Unlike in previous
years, there was a bit more going on here on the blog, although not
nearly as much as on my account on X (formerly known as twitter)
where I share all the links to my work. In other words: If you want
to know what I'm up to (or simply want to stay up to date in the
world of rock, metal, goth and punk), feel free to follow me on X / twitter.
Like last year,
there was a concert a few days before Christmas, the sixth and last
one for 2024, and it was again a concert with Priest, so we were
basically celebrating the first anniversary since we discovered the
band. Further parallels: The concert took place in Sweden's capital
Stockholm, there were three bands performing that night, and Priest
were the second act on stage (aux animaux was the first act of the
evening, and Combichrist were the headliner).
Photo
Credit: Krista Sainio
You
can read everything about the show at "Kollektivet Livet"
on 19th December 2024 in the corresponding live review and also check
out the photo gallery. And here are
some audiovisual impressions of Combichrist, Priest and aux
animaux...
The wish is, as
always, that there will be more concerts in the new year, and I think
that 2024 was a good start. At the same time, there would have been
more opportunities to attend live events in 2024, but even before the
year 2024 had reached its end, I realised that, in most cases, it was
a good thing that most of those opportunities were not used / could
not be used. For very different reasons. On that note: May the choice
of live events in 2025 be as wise as it was in 2024. ;o)
As promised a few days ago, this post will be about the fourth and fifth concert this
year. After the third concert, Priest in Linköping, a
completely quiet summer followed. Then,
in September 2024, we travelled once again to Sweden's capital
Stockholm: Apocalyptica.
Photo
Credit: Krista Sainio
It was actually during
the planning phase for this concert that I started to consider going
to concerts outside of Sweden instead, because
first it was said that one small bag per person, with a "maximum
size of an A4 paper", would be allowed, despite the
nationwide "väskförbud" ["ban of bags"] in
Sweden. Then, suddenly, there was talk of a "totalt väskförbud"
["total ban of bags"], before the whole thing was reversed
again the day before the concert. In other words: Much ado about
nothing, but definitely a stress factor. However, once we entered the
venue "Kägelbanan" for the very first time, everything ran super
smoothly, and you can read everything about the show
on 21st September 2024 in the corresponding live review and also
check out the photo gallery. And here are
some audiovisual impressions of Apocalyptica
and their tour support The Raven Age...
Basically, it was a
night of premieres. It was our first time at "Kägelbanan",
which is part of the larger venue "Södra Teatern". Later,
after "Kägelbanan" had closed, we
visited the impressive premises of "Södra Teatern" for the
first time,and before heading
to the party at "Kollektivet Livet"
as planned, we made a spontaneous detour to "Mammut
Bar" in the Gamla Stan district of Stockholm, because a friend
of mine, who I had not seen in 10 years, was DJing there. "Mammut
Bar" and "Kollektivet
Livet" were also new venues
for us. "Kollektivet Livet"
(also known as "Stadsgårdsterminalen") opened in March 2023, and "Mammut Bar" opened in March 2024. The
days when there was a wide range of rock and metal clubs in Stockholm
are long gone, so it was all the nicer to have so much to choose from
that night, and we obviously took advantage of
everything. ♥
The next concert
took place just two weeks later, in the Swedish city of Falun on 4th
October 2024: PAIN.
Photo
Credit: Krista Sainio
It was the kick-off show of their 2024 Nordic
tour and also a kind of a home game for PAIN frontman Peter Tägtgren.
You can read everything about the show at "Heymakers"
in the corresponding live review and also check out the photo gallery. And here are some audiovisual
impressions of PAIN and
their tour support Metalite...
