This has been a hot summer and it’s not going to end too soon. But beyond this, it has been a rather energetic summer mostly due to the concerts I got (and will get to) see. I’m quite an avid concert-goer for many reasons among which I can mention the spirit of the music being played while seeing the expression on a musician’s face while he’s playing, their general spirit and the overall feeling of thousand of watt-worth of sound power. Still, not every experience is a good one and as maniacal concert fan, I do have expectations which are closely related to a band pretends to be and what they actually are on stage.

Before beginning to describe my concert experiences, I would like to make a disclaimer. It seems that quite a few people can’t make the difference  between appreciating the musical style of a band and appreciating a stage performance. If I like a band live doesn’t automatically mean that I like the band itself, their music or anything like that. It just means that I like their stage performance. There are quite a few bands which I would go to see live just for the show, even though I don’t necessarely taste their music (surely enough, there’s a thing difference between “don’t like” and “hate – I would never go to see an artist I really hate, the others are split between enjoyable stage performance and … lack of care). So, dear readers, the following words of appreciation are not related to the musical talent or my liking or disliking of a band – these words refer only to my appreciation of a stage performance (unless specifically mentioning otherwise).

Now with that being said … let’s begin, shall we? My first stop (should say our, I know, but this is strictly a personal point of view – still “our” applies for every destination) was at Rockmaraton festival.

I’m not sure why most festivals around here are called “Rock” festivals, even though most bands clearly represent one or another metal genre. Still, there we were, at this rather strange festival. Small festival, rather poorly organized, terrible heat which kept the public away from the stage, all bad ingredients.

The main event was the finnish band Moonsorrow, a band which isn’t quite close to my heart style-wise yet on stage their performed quite decently with a fair amount of interaction, but nothing really out of the ordinary. The sound setting was extremely poor, a lot of distortion, but despite this the fans were quite extatic. A little surprise came however from another band, the opener for Monssorrow: the heavy-metal band October, a hungarian band of little renown, with only one album out but full of spirit. They made a nice show and the fact that there were only about 6 or 7 active spectators didn’t prevent the band leader from expressing himself very vigorously and trying to interact with the rather non-existent public. It was a pity, they deserved better, but … that was it.

The second stop came at Sibiu, for the Artmania festival. To me Artmania is quite the pinnacle of festival-making as they’ve always managed to keep it simple and having an accent on that which matters most: the music and access. Simple wristbands, good sounds and a climatized tent were this year’s theme. Having the festival in an air-conditioned tent was a good idea as it kept people from the unpleasantries of rain (although some would have wished for a little rain later in the show) and extreme heat.

The first day’s bands came out to perform in an extremely well-chosen order, all except the first as the doom(?) metal band of Frozen Dusk seemed a poor choice to open the festival with given that none of the later bands were in sync with them. Bucium sounded very well in their original blend of folklore elements with heavy sounds, deep voice and even fantasy, however their presence on stage was a bit dry and a bit shy. Their communication with the public was almost absent, probably taken aback by the lack of spectators, which still gathered for the second part of their show (which was also more animated on the violin side).

Agua de Annique exploded on the scene, as Anneke is very adept at showmanship and managed to stir the crowd from the very few seconds, her energetic presence (familiar in Sibiu since last year’s The Gathering show) bringing out the best in the crowd who kept their hands up throught the second part of her show. A good job indeed for Anneke, despite an awkward sound. Tiamat came in after that, in a great choice of order, as the warmed up public was kept in the plug by the swedish singers, who entertained the public to the maximum and keeping their hands in the air. They returned to the stage twice, despite some obvious efforts from the organizers to silence them as the crowd asked for more and they didn’t want to go without playing their “Gaia” masterpiece.

Certainly Anneke and Tiamat held the night in their hands, even after Lacrimosa took the stage. Lacrimosa has always been a musical puzzle. Certainly their atmosphere is a dark one and as Tilo Wolff mentioned once, is deeply rooted in the goth subculture, yet the music itself borrows from a variety of styles. Doom, gothic, symphonic, heavy, all influences can be felt on their albums throughout the time, which is probably why Lacrimosa makes the trends instead of following them, being very influential not only on the metal stage but also across musical realms (as some member of the London Orchestra cited Lacrimosa as an influence, for example). But, on stage, they are a very dry presence. Tilo rarely communicates with the public and only the fans shyly tried to unleash themselves on “Alleine Zu Zweit” or “Copycat”, but largely the public was turned to ice after being melted under Anneke and Tiamat. Quite poor showmanship from Tile & Anne and Tilo’s weird stage moves, not always fitting the music, definitely didn’t help.

