Author: Urban Bolta
Photos: Urban Bolta
Location: Sölvesborg / Sweden
Concert date: 09.06.2010
Attendance: 33
Ticket price: 240€ (4-day ticket)
After the opening first day, Sweden Rock Festival started breathing with full lungs on Thursday. An army of new visitors showed up and packed the festival to its sold-out capacity: 33 thousand souls. Despite the seemingly huge number, you have to know that over the course of the day the crowd spreads out across five stages, at least two of which are running at any given time. It’s a neat solution, one that all the massive festivals use of course, and it lets you avoid overcrowding, which only really shows up late in the evening, when the day’s headliners take turns on the two main stages. Of course, more stages also bring a potential headache: two bands you love playing at the same time in different spots. In that case it’s all about weighing up the factors and hoping you make the best call. The second day threw that at us right from the start, with Nazareth and Treat overlapping, and my solution was a compromise.
NAZARETH (Festival stage)
The old guard of Scottish hard rock, Nazareth, had the honor of christening the main, big stage of Sweden Rock, since theirs was the opening set of the 2010 edition. Nazareth are always on the road and play live a lot. Just over a month before Sweden they also played in nearby Graz (report here), but the circumstances of the two shows were completely different. An Orpheum packed to the last corner with their fans is basically a better setting for a great show than a huge open-air stage, right? And that’s exactly the problem that proved a very tough nut to crack for many, if not most, bands. The stage, which was superlative in height, width and depth alike, and on top of that had a roughly 25-meter-long center extension (the so-called “catwalk”), was a real monster and swallowed up more than one band used to smaller club gigs. Then of course there was the problem of the several-meter gap between the stage and the barrier, which prevented a more intimate contact between performer and audience, and a third problem, tied to a band’s popularity and name recognition, was the number of people gathered in front of the stage. Some 2000 fans of the Scottish quartet’s tunes had the same effect in that huge open space as an empty club, so it really wasn’t an easy job for Nazareth.
With the opening “Telegram”, vocalist Dan McCafferty proved he’s one of the very few classic rockers from the seventies who can still handle the vocals with the same intensity as 35 years ago, when Nazareth were at their creative peak. Confident in himself, McCafferty handles even the higher vocal lines with ease, which still makes Nazareth shows appealing after all these years. If the immeasurably more intimate show at the Graz Orpheum managed to hide the problem of excessive stiffness, this time it didn’t. The static performance was the Achilles’ heel of this meeting, and as a result the energy reached the crowd with far less intensity too. Only the hit “Love Hurts” managed to pull the hands out of the average listener’s pockets and shake off the sleepy mood. You can’t blame the quartet for any instrumental slip-ups, as usual they were rock solid. It was simply a lack of desire for a more genuine connection with the audience. For a set lasting an hour and a quarter, the Scots picked a cross-section of their best-known songs and spiced it up with the rocker “The Gathering” from their latest studio album “The Newz” (2008). Halfway through the show, with the great gig in Graz a month earlier on my mind, which I really didn’t want to tarnish any further, I headed off with my buddy Šujo to the other side of the festival grounds, where…
TREAT (Dio stage)
…Treat were already merrily “burning it down”. You could smell from a distance that there was a huge amount of energy in the air and that the show would satisfy even the most critical visitor. By the time we arrived at the “scene of the crime”, the pleasant atmosphere in front of the Dio stage was already nicely warmed up, and it kept building throughout the show. Not even the rain, which was falling slowly but steadily from the sky, managed to cool it down. The Dio stage was the festival’s fourth stage and as such much friendlier for building a bond between audience and performer. Add the poisonously melodic arrows flying off the stage, and a Treat show was doomed to succeed from the start.
