Vainstream Rockfest 2011
This year´s edition of the Vainstream was held on the 26th of June once again in lovely Münster. The plans to move the Rockfest to Dortmund and the plan to do a 2 day event were cancelled. So back again in Münster and about 10000 rock fans attented the event. The first thing to criticize was the fact that the area was undersized and without any shadow. The positive facts: The weather was great and the lineup was fantastic! Unfortunately I missed a few bands… But let´s start with…
Nearea For local metalcore heroes Nearea it was a real homegame in front of a large audience. Songs like „Armamentarium“ and „Let The Tempst Come“ are really great, singer Benny was a good entertainer and so the first wall of death of the day was just a matter of time… Good and entertaining gig! Their setlist:
Let the Tempest Come
Walls Instead of Bridges
Armamentarium
Spearheading the Spawn
I Loathe
Synergy
Unearth The band from Winthrop, Massachusetts was the second band of my vainstream day. The audience really enjoys their classic metalcore music and their two posing guitar players were really funny (check out out pics of the day).
Skindred The next band was Skindred from Newport, Great britain. Their mixture of reggae, hip-hop, punk and metal music was a big contrast to the previous bands (themself they call it “ragga metal”, singer Benji previously was singer of Dub war) – but it fits perfect to the beautiful weather and the good festival atmosphere. So nearly everyone in the crowd danced… I met them later – very friendly and funny guys!!! Greetings, my welsh friends!!
Alexisonfire I only knew their contribution to the NHL 11 soundtrack until this gig – and the gig started out exactly with this song: “Young cardinals”. The canadiens played a very intense show and the other songs kept the level of the starting one. I think I have to buy a few CDs soon… Great gig!!!
Atreyu I was very curious about the gig of Atreyu. The gig was ok – lots of crowdsurfer and many young girls adoring the band… But I still don´t know if their cover version of Bon Jovi´s “You Give Love a Bad Name” was great or just sucks… 😉
Danko Jones One of my favorite rock bands (And by the way: They were the second band from the fantastic NHL 11 soundtrack today)! Danko and his guys from Canada started with songs from their brilliant new album “Below the belt”, but also played classic songs like “First date” and “Baby hates me” from “Sleep is the enemy”. And thank god: Danko played music… and reduced his talking… 😉 So it was a perfect rock party – music, beer and sun!!! Hope to see them again soon!!!
Madball – Yeah brotha – hardcore from Brooklyn, New York!!! The first time I´ve seen them was at the Dynamo Open Air in 1995. Since then they split up and reunited – but their music was still very intense and they are still one of the best live-hardcore bands. They started with their hit-single „Demonstrating My Style“ and the whole crowd went crazy… great gig! And I Think bass player Hoya Roc lost weight since 1995… 😉
KIZ One of the worst “bands” I´ve ever seen. No further comment…
Hot water music Shame on me – I missed them while drinking beer and eating Bratwurst!
Broilers I don´t like ska-music… but the audience loved their music…
Ska-P Sorry, I still don´t like ska-music… but the audience does…
As I lay dying Co-headliner and Grammy nominated AILD from San Diego entered the stage with “94 hours” from their fantastic „Frail Words Collapse“-album. They also played songs from „An Ocean Between Us“, „Shadows…“ and their new “The Powerless Rise” album. Good gig – but I think the audience was a little bit tired due to the exhausting day and the burning sun…
NOFX My favorite band in the early 90´s. Due to lucky circumstances I was able to enter the stage with the band and watch the whole gig on the side of the stage. A dream comes true! Fat Mike and his friends were an worthy headliner and closed the main stage with their classic “Kill all the white men”.
Thanks to Kingstar Music for their support – we (Lotte and Dunja) really enjoyed the day!!!