Nova Rock 2009
19th-21st June, Nickelsdorf, Austria
After seeing the lineup for this year's Nova Rock, buying tickets was a no-brainer. Unfortunately the small matter of being made redundant in February put a slight spanner in the works but it wasn't enough to stop us.
We arrived at the campsite on Thursday evening in 27 degree heat and chilled out, watching the people around us struggle with their tents. The next morning it was so unbearably hot that even lying still in the shade was hard work. Minutes felt like hours, but eventually the main arena opened and we headed over to see what was on offer.
The first band we saw was The Temper Trap who were sort of proggy/rock-ish. Not bad but not amazing either, then we wandered over to the blue stage and saw Drumatical Theatre who were nothing short of brilliant. About 17 guys all dressed in black, stood in front of steel drums with fluorescent orange drum sticks, bashing them in perfect rhythm. Somewhat mesmerising to watch.
We stayed at the blue stage for Sonic Syndicate and Caliban who were both pretty forgettable, but then Black Stone Cherry came out and kicked ass for an hour. When I first saw them at the Wedge back in 2007 I was blown away, and they never disappoint. It's so awesome to see a band not only playing great music, but enjoying themselves as well. Disturbed were entertaining as ever, same drill as last year and good fun, just don't take em too seriously (like David Draiman does).
Watched the beginning of Mastodon's set but between them and Faith No More it really was no contest so we went to the red stage to watch Mike Patton in his red suit. Reunited and it feels so good... and it was sooo good. Mike absolutely owned the audience and had everyone enthralled from beginning to end. During Easy some guy climbed onto the stage and sauntered towards Mike, getting halfway across before being manhandled into the wings, causing Mike to go into a fit of hysterics while he was singing. Just when he had managed to compose himself, he'd crack up again, which was hilarious to watch. He ended the song by saying "Anyone else wanna come up here and make a fool outta themselves, besides me? It's totally worth it." And then he and Roddy invited everyone to a "forty thousand on one orgy".
We decided to stay put and miss Slipknot's set in favour of getting a good spot for NIN, because although we're seeing them again in Paris and London in July, the setlists from previous shows have been so dynamic, I didn't want to miss a minute of it. The show was fantastic, I was incredibly impressed with the current lineup- Robin absolutely kills it (sorry Aaron!), Ilan was brilliant, he's obviously no Freesebot but he's damn good for such a youngster, and even though JMJ is a scary Scientologist, he's a bloody good bassist. The set was great, nothing particularly unexpected was played (I'm still waiting to hear I'm Afraid Of Americans) but what they did play was fantastic. Trent said that they would be "going away for a long time" but no one seemed to understand what he meant. Oh well, their loss.
All afternoon the organisers had been warning us that a storm was approaching, but the weather remained really nice until about halfway through NIN's set when the rain started. Then during The Hand That Feeds the heavens opened and it became torrential. So much so that during Head Like A Hole (the last song of the set) the power cut out before the first chorus and that was the end of that. We hung around for a few minutes in case they came back to finish, but in situations like that it's safer for them to GTFO in case it turns ugly.
The rain was so heavy, and the ground became so flooded, that we opted to listen to Metallica from the dryness of our tent. Yeah, we're wusses, wanna make something of it? The raindrops on the tarpaulin over our tent tried their best to drown out Hetfield and friends, but to no avail. It sounded like a really good set, they played a nice mix of new and old stuff, it's just a shame I didn't get to see Trujillo rocking out.
Saturday was a washout, it rained until about 3pm and turned the place into a quagmire. We attempted to waterproof ourselves with bin bags, but they weren't strong enough so I found a beach ball and made a sock out of it for my right foot, and used the cover from our water carrier for my left foot. It's a classy look, trust me.