Treat are overlooked, or rather never really discovered, representatives of the Swedish melodic hard rock school, who even in the golden age of the genre, the second half of the eighties, lived in the shadow of their famous countrymen Europe. Then came – you know this story well – the rise of grunge, and Treat, like many of their contemporaries, sank into oblivion. They came back with a new album in 2006, and this time they’re hitting their new (old) fans with a brand-new record, Coup de Grace, released this spring. In the spirit of the new record, Treat opened their set with “The War Is Over” and “All in”, and then the following songs started looking back to the eighties as well. The years of individual songs don’t really matter, though, since Treat are still very creatively inspired today, so the show was a strong, cohesive whole the entire time. What a pleasure to listen to the catchy riffs flowing from guitarist Anders Wikström’s fingers, the typically strong and precise bass lines of Nalle Pahlsson in the verses, and the sonic seasoning of Patrick Appelgren’s keyboards, present throughout. The keyboards mostly watch over the songs from the background as an atmospheric addition, but in songs like “Skies Of Mongolia” they take over one of the primary roles and play an important part in building them. The melodic peaks come in the choruses, when lead vocalist Robert Ernlund gets help with backing vocals from the whole band, and the goosebumps are here! Treat delivered a textbook performance, and catching such a live attraction on their home turf turned out to be worth its weight in gold. No doubt one of the best shows of the festival!
Y&T (Sweden stage)
Meanwhile, a stone’s throw away, everything was already set for the show by the American heavy rockers Y&T. The Americans visit the Old Continent practically every year, but you have to keep a close eye on their tour dates, since their tours usually pass without any media dust at all. Quiet and mysterious. That made the sight of the crowd gathered in front of the “Sweden stage” even nicer, as the show drew an enviable number of curious souls. This time Y&T have a devilishly good reason to be out and about: they proudly present the album “Facemelter”, the band’s first studio record in almost a decade and a half. As expected, the setlist, a flyover of their classic albums “Earthshaker”, “Black Tiger” and “Mean Streak”, was freshened up with the new songs “Shine on”, “On with the Show” and “I’m Coming Home”. A somewhat older generation of fans heard the new material for the first time at the gig, but welcomed it with open arms anyway. The peak of the Y&T performance came in the first half of the set with a cover of Dio’s “Rainbow In The Dark”. Dave Maniketti, the band’s leader, made up for the missing signature keyboards by playing the motif on guitar, and the magic of the song, backed by a heavy downpour, created a unique atmosphere. “Now we’re standing here, defying the rain and the cold, for Dio!” was the thought you could feel in the air from everyone present. A few tears of happiness were shed, too! The guitar duo of Meniketti & John Nymann kept the hard-earned atmosphere from the start of the show going in the second half too, and with their heavy rocker stance, hiding a pinch of bluesy dirt, they shrewdly steered the set to its end with the classics “I Believe In You”, “Dirty Girl” and “Forever”. Meeting Y&T face to face lived up to the high expectations: the band is tight and in good live form, and most importantly, they go at it with heart.
PRETTY MAIDS (Festival stage)
The day before the festival began, the organizers announced on their website that American glam rock heavyweights Ratt had canceled their appearance. Our expedition was already on its way north by then, so the news only reached our ears a few hours before the supposed Ratt show. We’d been hoping for one of the most interesting shows of the entire festival, but ended up disappointed without an exclusive gig. After all, you don’t catch Ratt on the Old Continent every day! So the cancellation came right at the last minute. The organizers found a replacement in continental Scandinavia: the very much in-demand Pretty Maids rushed over from Denmark. In May the Danish metallers released the album “Pandemonium” and in the second half of the year they’ll be playing numerous stages, so the Sweden Rock show gave the Danes a dress rehearsal before the launch of their promo tour. With all due respect to the name and work of Pretty Maids, at least as far as the Slovenian crew goes, we still watched the show on stage with long faces.