On the way to the
venue, the city centre of Falun looked like a ghost town in the
middle of the night, even though it was a Friday evening, and it
looked exactly the same when we left the venue at around 1 AM (The
venue closed at 1 AM), so it was a sharp contrast to the night after
the Apocalyptica concert in Stockholm. But I ended up in a YouTube
video published by PAIN... ;o)
If you follow my work
for Chaoszine (the easiest way to do this is to follow me on X / twitter), then you already know that the number of concerts I
attended in 2024 is back to pre-pandemic levels. That's still only
five concerts, which is a lot less than I'm used to and would like to
attend, but the circumstances for attending concerts have become
anything but easier in recent years. In Sweden, for example, a
nationwide "väskförbud" ["ban of bags"] was
introduced on 1st November 2023. Due to the increased risk of terror
attacks in Sweden, one is no longer allowed to bring bags to bigger
events. Some venues make exceptions, but even that doesn't always go
smoothly. It seems that concert organisers and venues have to
renegotiate the "väskförbud" with the authorities for
each concert. Storing larger luggage in the paid cloakroom is usually not an option, as the authorities do not
consider the cloakrooms to be suitable for this (jackets and the like
are ok, though). While the security measure is understandable, in
practice, it may be a stress factor that could deter some potential
visitors from attending an event in the first place. I am one of
those potential visitors. For example, I never attend events with a
"totalt väskförbud" ["total ban of bags"], as a
matter of principle, and I have also started to consider going to
concerts outside of Sweden instead. If the "väskförbud"
forces one to book a hotel room every time one attends a concert in
Sweden, one might as well just travel to another country.
As for the number of
concerts I attended in 2024: There is still a month and a half to go
before the year 2024 ends, so... Let's see.
The first concert
was Priest in Sweden's capital Stockholm in March 2024, where we
celebrated our birthdays. The second concert was in April 2024, also
in Stockholm: Blind Channel.
Photo
Credit: Krista Sainio
It seems like a
lifetime ago that Blind Channel finished in a glorious sixth place
with "Dark Side" at the Eurovision Song Contest 2021, and,
unfortunately, it took me just as long to finally catch a show of the
"Backstreet Boys of the metal scene". Even
more unfortunate is the fact that Blind Channel recently announced an
indefinite hiatus, so it will be a while before I can see them live
on stage again. Their show at "Nalen" on 23rd April 2024 was so intense and energetic... Definitely
worth seeing live more than once. You can read everything about the
show in the corresponding live review and also check out the photo gallery. And here are some audiovisual
impressions of Blind Channel and their tour support Rock Band From
Hell...
The third concert
took place in May 2024: Priest's pre-release party for their 4th
studio album "Dark Pulse" in the Swedish city
of Linköping.
This event was
special in many ways. Amongst other things, I had never
been to Linköping before. You
can read everything about the pre-release party on 17th May 2024 in the corresponding
live review. And here
is an audiovisual impression of the
event at "Centralbryggeriet"...
Apart from the show,
I wasn't particularly active with the camera on this trip, but for
the Swifties among you, I took the following snapshot when I was back
in Stockholm...
Taylor Swift had played three completely sold-out stadium shows in Stockholm on the
same weekend, which resulted in high travel and accommodation costs
in and around the capital of Sweden, so Priest's choice to host their
pre-release party about 200 kilometres away from Stockholm can also
be seen as a favour for many attendees.
Soon,
you can read more about the fourth and fifth concert on this blog... Stay
tuned!
A
post on this blog that is not a "Happy New Year" post? Yes,
that's right! :o) After a few years of the corona
pandemic, we are now more or less back to normal life, and for
the first time since the beginning of the corona pandemic, our
birthdays are celebrated at concerts again.
As
already mentioned in the previous blog post, one week before Christmas, on 16th December 2023, we
attended Deathstars' home game in Sweden's capital Stockholm, with
Liv Sin as opening act and Priest as main support. Or as I would say,
especially in retrospect: Some nights are just magical. While working
on the corresponding live review
and photo gallery, I mainly
listened to the songs from Priest's performance ("Neuromancer",
"Obey", "The Pit"...). And when Priest started
dropping hints a few days later via their facebook profile
("//STOCKHOLM// Tack för en fantastisk lördag på Slaktkyrkan
- vi ses snart igen!" and "News coming soon.."), I
wondered: "Could it be that...?" Could it be that Priest
will play another show in Stockholm soon, maybe even on our birthday
weekend? And on 11th January 2024, it turned out: Yes, that is
exactly what Priest were going to do... What are the chances?!? So, I
was pretty over the moon, and the birthday plans were fixed.
