pieces
06. Dirty Little Thing
07. Big Machine
08. It’s So Easy
09. Sex Type Thing
10. Set Me Free
11. Wish You Were Here
12. Mr. Brownstone
13. Slither
Conclusion:
Once again Rock am Ring was a perfect organised festival … 70000 people really enjoyed the weekend…a perfect and peaceful festival atmosphere. The conditions to work for the press were fantastic and exemplary for other festivals.
At the official press conference Marek Lieberberg – the presenter of Rock am Ring – gives a foresight of the 2006 edition of the festival: He’s planning to organize the festival as a 4 day event for the 1st time … Depeche mode will be one of the headliners… and he confirms negotiations with System of a down and Linkin Park…
CU in 2006… Special thanx to Marek Lieberberg, Katarina Wenisch and the whole RaR crew.