Compared to their predecessors on the big stage, Nazareth, Pretty Maids came across as far more relaxed and energetic. A friendlier mix certainly helped, the band’s more dynamic sound added its bit, and the lion’s share of the livelier performance came from Ronnie Atkins, a member of the Maids since their beginnings in 1981. Unfazed by the heavy rain, Atkins puffed up and down the “catwalk” and tried to strike some sparks in the sullen crowd. Guitarist Ken Hammer and company faced the tough conditions with as many as four songs from the new album “Pandemonium”, and added a portion of the best-known tunes of older vintage, so “Rodeo”, “Back To Back” and “Future World” were all there. The Danish defenders of melodic metal also dressed up the show visually with plenty of fog and lighting effects. Despite the reliable grip on stage, I didn’t make it to the end of the set, since the weather forced me to flee to base camp, whose main virtue at that moment was a roof, and how welcome it was.
SLAYER (Festival stage)
The elders of the thrash metal scene, Bay Area metal giants Slayer, played the biggest Swedish rock festival for the first time ever, ahead of the Sonisphere festivals across Europe. The scene right before the four came on stage was typical of Slayer shows wherever they play: indescribable crush in the front rows and a fight for every centimeter of space, which can even be dangerous for physically weaker visitors. In that respect, fanaticism of this level is matched only at Iron Maiden concerts.
The album “World Painted Blood”, released in November, finally brought a bit of freshness to the overture of Slayer shows. For almost a whole decade, since the release of “God Hates Us All” (2001) to be exact, Slayer had put the standard opener “Darkness of Christ” on the back burner, and instead kicked things off with the aggressive title track of the current record, which gives a very clear picture of how the next hour and a half would go. The raw riffing, the at times expressive tempo from the jury of Lombardo’s & Araya’s instruments, and the incendiary lyrics fall on fertile ground every time and spark a real war of longhairs in the crowd below. The start belonged to the Slayer of this millennium, as in the first four songs they touched on all three albums of the newer era, up to the first classic, “War Ensemble”. Slayer have been on the scene for almost three decades, and the years bring a slow but steady decline in Tom Araya’s vocal power, as he no longer dares to commit a hundred percent to any of the more demanding “screams”. He surely remembers Munich in 2004 well, when his voice gave out completely early in the show, which back then meant an inglorious early end to the evening. So we can’t blame him too much for a quiet smile instead of the high scream coming out of the “Angel Of Death” intro. The years also brought back problems, so Tom Araya guards the same corner of the stage the whole show, and his stillness means more attention for the guitar duo of King & Hanneman. The legendary pair stay on point with their duties, so in the autumn of the band’s existence there’s at least one positive reason to go see Slayer. The end of the show, as expected, brought classics from the second half of the eighties, though it’s worth noting the surprising omission of the immortal “Dead Skin Mask”, especially given that this very year marks 20 years since the release of “Seasons In The Abyss”, whose tracks Slayer had been working into their live set more actively in the previous months. Slayer shows remain a decent kick, but with a lump in the throat, because the future of Tom Araya’s voice (apparently) holds nothing good at all.
DANZIG (Rock stage)
Evening was getting closer, the sky was darkening (night in the true sense of the word only lasts a few hours at the festival’s latitude) and it was time for dirty, dark, morbid music! At the same time Jorn was playing on the fourth stage, but given the sparser turnout of Old Continent fans at Danzig’s side, I decided to go for a lesson in “bluesy doom metal” instead. And that despite the warnings from friends that Danzig isn’t the most convincing live act.
