### Wacken Open Air 2010, Germany: Day 1

#### 03/09/10 || Altmer

Who: A fuckload of bands. Where: Wacken, Germany. When: August 5, 2010.

After a grueling journey the day before to arrive almost at the stroke of midnight, and getting lost upon the humongous grounds of the festival once (Wacken and signing their campspots? Fuck no!), my tired ass self woke up early, only to find that… bands don’t play early on the first day at Wacken. Fuck. Time to explore the campsite and go shopping for all the ladies in the group, and for me… time to be bored.

However, we did go to see the secret show, and consequently saw Apocalyptica playing on the top of a very tiny bus. Extremely entertaining shit, as Apocalyptica are a classy live band whose unique music (cello metal) translates well to the live situation, both on bigger and smaller stages. I missed the first three or four songs or so, but no matter as I fully enjoyed the rest, and I would definitely go see them again on a bigger stage. Having seen them once already, two and a half years ago it was nice to revisit them again, and I’m sure I will come back to them in the future. An excellent teaser. 8

Wherever I May Roam End Of Me Refuse/Resist Helden I Don’t Care Sacra Bittersweet Fight Fire With Fire Hall of the Mountain King —————- Master of Puppets

(Yes, those songs are covers, some of them at least).

When more interesting music finally started, it was eight o’clock or so, and we went to see Ghost Brigade, but after one or two songs decided that it was boring and so, they enter this shit unrated. Not by choice, but more by pure necessity, while we were waiting at the merch stand, we then had to endure Mötley Crüe. You want to know my opinion of Mötley Crüe? Fuck OFF AND DIE. I fucken hate glam metal. I fucken hate anything that even sounds close to it. The horrible stage outfits, the sleazy lyrics, the bad hairdos, everything about it needs to die in a horrible vat of maggots, acid, and electric shocks. That shit is god-fucken awful and just absolutely painful to listen to. Please, never again. No rating since even below zero wouldn’t do this bullshit justice.

By the end of that, it was time for Iron Maiden, pretty much. By the way, this coverage of Maiden will be a bit shorter than usual, because we’ve had a overload of Maiden witnessed reviews, so I’ll keep it short to cover other stuff as well. This is a gig I have been looking forward to for a long time. In my years of gig-going (the past three, I think), I have always missed out on Iron Maiden, and thus my anticipation was high for this gig. Back when I was younger, I was a big Maiden fan (who isn’t), but as the years wore on, I kinda lost contact with their material. I still listen to them occasionally, but they aren’t a fave band like they used to be. But in the interest of hearing some of my old heroes play: I went to see them, and I cannot say that I was disappointed at all. In fact, Iron Maiden still put on one of the best live shows at this point, and the band is how old? 50? 55? 60? Man, those guys could probably come on stage in wheelchairs and rock harder than you. Bruce sounds absolutely fantastic still.

The other thing about Maiden is that their stage show is absolutely fantastic, with the guitar player battling Giant Eddie, and the backdrop of stars and various album covers, as well as the amazing SF-themed props. It’s eye candy, not just ear candy, and that’s saying something. Maiden’s shows are very well rehearsed, dressed up, and organized, and it’s no wonder that they, after thirty years, are still on top of the earth after that long of a career. I am glad I still got to see the legends before they retire. The setlist was also what I’d hoped for, since they played quite a bit of new material, a lot of which I happen to enjoy, such as “These Colours Don’t Run”, “No More Lies”, and “Ghost of the Navigator”, as well as some golden oldies. Overall, Maiden score a 8 and that’s no exaggeration. Excellent.

Setlist is as follows:

The Wicker Man Ghost Of The Navigator Wrathchild El Dorado Dance Of Death The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg These Colours Don’t Run Blood Brothers Wildest Dreams No More Lies Brave New World Fear Of The Dark Iron Maiden —————— The Number of the Beast Hallowed Be Thy Name Running Free

After that, we ran to catch the last fifteen minutes of Gojira. The lament went ‘round these parts that my girlfriend would rather have missed some of Maiden to see all of Gojira, but that would mean missing Maiden’s best songs, so we stayed, and besides, we’ve seen these guys before.

But we can still consider it a mistake since the fifteen minutes and three or so songs that we got blew our heads clean off. Gojira just absolutely slay live. And by slay I mean pillage, burn, and rape my neck muscles. It was like this the previous time I saw them (for the whole of the set that time) and that time (Graspop 2009), they absolutely fucken tore the whole place down. It was no different today, and the fifteen minutes that we got to see were only a teaser for the whole gig. A band I will always go and see again live if I get the chance and for good reason: they can absolutely vie with Maiden, Metallica, Rammstein, and all the other greats for live shows. They absolutely kill. They were better than Maiden in the fifteen minutes I saw. And that’s an achievement. I know they played “The Art of Dying”, Toxic Garbage Island” and “Vacuity” for sure. And I saw a drum solo. The rest I don’t know as I missed it. Grade: 10. You can imagine how godly they are then live. Go see them if you get the chance. You won’t regret it.

Out of this we can determine that despite Mötley Crüe, the first day was a grand success with many good bands and good sets. Stay tuned for days two and three, including Arch Enemy, Slayer, Candlemass, Tiamat, Amorphis and more!