Uploaded to Aural Innovations: September 2003
I showed up to the rehearsal room about 11. Kai, Suzanne and Jesper were drinking coffee and smoking. Tommy showed up 20 minutes later followed by Thomas and then Stefan. We packed up the stuff into Kai's friends van and Jesper, Tommy and I went in Suzanne's car. She drove. We listened to Boogieman on the way to Helsingor.
Everyone was in a great mood and drinking beers. It takes 30 minutes to get to the ferry to go to Sweden. We buy two cases of beer (Ceres and Heineken) and I eat some food. We stop a lot. Two times in the first 40 minutes so people can pee and smoke! Thomas rolls a big joint at the rest stop. We have been listening to Sunride, Awesome Machine and the new Hidden Hand CD to get into the mood for tonight.
What a slow trip. We stop all the time to eat, smoke, pee, etc. It is now 16:15 and we have 15km to go. The first band is to start playing in less than 3 hours. We hit the afternoon traffic and it takes another 45 minutes to get to the venue. More than 4 hrs to go 250km!
We chat with the Boogieman guys when we get there. Terrafirma are doing a soundcheck as they are the last band to play. The sound was great and Terrafirma sounded very cool. We meet up with Peter Hogfeldt, the organizer and he is in good spirits and appears very well organized (wristbands and laminated passes for the bands, etc) but stressed out. There were very few presale tickets but hopes were high for a good crowd. I met some Germans who drove up for the event. Deadbeat Moses, who was to be the first band, had to cancel due to the death of the mother of one of the members. Pilotos was the first band and they started at 7:45. It was to start at 7 but they were waiting and hoping for more people as there were only about 50 people now. The band plays a style of hard hitting riff rock. At least they don't sound like Kyuss! Decent songs but nothing that really grabbed me. Only about 35 people saw Pilotos.
Boogieman (www.boogieman.nu) hit the stage soon after and the singer (Helvis) was a mad man. A great front man. They played all songs from their new CD, Triple Six Blues. They opened with "In Hell" and now about 50 people were rocking out. "December" was next. The band replicated their sound from the CD quite well. "Drown" has quite a good riff and is their more commercial, heavy Status Quo foot stomper. "14 Pictures" was next. Great lyrics. Another foot stomper but not very impressive song was "Satisfaction". They ended their set with "Red Sleeve (C'mon)". They did not play my favourite song off the CD, "Infinity"! Damn... Not a bad set but only 32 minutes!
Set List: In Hell, December, Drown, 14 Pictures, Satisfaction, Red Sleeve (CÆmon)
Mothercake (www.stonerrock.com/mothercake) hit the stage and now maybe 75 people were checking out the band. I missed part of the first song as I was talking to people at the Gas Giant merchandise table. This was a classic 4 piece band like the mid 70's Thin Lizzy, with dual Les Paul lead guitars, bass and drums. The band played 8 songs and was the best band of the day so far. They have just released a self titled vinyl LP. I liked the use of the harmony guitars. Some of the songs were very influenced by the NWOBHM. Quite a surprise for me!
Next up was Gas Giant. A fan from Germany (Henrik) had made some cool pins for the band and was really excited to see Gas Giant. The band needed about 30 minutes to get set up. The band had been drinking, smoking and eating all day and were in really HIGH spirits. The band opened with "Electric Mana". This is the first time the band had ever played this at a proper gig before and it sounded really great and spaced out. "Dragons Cave" was next and the band was really sounding great and flying. The sound was much louder than the other bands and Jesper and the guys sounded great. Now a crowd of maybe 90 people was watching the band. "Green Valley" was next and this was really excellent and a cool jam and very nice guitar from Stefan. "There's One" had the place really rocking'! The crowd were really surprised and this was the best crowd response so far. They had for sure never heard anything like Gas Giant! A slightly extended "Moonshake" was next. Heavy stuff. "Never Leave This Way" was next and this had a really cool groovy conga drum jam at the end, going for 18 minutes! The band ended the set with an incredible version of "Back On The Headless Track". They had "Too Stoned" and "Firetripper" left on the set but were told there was no time left. Damn... A really smoking concert!
Set List: Mana, Dragons Cave, Green Valley, ThereÆs One, Moonshake, Never Leave this Way>Jam, Back on the Headless Track
Next up was Terrafirma and a lot of people were pretty drunk and high by this time, including the band. The guitar player was really drunk. Really nice guys in this band. I had a long chat with the singer who has sung with Count Raven, St. Vitus, Psuedo Sun and now Terrafrima. Nice person. The band hit the stage around 1 in the morning and started with a little jam and then went into the first song. They have a cool Sabbathy like groove but damn their sound was really off. The guitar player was too drunk to play and was always off a bit. There was a hardcore group of fans in the front, including my friend Gabriel Lillehook, who was really into it. It was sad to see and it turns out this was the last ever show as the band have now split.
A really nice night of music but a real disappointment to see only like 50 paid people for such a cool event. I wish I could have stayed for the next day to see The Awesome Machine (who were to film a DVD), Sunride, Blind Dog (who I heard stole the show!), Greenleaf and the Goddamned.
The web site for the festival is at: http://www.fuzzrock.com/FuzzFest.