Danzig is an act with a respectable history. Frontman Glenn Danzig once steered the ship of shock punks Misfits, and then redirected his forces into the band Danzig, which since its debut has been walking its own path through doom waters with a chilling mix of blues and heavy metal. The moment the show began, the stage wrapped itself in mist. In the background loomed a huge curtain with the head of some undefined creature. Pure Danzig style. Guitarist Tommy Victor opened the show with the riff of “SkullCarver”, and right before his vocal duties began, Glenn Danzig came charging onto the stage like an unleashed monster and kicked off the performance. The muscular giant ran up and down the stage and scanned the crowd for his victims with furious eyes. For a moment he reminded me of the blockbuster Hulk, since Glenn plays a character on stage similar to the film hero of that movie. Guitarist Victor and bass player Steve Zing join in the stage act, and with their dynamic playing and constantly swapping positions they fit Danzig’s concept perfectly, especially when Glenn retreats into the background during instrumental parts and the two become the central figures of the action. But of course the music has the final say. Glenn Danzig handles his vocal duties extremely unseriously and keeps repeating a beginner’s mistake: the microphone he’s cradling in his hands keeps changing its distance from his mouth while he sings, which varies the volume of his voice and consequently manages to ruin even such good songs as “Twist Of Chain” or “How The Gods Kill”. Besides the poorly executed vocals, one of the main remarks of the show was also the fact that Danzig’s melancholic, slow doom salvos simply don’t belong at big shows, but in clubs with four small walls, and only there would his music manage to rattle your bones. So the first major minus of the festival goes to Danzig, who didn’t live up to the role of one of the day’s headliners.
AEROSMITH (Festival stage)
Last November the media confusedly reported on quarrels in the ranks of the Boston blues rockers Aerosmith. Every passing day brought a new twist in the Steven Tyler – Aerosmith saga, which fans of the band around the world followed with particular worry. Maybe the disagreements were truly there and the air was charged, maybe it was just an artificially stirred-up rumor. We’ll probably never find out what was really going on back then, and in the end it doesn’t even matter much anymore, because a good half a year later the “Flying Blacksmiths” are sailing around Europe again for the first time in three years. With Steven Tyler in the pilot’s seat, of course. Precisely because of the recent quarrels, all of us there welcomed with open arms one more chance to see the legends of rock ‘n’ roll live.
The festival’s first big highlight began right on the announced time (I stress this because the big stars Guns ‘n’ Roses allowed themselves to be a full 45 minutes late two days later!?). The opening “Love in an Elevator” threw most of the cards the “grandpas” play on the table right from the start. The energetic charmer Steven Tyler, dressed in a thousand colorful rags, proved to be the band’s first violin despite being past sixty. With his trademark antics he still brings tears to the female fans’ eyes and thereby keeps up the hysteria in front of the stage that drives the musicians on. After flirting with the seventies material at the start, it soon came time for the commercially most successful nineties. “Livin’ on the Edge”, “Cryin” and the other evergreen ballads got a roaring response that gave new wings to the pair of roosters, Tyler and guitarist Joe Perry. Perry loves showing off his technical skill, so whenever the spotlights turn to him, he happily stretches out the solos. His star shone brightest with a cover of the Fleetwood Mac standard “Stop Messin’ Around”, when besides guitar he took over the vocals as well and so, near the end of the show, gave the sweating Tyler a moment’s rest. Aerosmith consist of five musicians, but where on earth are the other three? Guitarist Brad Whitford is completely unnoticeable, bassist Tom Hamilton seems to be strumming just for himself, and drummer Joey Kramer, after a boring solo spot, is not exactly worth bragging about either. So the whole show and the point of live performing rests on the shoulders of the aforementioned duo.