Unfortunately, that was it for our part in Artmania as not even the next day’s lineup (much better planned than the first) could keep us awake wandering the streets of Sibiu, so around morning we surrendered and went back home. However, we did use the rest wisely and next week we embarked for the Felsziget festival, which brought us Avantasia, one of the best names in power metal.

The festival itself remained largely unimpressive, an impression which is largely due to the festival’s decadence from previous years. Poor organization and unfriendly weather shoved this festival away from its claim of being the sister of Budapest’s Sziget.

For us, the stage was opened by Altar, whose Andy Ghost is definitely a master of showmanship. His energetic figure manage to bring the best out of the small crowd gathered to greet him. Constatly moving around, his acid songs with powerful political and social messages hit the right spot and ignited great public reactions. He was quickly followed by a band of good reputation on the gothic scene, Epica. A decent orchestration and good communication from both Simone Simons and Mark Jansen with the public went a long way to cover the shortcomings in instrumentation and general sound. The combination of “screaming” sounds from the band’s main vocal (Jansen) and the melodic voice of Simone proved a bit strange and hard to swallow for those not already in the fan roster but this “doomish” style was just the thing for a lively warm-up.

However the party was broken by a great display of stupidity by the organizers who threw in the punk band Tankcsapda, a move which quickly dispersed the goth crowd to make way for the hungarian punkers who unleashed themselves in the mud. Surely, hearing a lot about sex & drugs isn’t the best way to end a fantasy-themed show nor to start a fantasy-themed show, not to mention that Epica’s Jansen was fermly convinced his band was opening for Tobias Sammet’s Avantasia (something he mentioned twice during his show). The organizer’s stupidity led to two shifts in the fan-base gathered in front of the scene, which in turn led to an even thinner crowd for Tobi, who had a hard time bringing the public up to speed with his music.

Avantasia’s show was full of life, full of spirit and each of the singers present there (including Amanda Sommerville who also did a number earlier with Epica) exploded on the scene in a beautiful display of sounds and color. The show was slightly marred (however) by Tobi’s language later in the show (probably upset at the public’s stiffness … thanks again to the organizers). I’m quite sure that a load of “fuck” and “crap” and showing of the finger isn’t exactly what one expects from a fantasy world.  Also, the late hour and a full day dimmed the end of their performance. I was also surprised to see how few of the people gathered there were actually familiar with Avantasia and their songs, but I guess that’s to be expected when living in the shadow of a name like Edguy.

What’s next? Iron Maiden, of course!!

Grades so far?

October -> 8  * good show there, should be 7 due to organization  but I give an 8 for great spirit despite the odds (small crowd).

Moonsorrow -> 6 * poor interaction, very poor sound, but good spirit and they came around near the end.

Bucium -> 6 * same as Moonsorrow, but benefitting from better sound

Agua de Annique -> 9 * their style might be old, dated and even boring but with Anneke’s presence on stage, even pebbles could grow hands and applaude.

Tiamat -> 9 * could be down to 8, but that would be the organizer’s fault who tried to silence them. These guys can really rock live and keep people’s hands up. Great spirit and energy.

Lacrimosa -> 5 * an almost failing grade for Lacrimosa. They basically just sit there, Tilo’s involvment was poor, I could give a 6 for his moves but I won’t. This is Lacrimosa and I want better from them.

Altar -> 9 * just like Anneke, Andy could make the dust jump and cheer.

Epica -> 7 * good show,  good interaction and involvment, but could do better style-wise. Having Simone in tight leather pants just isn’t the pinch of magic I expect.

Tankcsapda -> 5 * maybe I’m just frustrated at the organizers, but Tankcsapda didn’t do much either, except for describing the next song.

Avantasia -> 8 * should be 9, but Tobi should really revise his attitude in the effort of involving the public. Swearing at some random tent in the festival really doesn’t make up for people not knowing his lyrics. Just as in Lacrimosa’s case, when there’s amazing music I expect amazing attitude.