ROCK WRECHTER

Oh fuck yeah! Im now in germany and i havent blogged in ageeesss so this is going to be a BIG ONE.

Right so after amsterdam we trained it down to Mechlen in Belgium where Spencer has a family freind, a simply amazing woman called Helen. She would be in her 50s, lives alone in a nice house in Mechlen, and for simply unfathomable reasons, her idea of a good time is looking after 6 smelly, loud, hilarious and exceptionally messy boys. This woman took all our bags from the train station, walked them all to her house and made us all lunch before we had even set foot on the premisis.

She gave us food, shelter, beer and would not let us say thankyou for anything. It was incredible. Anyway we had a really nice dinner home cooked by helen, and headed off the next day in high spirrits for Wrechter!!

Well, everyone else was in high spirits. Me? I was sick as a dog. The night before we left we went and got seriously boozey at a REAL belgian beer cafe, with a fucking beer menu that was about the same thickness as War and Peace. And because we all wanted to try eachothers beers, everyone would buy one, try it, and pass it left. I happened to catch Jakes Lame asss throat thing, but because my immune system is sooo fucking down from all these beers, it manifested its self in me not being able to talk or swallow.

The boys found that a blessing in disgiuse.... ha ha fucking ha.

So sick me and happy lads headed off to the concert about an hour away on train, Rock wrechter is huge, by the end of the concert over 200 000 people would have come throught the turnstyles. At any given time there were 80 000 people camping there. It was literally like being in a city in the middle of the belgian forrtest!!

Okay Im going to go day by day, by the bands i saw, with a review attached. Ready? Here we go:

DAY ONE

EXPATRIATE: Average, every song sounds the same, but it was nice to hear some aussies making it right on the other side of the world!!

PLACEBO: Really good, the new drummer is a freak. He rocks, to understand the new album you really have to see the songs live. That said, set list construction was totally shit. 7 songs of the new album followed by about 4 off meds and then in reverse cronological order until finishing up with better taste in men and infra red as an encore!? What is this amature hour?! AND NO WITHOUT YOU IM NOTHING?!?!?!?! I expected better, but still really fucking good!

PENDULUM: AWESOME. Me spence and Kristian danced so fucking hard people came and asked us where they could buy pills! Haha. Rugs a million called me, and thanked me for cutting so many rugs, they have never had such high demand for rug replacements! New songs are awesome. Just....yeah. Wicked.

OASIS: Solid, but not thier best. They played a lot better set at Rockit the other year. So yeah. Not that bummed that i missed half of it while i was at pendulum.

THE PRODIGY: Now i didnt actually go. But the rest of the boys said they were balls to the wall awesome. ITs the prodigy. Its not like they are gonna suck!!

DAY 2:

Wait. Okay before that i need to have a bitch about some thing...

JAKE JACKSONS SNORING:
Oh my fucking god. I was sharing a tent with Jake, Tim Burns, and chris honey. Now i snore a little, Burnsie snores rythmically so its not that bigger deal. But, Jake Fucking Jackson snores like the Devil. Honest to god. without fail, WITHOUT FAIL EVERY DAY. Jake would kick into high gear at 6:05 in the morning. It was louder than oasis, and sounded like a hobgoblin being thrown down a drainpipe chained so 10 kittens covered in alfoil riding on an anvil made out of piano accordians.

I nearly Fucking Killed him. Burnsie, pissed off with Mr Hobgoblin pulled out 3 fistfulls of grass and stuck them in his mouth and nose in an effort to make the bad man stop. AND HE KEPT FUCKING GOING. JAKE JACKSON IS THE DEVIL! AAAAAAAAARRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHH.

....Anyway, back to the music.

DAY 2:
ELBOW: I like Elbow. Good band. The songs didnt come across to well on the main stage, they too chilled and kinda intamate... except for Grounds for Divorce. Which was fucking awesome. That song is just a cut above everything else on The Seldom Seen Kid. It Rocked.

BLOC Party: So, So, So good. I really enjoyed them. Banquet, helicopter, hunting for witches all went off! They are a really great band and Kele Ocerici or however you spell it is an epic front man. We danced up a storm!

THE KILLERS: Sooooo average. SO AVERAGE. My god, LEARN TO WRITE A SETLIST. What are you like 8 years old? They opened with 8 tracks off the new album. 8!!! THE NEW ALBUM IS SHIT BRANDON! ARE YOU DEAF?! Its like they didnt even care what the audience thought or how they played. Let down of the festival. Easily.

COLDPLAY: Wow. Band of the festival. Chris martin had the audience in his palm from teh moment he stepped on stage and started violet hill. Great set. Violet hill, yellow, clocks, vida la vida, Fix you. Seriously, if you can find a video of yellow at rock wrechter 09. Watch it. They were amazing. 10 out of 10.

DAY 3:
YEAH YEAH YEAHs: Suprise packet of the tournament. Karen O is ssooo hot. and totally fucking insane. Like... offf her fucking rocker. They really worked hard to put ona good show. and i appriciated it. They were really good. Gold Lion and Maps were highlights!!

MOGWAI: Were cool, but not really my thing. THe main memory of that is, a little twister appeared out of nowhere just outside the tent where mogwai were playing!! Throwing rubbish and depris into the air. One bit of wood hit a guy in the back of the head and he was out for the count!! Full on!

NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS: Awesome. FUCKING AWESOME!! Im not the biggest Nick Cave fan, but Ollie Ackland told me that seeing them changed his life, so i was so keen and they really didnt disappoint. Its like, