Herr Mike in Deutschland

This weekend was Rock im Park! One of the biggest music festivals in Germany with a killer line up and a crazy crowd. Held at the Zeppelin Landing Field in Nuremberg it isn't far from me but we camped out there for the authentic festival experience. My friend Zoe from uni flew over especially and we also met up with Christian and his friends from Wurzburg (special mention to the Finnish ladies who I discovered are ubermike blog fans!) so there was a big group of us.
Though the festival started on Friday we arrived on Thursday around lunchtime to get a place for the tent. It was rammed when we got there but we managed to find a spot for the flowery fest tent which Zoe had brought with her next to Christian and the others.


At English festivals flowery and crazily patterned tents are very common. In Germany this is obviously not the case. My sleep on the first night was constantly disturbed by drunk passers by commenting on the design, with opinions ranging from 'Wow that is the best tent ever' to 'Oh that must be the gay tent'. At one point I was awoken from my slumber by a young lady offering to buy the tent. Needless to say I refused.


On Friday it was time to get involved! We headed down early to watch some of the lesser known bands and shortly got absolutely soaked in the heaviest rain I have ever known. A quick trip back to the camp site, a new tshirt and a bin bag poncho later we headed back to the action.
The rest of the weekend was sunny except the odd shower which was usually quite nice as the temperatures soared.

Over the course of the weekend we saw over 20 bands - it was immense. Below is a list of the majority of the bands we saw with a little review:

Friday:

Sunrise Avenue: Bit cheesy finnish rockers, one catchy song which is popular in Germany at the moment.
Revolverheld: Surprisingly impressive German indie
Paolo Nutini: Motionless performance but a great voice - 'Jenny don't be hasty' and 'New Shoes' making us forget the rain for a bit.
The Kooks: One of the highlights, great performance. Were less than impressed when their microphones were turned off for over running on time. Don't mess with a German's schedule!
Travis: Everyone loves a bit of Travis but I didn't expect the amazing live performance which they gave. Lead singer Fran Healy got everyone involved and at one point threw himself into the audience for a classic crowd surf. They Played all the classics - 'Sing', 'Driftwood' and 'Why does it always rain on me?' - apt given the weather.
Scissor Sisters: The campest thing I've ever seen. Frontman Jake Shears flailed around like a maniac. Though I'm not a major fan it was an awesome show.


Saturday - 12 hours of non stop rock

Paramore: Pop - Punk rock, nothing too spectacular but pretty catchy and the lead singer is a little firecracker.
Head Automatica: Proper rock, lively performance - superb
The Used: Heavy stuff fronted by Kelly Osbourne's ex boyfriend Bert McCracken. Spitting onto the crowd and getting them to separate before charging at each other for a mosh pit was, er, an experience.
Maximo Park: Loveable Geordie indie rockers, lyrical genius - class.
Razorlight: Though the frontman strikes me as a bit of a fool I must admit having seen them live I am a much bigger Razorlight fan than I realised, may have to get myself the album.
Muse: Immense. I don't have enough superlatives in my vocabulary. My highlight of the festival and the most incredible live performance, it left me literally shaking. Hard rock riffs combined with chilling melodies, totally unique. 'Knights of Cydonia' was an incredible opener and 'Assassin' live was mind blowing.
Linkin Park: Rocked out, a helluva show. I'm not a big fan but couldn't help but get taken in by the amzing atmosphere. Superb.


Sunday:

The Fratellis: Great way to kick off the last day, feel good stuff finished with the awesomely catchy 'Chelsea Dagger'.
30 Seconds to Mars: Fronted by actor Jared Leto who got really involved with the crowd.
Wolfmother: Only saw a few songs but these australians were uber cool, proper old skool riffs.
Ghosts: Chilled pop indie, really cool, check out the single 'The world is outside' - quality.
Under the influence of Giants: Must admit I was totally distracted by the bass player's beard. Interesting dance / rock mixture. I like.
The Pigeon Detectives: The next big thing in indie rock, a great performance and some really catchy stuff. An unexpected highlight, absolutely brilliant - a really intimate gig too as they played on the smaller club stage - have a look at the pic below. You can see a video on their website by clicking here.
Charlotte Hatherley: The former Ash guitarist failed to impress somehow, despite incredible ability on the guitar there was no audience interaction and came over as rather distant.
The Smashing Pumpkins: The undisputed headliners gave a hell of a show, impressive even though I am not a fan. A fitting end to an incredible weekend.

Away from the stage things were pretty mental too. The camp site was constantly full of drunken lunatics. On Saturday we arrived back to find that two chemical toilets had been pushed over just down from our tents. Luckily most of the filth had remained inside.
This leads me nicely to describing possibly the most bizarre and hilarious moments of my life. As we settled down for a beer before bed a group of wasted fools were messing around, one of them in a trolley. He eventually came to a stop by colliding with the fallen port-a-loos. He then climbed onto it and began dancing around like a fool on top of it. One jump too many and the thing gave way, the dude ending up with only his torso protruding from the toilet. Just when I thought this guy couldn't be any sillier he tried to spring out, slipped and totally disappeared inside the chamber of waste. Luckily for him the toilets were quite new so he wasn't too soaked in excrement but it still wasn't pretty!

On the last night of a festival everyone tends to go a bit mad so we stayed up to ensure nothing untoward happened to our tents. At around 4 in the morning Christian pointed out huge flames billowing from a toilet which had been set on fire. it was at this point we decided it was time to head back, exhausted, smelly and totally rocked out. It was...immense.