Welcome

Live Report Raismesfest 2008

Festival : Raismesfest 2008 City : Raismes (France) Date : 2008-09-13/14 Raismesfest 2008 ! On Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th of September, a small town in the North of France hosted the 10th edition of the Raismesfest. This human sized festival took place in the courtyard of the « Château de la Princesse » (Princesses Castle) in Raismes in which mostly heavy metal bands were programmed. However, the diversity of the overall program managed to please all the metalheads that were there. To be perfectly honest, I am not a huge heavy metal fan, and I actually went to go and see those other bands, such as Die Apokalyptischen Reiter and Korpiklaani. But, as my aim is for you to live this small northern festival through, I’ll try and be the most objective possible. Mean Streak : cult album of Y&T ! Here is a long awaited concert. Indeed the Californian hard rock band has not played in France since 1983 as a support band of Ozzy Osbourne. It's cold and the rain stops when the intro of Forever starts. The first piece is Hurricane, then Black Tiger, Dirty Girls or Midnight In Tokyo, only hits ! The Fly Away track is one the latest ones, it was released in 1995 and is close from Deep Purple style. "Time has come for Mean Streak", says Dave Meniketti, and so the sound of his Gibson rings out. Here it is ! The choice of the instrumental I'll Cry For You is quite relevant : it is magnificient. Dave Meniketti makes his guitar cry out with such perfection. It should be said that the Yesterday and Today aren't not beginners. Formed in 1994, this band has influenced the biggest artists of hard rock and sold more than 4 millions albums all over the world, there's only one word for that : respect ! With Pretty Prison, the Raismes Fest audience can attend to a quite impressive drum solo ofMike Vanderhule. A real technical demonstration. The show ends with Forever, they've come full circle. All the Y&T styles of their repertoire have been explored tonight, it went from the punchy and sophisticated hard rock, to wonderful ballads, to blues that give quivers like the track I'll cry for you or to more hard fm oriented songs. Saxon on stage : a real pleasure ! Here we go to the very last concert of this first day of Raismes Fest festival 2008. After a very good show of Y&T we are ready and wait for Saxon who is always on stage even after more that 20 years. There is no more rain but the cold is keeping up. Frozen feet in a field of mud, we expect on that show to warm up. It's 23h30 when the first notes resound. The track Attila The Hun from the latest album opens this live. Something strike us : Biff did not wear his same old long leather coat, but it did not prevent him from having fun with the audience, as usual. The Raismes Fest public attends a classical show with a whole string of hits, those which have won the living myth of Saxon. Among these ones we can pick out Motorcycle Man, 747(Stranger in the Night) or Prince Of the Night. Saxon do not forget about the latest album with tracks such as Attila the Hun or I Gotta Rock To Stay Alive. While Biff is having fun with the crowd on Wheels Of Steel, Paul Quinn breaks a string of its guitar but it doesn't remove from the quality of this title. 00h15 : the show ends with Denim and Leather and Biff makes an announcement about the new album in January 2009 To sum up things it was a good show but without any real surprise, we're under the impression of seeing a good movie but it always stay the same. Anyway, the sound was good and unlike to Y&T, it was quite powerful ! We also have to notice the very good organisation, it is quite rare to be told. Seriously speaking it can happen sometimes that... Setlist : - Attila The Hum - Motorcycle Man - Let Me Feel Your Power - 747 (Strangers In The Night) - To Hell And Back Again - Strong Arm Of The Law - Heavy Metal Thunder - Dogs Of War - I Gotta Rock To Stay Alive - Witch Finder General - Princess Of The Night - Rappel - Wheels Of Steel - Crusader - Denim & Leather Live Report et Photos : Emilie et Eric One of the highlights of this festival was undoubtedly (and very objectively) Die Apokalyptischen Reiter on the main stage. The band is one of the most spectacular metal bands in Germany and plays very unique and personal style of music, but is sadly relatively unknown to the French public. Fuchs (vocals) of Die Apocalyptischen Reiter ! Fuchs, the singer, arrived on stage with a huge smile, happy to be there. He talked a lot to the public, but the public didn’t respond (because they didn’t understand?). Anyway, the music and the energy of the band was enough to persuade and convert the audience to the “Reitermania” by playing their biggest and grooviest hits such as “Riders on the Storm”, “Reitermaniacs” and “Revolution”. The singer jumped, climbed up the loudspeakers and played with the audience with his friend Dr.Pest, the keyboard player, who was as usual wearing some sort of sadomasochist outfit and played around with his whip. Besides their rousting music, the proximity with the fans goes further. Indeed, during the concert, Fuchs invited some people on stage with him… to then let them get tied up by Dr.Pest next to his keyboard. Further again, the concert ends with a raft race over the audience in the middle of a foam fun, turning the concert into a big party. The festivals audience was won over… And no doubt the Reitermania will touch France even deeper with the launch of “Licht”, the band’s latest album. Würm live ! Once everyone got over this last concert (and the foam got washed off), one could hear some slight electro sounds coming from the discovery stage that were then rejoined by some real masculine guitar sounds as I like them. Intrigued, I go over to the stage and discover Würm. This French band is one of the best surprises of the day as their music is unique and asserted. Sadly for them, only about 50 people were there to support them