Aerosmith are a stadium band with an enormous number of fans, so as expected they felt right at home on the stage in front of a crowd of tens of thousands. After the bold earlier performances by smaller bands on this same stage, it became clear that only the biggest bands “survive” it. The stage only comes alive with an endless sea of people! Put Tyler & Perry on it, who know how to use the crowd’s energy to their advantage, and the dividing line between club/hall bands and stadium bands becomes crystal clear. In just under two hours Aerosmith conjured up some of their best songs from the seventies, but a bitter aftertaste remains, since without the sappy, weepy ballads their image seems unable to hold up. All for the show, you’ll say…
Setlist
11:30 — 12:15 DAMN DELICIOUS (Dio) 12:00 — 13:15 STONE SOUR (Rock) 12:15 — 13:15 DUNDERTAGET (Sweden) 12:30 — 13:00 TRUMCLINIC (Rockklassiker) 13:30 — 14:45 NAZARETH (Festival) 13:45 — 14:45 TREAT (Dio) 15:00 — 16:15 MOTHER’S FINEST (Rock) 15:00 — 16:15 Y&T (Sweden) 15:15 — 16:00 EVERGREY (Rockklassiker) 16:00 — 17:00 DEATH ANGEL (Dio) 16:30 — 18:00 PRETTY MAIDS (Festival) 17:30 — 18:30 BLACKBERRY SMOKE (Dio) 18:15 — 19:45 PENDRAGON (Sweden) 18:15 — 19:45 SABATON (Rock) 18:30 — 19:30 JOHAN EDLUNG (Rockklassiker) 20:00 — 21:30 SLAYER (Festival) 20:15 — 21:30 AMON DÜÜL II (Dio) 21:30 — 22:30 THE QUIREBOYS (Rockklassiker) 21:45 — 23:15 DANZIG (Rock) 21:45 — 23:15 JORN (Sweden) 23:30 — 02:00 AEROSMITH (Festival) 24:00 — 01:30 MAYHEM (Dio) NAZARETH setlist: 1. Telegram 2. Turn On Your Receiver 3. Miss Misery 4. Dream On 5. Bad Bad Boy 6. The Gathering 7. My White Bicycle 8. Shanghai’d In Shanghai 9. Hair Of The Dog 10. Holiday 11. Love Hurts 12. Razamanaz 13. This Flight Tonight TREAT setlist: 1. The War Is Over 2. All In 3. Ready for the Taking 4. Papertiger 5. Changes / Rev It Up / Party All Over / Too Wild 6. We Own The Night 7. Roar 8. Soul Survivor 9. Get You On The Run 10. Conspiracy ———————- 11. Skies Of Mongolia 12. World Of Promises Y&T setlist: 1. Black Tiger 2. On with the Show 3. Lonely Side of Town 4. Rainbow in the Dark 5. Meanstreak 6. Shine on 7. I Believe in You 8. Open Fire 9. Eyes Of A Stranger 10. I’m coming home 11. Dirty Girl 12. Rescue Me 13. Forever PRETTY MAIDS setlist: 1. Pandemonium 2. I.N.V.U. 3. Wake Up To The Real World 4. Little Drops Of Heaven 5. Scream 6. Queen of Dreams 7. Final Day Of Innocence 8. Walk Away 9. We Came To Rock 10. Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi 11. Back To Back 12. Rodeo 13. Please Don’t Leave Me 14. Love Games ——————– 15. Future World 16. Red, Hot And Heavy SLAYER setlist: 1. World Painted Blood 2. Hate Worldwide 3. Cult 4. Disciple 5. War Ensemble 6. Expendable Youth 7. Jihad 8. Beauty Through Order 9 Seasons in the Abyss 10. Hell Awaits 11. Mandatory Suicide 12. Chemical Warfare 13. Raining Blood 14. Aggressive Perfector —————- 15. South of Heaven 16. Silent Scream 17. Angel of Death DANZIG setlist: 1. SkinCarver 2. Twist Of Cain 3. Hammer of the Gods 4. Her Black Wings 5. Tired of Being Alive 6. How The Gods Kill 7. Do You Wear the Mark 8. On a Wicked Night 9. It’s Coming Down 10. Thirteen 11. Bringer Of Death 12. Mother ———————- 13. Long Way Back From Hell AEROSMITH setlist: 1. Love in an Elevator 2. Back in the Saddle 3. Walkin’ the Dog 4. Falling in Love (is Hard on the Knees) 5. Livin’ on the Edge 6. Jaded 7. Kings And Queens 8. Cryin’ 9. Drum Solo 10. Lord Of The Thighs 11. Joe Perry Guitar Battle 12. Stop Messin’ Around 13. I Don’t Want To Miss a Thing 14. Sweet Emotion 15. Baby, Please Don’t Go 16. Draw the Line ————————— 17. Dream On 18. Walk This Way 19. Toys in the Attic
Photo Gallery