We carefully trudged our way to the arena to watch Staind who were ok, but Chris Cornell was on afterwards, and it was him who we were there to see. His set was a cross between fucking awful, and brilliant. The stuff he did from Scream was offensively bad, but the rest of the set was fantastic, even the security dude in front of us was rocking out to the Soundgarden songs. During the beginning of the set, someone threw something on the stage (it didn't even hit anyone) so Chris stuck his tongue out at the person who threw it. Seriously Chris, what are you, four? Even his wife looked embarrassed and she must be used to it.
Chickenfoot was next, and to be honest, I expected something better from them. They were good, but bearing in mind the credentials of this group, "good" really isn't enough. It was Mike's birthday apparently and Sammy asked him what he wanted to hear so he said "I wanna hear the first song you ever wrote". No you don't. You want to hear Jump just like everyone else. Sure it's a DLR song, but come on! I didn't ruin my knees trudging through shin-deep mud just to watch Sammy Hagar try to be Jon Bon Jovi. So after that, we went back to the other stage to watch Kaiser Chiefs who, as always, were very good. I've seen them at three festivals now, and they always get a good reaction, even from the heaviest of metal fans.
We hung around for the first half of Placebo's set, but I had pulled muscles in my legs and my stomach from trudging through the swamp all day, so we caught the rest of the set from our tent. I know, I know, but I'm not 16 anymore, I'm getting on a bit.
The ground had dried out significantly on Sunday, with the exception of the black lagoon by the toilets. The first band we saw was Duff McKagan's Loaded who were good fun, but on what they thought was their last song, Duff looked over at their roadie who held up his hands and mouthed "fifteen minutes left!" to which Duff looked shocked and replied "FIFTEEN??". They filled in the rest of the time with a cover of I Wanna Be Your Dog and surprise surprise, some Guns n Roses tracks. No ChiDem songs though... funny that. That roadie was quite entertaining actually- he threw out a bottle of water and a pack of fags to a kid in the front row, and then when Duff pretended to leave the stage early, he chased him back to his microphone.
Couldn't face watching Less Than Jake so we went to the other stage and sat at the back watching Sevendust. How many times can a guy ask god to bless the crowd, and ask them all to "be safe"? "We are so grateful to be here right now, thank you so much for letting us play in your beautiful country". Er, the audience don't get to pick the bands. If that was the case Trivium sure as shit wouldn't have been on the bill.
Static X were up next, and as I only know one of their songs (Cold) I wasn't too excited. Not as excited as the guys in the audience were when they got some skank to dance topless on stage during their set. Top marks for originality there, Wayne Static, so you married a porn star, who hasn't? Doesn't mean you have to put her in your band. Mind you, as every song sounds exactly the fucking same, it was probably the only thing keeping the crowd there.
After that, we headed back to the tent so I could fetch my red baseball cap in preparation for Limp Fucking Bizkit. Now apparently people in Austria take them a tad more seriously than us Brits, as it was easily one of the biggest crowds of the festival. Everyone went apeshit when they hit the stage- forget Faith No More, this was the reunion of the decade. And I'll admit, they were very entertaining. Wes has podged out a tad in recent years, and for some inexplicable reason has dumped the skeleton costume in favour of painting himself like Vulva from episode 3 of Spaced. I only know a handful of songs (thanks to Kerrang's heavy rotation) and they played them all, including their cover of Faith.
During Take A Look Around Fred sat on the edge of the stage and asked everyone to sit down with him, and about 95% of the audience did, which was mightily impressive, I don't think even Slipknot were that successful when we saw them at Brixton last year. Then as the song launched back into life, everyone leapt to their feet and went mental, it was an incredible atmosphere, that much I will admit.
So following that, we caught a bit of MachineHead and then retired early, avoiding all the Die Toten Hosen fans.
We timed our departure pretty much perfectly, getting to Vienna airport just as check-in opened. Wandered round all the posh shops, stinking to high heaven. How many Swarovski outlets does one airport need? We stank the plane out, and then when we got to Gatwick we stank the train out, and finally got home before 8pm.
And if you read all of that, you deserve to be sectioned.