Right
before the concert, I could have even met Then Comes Silence, who had
a DJ session in honour of their single release of "Ride Or Die"
in Gamla Stan already from 5 PM. Unfortunately, I only found out
about this event afterwards, despite thorough research on my part
about what could have been done during that weekend. Oh well!
The
concert itself was great, and you
can read everything about it in the corresponding live review and also check out the photo gallery.
Photo
Credit: Krista Sainio
Priest
vocalist Mercury and I during the show (Photo Credit: Marisol Correa
/ musicstage.se)
Here is also an
audiovisual impression of Priest's show at "Slaktkyrkan"...
As can be read in
the live review, by 10.30 PM, everyone was swept out of the club, due
to a subsequent event that was never mentioned on the official
website of the venue. That was definitely not cool. We thought that
we would be at "Slaktkyrkan" until
midnight, like last time. And the days when there was a wide
range of rock and metal clubs in Stockholm are long gone. There is
this one venue that was repeatedly suggested to us, where mostly
cover bands play, including that night, but especially after seeing
something original like Priest, I didn't feel like seeing a cover
band. And so we had our own little party...
Our
hotel room in Södermalm
Lordi
frontman Mr Lordi on TV
My
birthday cake
The
additional cake (or what's left of it in the picture): A pink leopard
cake, baked by me
Our
birthday presents
The next concert we
will attend is already in the pipeline, and it will be another show
in Stockholm. One might think that all these events in
Stockholm have something to do with my love for the
capital of Sweden, but that's only partly true these
days. Cancellations of concerts, tours and
festival appearances, sometimes at the very last minute, have become
common practice for musicians long before the corona pandemic, and
there are currently also other risk factors such as strikes, which
is why I continue to refrain from longer "gig trips".
Within Sweden, the network of public
transportation is not that well developed, and it has recently also
become quite notorious for its unreliability. That's also why
Stockholm is more or less the only option at the moment. Well, there
are certainly worse things than being limited to Stockholm for a
while... ;o)
As in previous years, while
it has been pretty quiet on this blog, my twitter account is all the
more busy, not least thanks to my job at chaoszine.net where I mainly contribute to the news section and then
share the corresponding links via twitter (or X, as twitter is
supposed to be called these days).
At the end of the year,
however, there was a live review, written by me, about Deathstars'
home game in Sweden's capital Stockholm. It took place one week
before Christmas, on 16th December 2023, with Liv Sin as opening act
and Priest as main support. It still seems surreal that this event
actually took place. It was absolutely wonderful and definitely one
of the highlights in 2023. The live review can be read here, and
additional pictures of the event can be found in the photo gallery
here.
Photo
Credit: Krista Sainio
The Deathstars show in
Stockholm was one of two concerts that I attended in 2023. Yes, once
again, it was very little. Of course, the wish is, as always, that
there will be more in the new year, but as already mentioned in the
live review, cancellations of concerts, tours and festival
appearances, sometimes at the very last minute, have become common
practice for musicians long before the corona pandemic, hence one has
to plan carefully.
If you want to know what I'm up to (or
simply want to stay up to date in the world of rock, metal, goth and
punk), feel free to follow me on twitter / X.
If there is one thing
one can count on on this blog, it is the annual "Happy New Year"
post. ;o) So: Happy New Year 2023, everyone! ♥ ♥ ♥
Basically, I could
really write the same thing here as last year: While it has
been pretty quiet on this blog, my twitter account is all the more
busy, not least thanks to my job at
chaoszine.net where I mainly contribute to the news section and then
share the corresponding links via twitter. If you want to know what
I'm up to (or simply want to stay up to date in the world of rock,
metal, goth and punk), feel free to follow me on twitter.
