Rock Wercher 2005
Back from Werchter in one way of the other. Had some allergy problems in the end but overall it was quite ok, altho I only watched a selection of the available bands. Thursday started of with New Order (thats Joy Division minus one suicidal member), who set the tone of their show by opening with “The last time we stood here Boy George was number 1 with ‘Karma Chameleon’” as a welcome line. Not sticking to just a greatest hits set material from the last albums was played as well.
Nevertheless the floorfillers of the 80’s were present as well at then end - so no need to panic. Next for thursday was Kraftwerk… Let me repeat that KRAFTWERK KRAFTWERK KRAFTWERK… The godfathers of electronic music, robots, german highways and french cycling. I have no other words to describe their set as fucking memorable. These guys usually dont move a finger on stage but here they were jamming and shakeing along to the crowd, that totally got ‘Zee Geermanz’ by surpise when the chorus for ‘The Model’ was screamed along. Never saw this Watskbeurt look on their faces, and probably never will again. And yes people cheer and shout for 4 automatons moving to an MP3 during ‘The Robots’ but who cares. Also giving lots of songs from their latest Tour De France Soundtrack album this was not a historical look back over 30 years but a message of what was coming. While walking back to our tent in the rain the Chemical Brothers started on the main stage - it shows how things can be different.. They have to get the audiance by using huge lightshows, fireworks, video’s and whatnot. Krafterk does it with 4 quasi non moving guys behind a laptop. Look and learn, o Chemical Brothers.
From the 2nd day (friday) I have to remember Green Day the most. Fucking great show, fucking hard and fucking entertaining. I may not know all their songs but it all sounded good, loud and was all presented by a charismatic lead singer - who’s only downside was that he sometimes went too much crowd entertaining but hey, if you’re in the moment you might as well enjoy it. After Green Day it was Faithless’ turn. Well I didnt watch it.. Nothing could top Green Day and it would just be the same stuff all over again with all the singles and hits with a huge show around it. Let me refer back to the Kraftwerk vs Chemical Broters note here.
On to saturday. Started very hard with Therapy who had a magnificent show plaing stuff from all their best albums. Very happy to see that during the signing session at the Humo stand a lot of young kinds were lined up - so we should see some more from these guys. Basically the wait then started for Rammstein to close the evening. Before that I checked out Audioslave wich totally is not my cup of tea.. Sorry. But we were here for more Germans ! I’ve seen the guys from Rammstein on 2 previous occasions and well, this was the least impressive show. If you were not used to their things it may have looked impressive but they can do better and louder… Oh and with more pyrotechnics. Nevertheless the show was complete with all the usual stuff you can expect from them so no complaints there.. Just a bit more next time please.
And day four ? Totally missed it.. Had some kind of allergic reaction to who-knows-what and had to go home, so nothing to report except that I slept very well ;-)
July 5, 2005 1:00 am 
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