but that didn’t stop them possessing the whole stage. If one had really to categorise them, we would compare them to some sort of Deftones/Black Bomb A hybrid. Soul Doctor : a great live ! Back on the main stage, the presenter announced one of his big favorites of the festival: Soul Doctor. The signer, Tommy Heart was crowned best heavy metal signer by Blast magazine some earlier year. Mister Heart came on stage with a bright smile and a brushing about as shiny as his tight leather pants. Objectively, the band did a good show and the (few) spectators seemed to like it. After asking a few of the amateur (I am a heavy metal newbie), they told me that Soul Doctor was an AC/DCish rock band. Subjectively, I didn’t really like it and I didn’t linger. However, I do salute their energy on stage and the motivation that was required in front of an averagely receptive audience. Amartia : a very cool band ! Amartia then played on the discovery stage for about half an hour and was the second and last female fronted act of the festival. With an already asserted reputation in the North of France, the band is going to release their new album at the end of the year. Musically, Amartia is a female fronted metal band with progressive touches, bringing a very personal style to the band that is lead with the singer’s majestic voice. However… The singer’s gimmicks are so annoying that actually following their concert becomes some sort of exploit. Belgium was here ! Belgium was represented with Machiavel. One must however say that the band members are not that overall fresh as the band was founded in 1976. However, despite the fact that I am not usually a huge fan of poppy Hard Rock, I actually quite liked what they did and they were up to their reputation (well, they did get 4 gold CDs during their whole carrier). Their music is good, even though a bit repetitive on the long term, making the whole gig quite painful for the non-fans. Korpiklaani : a very good show ! Raismesfest’s audience seemed to have woken up after the end of Machiavel’s set to start and congregate by the barriers to wait for the Finnish folk-metal band Korpiklaani. While waiting for the band, some sort of Finnish fever seemed to have possessed the festival, people were disguised, made-up and sang some of the band’s song such as the famous “Beer Beer”. When the band finally gets on the stage, the barriers started to shake as the audience started to move. The band was happy to be there and it showed: they spent their time smiling and thanking the fans for being there. After a few songs, the audience was still moving, but there wasn’t any mosh, they were dancing arm in arm to the bands melodies. A real party ! It was actually much more than a show, Korpiklaani offered us a real Finnish party. After the show was finished, to prolong the party, the band went to their merchandising stand to go and sign some autographs. Bad idea, the queue soon became extremely long and the fans hogged the band for over an hour! Winterland : a good surprise ! Winterland is a French band that closed the sets on the discovery stage and that has an enormous potential, one may consider them as the French inheritors of Sonata Arctica. Their onstage complicity gives them a unique energy despite the abandoning of this second stage, surely because Korpiklaani’s signing session at the same time. Uli Jon Roth on stage. Once a big screen was put up next to the main stage, it was announced that this next show was to be something spectacular, a « mix between Beethoven and heavy metal » as they said, some sort of messiah: Uli Jon Roth, ex-Scorpions guitarist. And I must say: they were right. The show was surprising, a good surprise that is for this metal grand-father. On stage that night, they played for the first time most of the songs of his latest baby: “Under a Dark Sky”, part of his “Sky of Avalon” musical concept that started in 1995. He was joined on stage by two other guitarists and two other singers who both mixed heavy and classical singing. Anyway, Uli Jon Roth and his friends managed to take us on a faraway trip for over an hour, showing us without doubt the extent of his musical talents… How come I had never heard of this musical project before…? Gamma Ray : a very good show ! Once the night was totally down on Raismes, it started getting really cold. People were getting closer and closer to the stage barriers to wait for today’s headliner: Gamma Ray. After a long half-hour wait, the band comes at last on stage under the screams of the audience under a curl of smoke and blue/orange lights. Kai Hansen arrives on stage relaxed, chewing on his gum. And there, a storm of melodic heavy metal surged over the festival. Granddad Kai is in shape, the rhythms are heavy and powerfull, it is without doubt a great musical moment. The sound is good (better than for the other concerts), even if sometimes the singers particular voice isn’t very clear. Some of the titles of the new album (Land Of The Free part II) were played such as the title « Empress » which was sang along by the whole audience and Kai Hansen often joined in and played with them like on the title “Heavy Metal Universe”. The band was happy to be there, and they found it amazing to find so many fans « in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere » ! It is finally after over an hour and a half that the German band beautifully closes this 10th anniversary of the Raismesfestival. Raismesfest 2008 : a great fest ! What about an overall impression? An amazingly well organized festival, even if I must admit that I find the choice of bands a little inferior to the prior years. Also, the sound wasn’t always good, especially for the afternoon concerts on the main stage. However, the Raismesfest is an amazing but human sized festival. Yes, I will go back next year (if of course they don’t program too many heavy metal bands this time…!) Live Report et Photos : Charlotte

Partner for Live shows

Partners