Vainstream Beastfest (Posted Date: 05 Jul 2009, 20:49)

Vainstream Beastfest

w/ Ignite / Broilers / The Gaslight Anthem / The Dillinger Escape Plan / Cro-Mags / Comeback Kid / Muff Potter

04.07.09 Schlachthof, Wiesbaden

I'm not really a festival type anymore, I dislike bad weather, overpriced drinks and camping. Vainstream was different: the weather was excellent and even if it had rained: the bands played indoors at the Schlachthof; drinks were cheap and you got one day tickets in case you didn't want to stay the whole two days which we didn't.

Muff Potter
We arrived quite late so we only heard some of their songs from outside the venue and just got in to see the final moments of 100 Kilo. As I've seen them quite often now I didn't really care to have missd them.

Comeback Kid
Really good hardcore though not exactly my cup of tea but better than expected.

Cro-Mags
A NYC hardcore legend with quite an all-star line-up: John Joseph on vocals being the only original members, AJ Novello from Leeway on guitar and Craig Setari from Sick Of It All on bass.
But that was not enough to really impress me. As mentioned above, hardcore is not really my music. The fast songs were nice but the rest including a Leeway cover were boring.

The Dillinger Escape Plan
Crazy shit, the math core outfit was a spectacular of their own. The brawling vocals sounded annoying, the freaky mix of metal and hardcore rhythms seemed too complex to grasp them live but the pure energy and stage acting including acrobatic stunts like speaker climbing were great.

The Gaslight Anthem
They are everyone's darlings and deservedly so. "Bruce" Fallon is smiling all the time obviously enjoing their constantly growing popularity and the band still kicks ass and wins everyone over with their music. They played nearly the same set as opening for Social Distortion but included Wooderson to my delight.

Broilers
A German punk band with ska and Oi influences, again not my cup of tea but they got a great response from the audience and were really good.

Ignite
My judgment from last year's show in Essen still holds: the music is ok but I can't really stand the band live. Their movement on stage looks choreographed like a boy band's dance moves and the singer's announcements are embarassing. We left after only five songs so at least I couldn't get pissed off by Sunday Bloody Sunday.

The Lemonheads (Posted Date: 15 May 2008, 23:23)

The Lemonheads / Two Gallants / Ignite

12.05.08 Strandbad Löwental, Essen

It was a sunny Whit Monday, so what better way than to spend  the evening in Essen at the 27th Pfingst-Open Air, a free festival in Essen-Werden?
We arrived at around 6 pm and headed straight to a beer stall but as it was really crowded we listened to Ignite from over there. The music is ok, good melodic hardcore punk, but the singer Zoli Teglas really got on my nerves with his commens and the band should also stop playing U2's Sunday Bloody Sunday, can't stand that song anymore.
Next up were Two Gallants from San Francisco, a duo playing sort of indie folk rock who really impressed me. I'm always surprised to hear how powerful only drums and a guitar can sound.
The Lemonheads headlined the festival and it was their only German show. Evan Dando announced their set with the words"We're going to play a record for you and it's called It's A Shame About Ray" and so they started playing it in its entirety (i.e. not including Mrs. Robinson, of course). After that there were more older songs like Stove or Down About It including a short solo part by Evan, playing three songs on his own. After The Great Big No drummer Vess Ruhtenberg threw his sticks into the crowd and they left the stage. But they returned for an encore though an early curfew allowed them only to play one more song. As Vess couldn't new drum sticks he asked the people to give his old ones back for the song and afterwards - they played No Backbone - he returned them to the guy who caught them.
So a beautiful evening ended.