New Year's Eve itself
was relatively quiet, like the two times before, but we got to
see a pretty decent fireworks display for the third
year in a row. There was the possibility to go out afterwards,
but times are what they are, and I wouldn't change a thing. We went
out the next morning instead, for a very lovely New
Year's Day brunch.
2023 also marks the anniversary of a very special year in my life, and in the lives of many of my friends and acquaintances. Maybe that's why there is a little more optimism regarding the new year, despite what's currently happening in the world otherwise?
Oh dear, it's been a while again... And I may be late a month, but: Happy New Year 2022, everyone! ♥ ♥ ♥
While it has been pretty quiet on this blog, my twitter account has become all the more busy. One reason for this is my job at chaoszine.net where I mainly contribute to the news section and then share the corresponding links via twitter. So if you want to know what I'm up to (or simply want to stay up to date in the world of rock, metal, goth and punk), feel free to follow me on twitter... ;o)
Long
time, no hear... Happy New Year 2021, everyone! ♥ ♥ ♥
Due
to the ongoing corona pandemic, this New Year's Eve looked a little
different than usual: No gig, no trip and
certainly no "gig trip". Well, health comes first. Always. And
so we actually spent the turn of the year 2020 / 2021 at home and
watched all four seasons of "The Crown" that have been
released so far. A positive surprise, I must say. I do have a few
favourite series, but I'm not a fan of watching one series after
another, and I'm particularly sceptical towards all of these
"Original" productions...
... because there are sooo many and I
just like to spend my time differently. More meaningfully.
Then,
at the end of November 2020, the fourth season of "The Crown"
was released, featuring the love triangle between Charles, Diana and
Camilla. I was curious and watched the first episode of season 4,
positively surprised by the fact that "The Crown" is not a
pure drama series solely revolving around the British royals. No, you
also learn a lot about the politics of the time and about certain
events in world history. So it's a mixture of entertainment and
education, and if you have a certain affinity for the UK like I do,
then the whole show is even more interesting to watch. In other
words: I was sold. And so the decision to spend the turn of the year
with popcorn and "The Crown" was made quickly. No
regrets.
Four
days into the new year, news broke that Alexi "Wildchild"
Laiho (Bodom After Midnight / Children Of
Bodom / The Local Band / Sinergy) died aged 41. Exactly one week has
passed since those news broke, and it's still hard to grasp. So
young. So sudden.
Now, I'm
feeling even more gratitude to have travelled to
Tampere / Finland in March 2018, in order to celebrate our birthdays
with The Local Band.
Once
I even saw Children Of Bodom
live, at least partially, at the Ankkarock festival 2010 in Vantaa /
Finland.
I still remember those green lights and that a plane from the nearby
Helsinki-Vantaa airport flew over the festival area while Children Of
Bodom were performing. Though, I had completely forgotten the amusing
fact that there was also a group of singing Christians with huge
crosses right outside the festival area, trying to save "lost
souls" because of bands like Children Of Bodom.
If it wasn't for
him, I wouldn't have seen the record release show for HIM's fourth
album "Love Metal" on 8th March 2003 in my native city
Hamburg (Germany). It was a very exclusive event for which tickets
couldn't be purchased, and it meant the world to me to be a part of
it. Not long after, my interest in the band faded. Life went on. Much
has happened since then. But such kind actions are NEVER forgotten.
Thank you, Seppo Vesterinen. ♥
As promised a few days ago, now, I'm getting back to the three concerts which took place
between the live events in March 2019 and the New Year's Eve show by
The Hellacopters.
The first two concerts
both took place at "Dalhalla".
Both in July 2019.
One of the main ideas behind it was to explore
something new again, and since "Dalhalla"
is regularly represented in lists such as "The
most beautiful concert venues from around the world"...
Why not?
"Dalhalla"
is an open air theatre located in a former limestone quarry in
Rättvik (Sweden), in the region of Dalarna. During summers,
"Dalhalla"
is used as a concert venue. With
Iggy Pop, a suitable event was quickly found, but, later on, it
turned out that New Order would play at "Dalhalla",
too. Since it was hard to make a decision, we simply went to both
events.
