Rock Around the Clock

June 6th 2008
Rock Am Ring

It was The Misfits 'London Dungeon' I found paused on my MP3 player as the Shuttle Bus pulled away from the 'Ring. This reminded me of exactly how much had transpired in the last month, and how good it felt that summer was here.
Rock Am Ring had been fantastic, 3 days and 3 nights of Rock and Roll, something that is totally absent in the electro/funk/hip-hop pre-disposition of Frankfurt. 100 000+ like minded revelers- in fact walking through the 4kms of tents was like having my ITunes on shuffle, if interspersed with terrible, terrible German pop (terrible).
By Lunchtime Friday the perks of traveling Solo had revealed themselves several times. My single man tent fitted snugly (smugly even?) into a prime position that may have attracted animosity from surrounding campers if I were a loud group of English speaking blow-ins. At the wrist band counter, and the main gate, queue jumping failed to gain any acknowledgment. Pushing through the 60 odd thousand at Incubus to be at the front for Rage Against the Machine would be the real kicker, I left behind my new found friends who just couldn't keep up and were met with resistance while trying to follow me. Even on my own this still took some aggressive maneuvering and the entire Incubus set plus 3 Rage songs!!
If anything could take away from what was about to happen, it would be the huge advertising billboards all around Centre Stage. As the Stage darkened and a huge glowing Red Star was raised into placed all ambiance was totally annihilated by a flashing white signs that revealed the band long before the intro had finished. I was insulted and could/would hope the band felt the same; although after the riff over Zach's political bent and the rest of the guys just wanting to play music this was in doubt. 'Bulls on Parade' started things off and social pondering would be left aside until the mid set rant about how they had been misquoted after last year's Rock Am. The speech went on for quite some time, with a large portion of the crowd taking a seat. Complex Ideologies in Fast Angry English to a predominantly drunk German audience bought on the yawns rapidly. 'Know Your Enemy' and 'Killing in the name of' saved the day. 'Killing in the name of' had a comical ending where the whole crowd (around 60 000) chanted something that loosely translates to 'shit rich people' at the corporate boxes along the side of the stage. The VIPs really should have sipped lattes somewhere else. Exit stage right, and back down to the Alternastage just in time to hear "We're Mötorhead, We play Rock and Rock" -indeed.
Saturday morning would be a chance to see the other camp sites; the ones people had arrived 4 days earlier to procure. Utter Squalor is an understatement. While I was on a tree lined hilltop with a view of Nordschleife's front straight, these people where camped on the gravel remains of the old F1 tracks car park. Concrete had been busted up into fist sized rocks and each 200m square allotment had a 6 foot chain link fence surround. Add to this; burnt/burning tents, endless rubbish, puddles of human waste and, finally, the lowest elevation of the whole area (no wind, no shade, hot days) -the scene could have been any African border camp. Live in excrement for 6 days OR cruise in at lunchtime Friday and walk an extra kilometer, hmmm.
Today would be a Metal Fix with a hint of Aussie Flavour. Checked out Pete Murray first up (just to be patriotic), then Disturbed, followed by Inflames. Inflames where phenomenal leaving no doubt as to why they have been sighted by Metal Hammer as one of the 10 most influential metal acts ever. Made a mad dash to see those Victorian Sheep shearers, Airbourne, only to find out the Tent they were was at capacity, with a huge line up of hopefuls that wanted In. With 5 hours until Metallica you would be forgiven thinking that now would be an OK time to get a good position, Wrong. After Rage last night, Everyone had the same Idea, except today the crowd would be up 30,000. Yes, at least 90,000 people standing around waiting for Metallica, an amazing site. When the Metal Lords finally took the stage it was everything anyone could ask for, finishing the third encore with 'Die My Darling'(when am I ever going to hear 90,000 sing a Misfits song again?), 'Whiplash' and my all time favourite 'Motorbreath'. Emotion ensued.
The Final day would be easy, everyone I wanted to see was on the Alternastage, and hours would be at my disposal to find the perfect spot for Queens of the Stone Age. An endless stream of good old Rock appeared on stage with a few unheard ofs impressing me, namely Disco Ensemble. The Eagles of Death Metal were awesome and very humble- apparently this was the biggest crowd they had played to.
I was fairly interested in seeing HIM, only know they exist thanks to Viva La Bam and they have quite a following; The verdict- Not Bad. Lead singer, Ville Valo is not the most unattractive man in the world, perhaps it is not going to far as to say he is the Bon Jovi of this generation. They Covered Wicked Game and Rebel Yell as well, it was awesome.
Queens of the Stone Age came on to Finish the Festival -put simply- they really rocked.
Felt fantastic to go away for a long weekend after having had to actually work for the last few weeks. This is going to be a great summer my friends.

Here is Metallica's final encore on Saturday night!!!!
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