Not least thanks to
my activities as a music and culture journalist, I have been to so
many concerts in my live, and never have I faced
such huge transportation problems as it was the case with "Dalhalla".
It was really difficult to organise.
Getting to Rättvik by public
transport is actually no problem at all. Getting from Rättvik to the
venue "Dalhalla"...
That's the challenge. "Dalhalla"
is located in the deepest forest, roughly 10 km from the train
station in Rättvik. And don't get me started on how to get anywhere
from "Dalhalla"
in the night when the concert is over.
There are so-called
"konsertbussar"
[Swedish for: "concert
buses"] which
are operated by the venue / in collaboration with the venue. These
concert buses operate between "Dalhalla"
and some cities in Dalarna, including Rättvik. You have to book the
ride with a concert bus in advance, those rides are significantly
more expensive than public transport and, at the time of the Iggy Pop
concert, booking a ride with a concert bus via the website of
"Dalhalla"
did not even work as there was an error in the booking system. We
were not the only ones with this problem on the day of the Iggy Pop
show, so this concert visit turned into quite an odyssey. In the end,
we met some friendly concert visitors with cars who helped us. Things
became really adventurous, and I think it's ultimately thanks to
these nice people we met that this whole experience did not turn too
sour.
Yes, the concert was
great and the venue is stunning, indeed, but arriving and leaving
without a car shouldn't be that difficult, complicated and expensive.
Especially not in the home country of probably the most famous
climate activist worldwide at the moment, Greta Thunberg.
Exactly three weeks
later, we returned to "Dalhalla"
for New Order. Shortly before, I contacted the
venue so that the broken link on the website of "Dalhalla"
would be repaired, making it possible to book a concert bus this
time. It all worked out and, fortunately, we
were spared another odyssey.
However, you have to go
back with the same concert bus that you arrived with. You cannot go
to Rättvik by public transport, spend a nice day at Lake Siljan,
then take the concert bus from Rättvik to the concert at "Dalhalla"
and later on take another concert bus from "Dalhalla"
to another city in Dalarna, in case you have an accommodation
somewhere else than in Rättvik. Suggestions
that have been made: Rent a car and / or book a hotel room in
Rättvik. With most ticket prices starting at 800 SEK per person, a
mere gig trip starts to turn into a short vacation, at least
financially.
In any case, we were
spared another odyssey this time as we travelled with one of the
concert buses. The downside of it was that we had to skip
hanging out in Rättvik altogether, even though the day was absolutely
perfect to hang out at Lake Siljan. Sunshine, blue sky and - if I remember correctly - a temperature of around 30°C. Hopefully, one day, we will catch
up on that: A summer day in Rättvik at Lake Siljan.
We have seen
"Dalhalla".
It is a stunning venue, indeed, and both events we attended there
were great, too, but I think I will leave it at these two
experiences. Travelling to and from "Dalhalla"
without a car is simply too complicated,
inflexible, expensive and also too time-consuming when planning the
arrival to and the departure from the venue.
Here are some visual
impressions of Rättvik and Lake Siljan from the day of the Iggy Pop
concert...
... and here
is an audiovisual impression of Iggy Pop performing "The
Passenger" at "Dalhalla" on 3rd July 2019...
Three
weeks later, on 24th July 2019, Henric de la Cour performed amongst
others "Two Against One" and "Arkham Supermarket" as
a support act for New Order at "Dalhalla"...
... and New Order performed amongst others "Singularity", "She's Lost Control" [Joy
Division cover], "Tutti Frutti", "Blue Monday" and "Love Will Tear Us
Apart" [Joy Division cover] at "Dalhalla"...
The third concert was
comparatively unspectacular in terms of arrival and departure since The Mission
frontman Wayne Hussey chose a club in the city centre of Sweden's
capital Stockholm for his solo show on 8th November 2019, supported by Evi Vine...
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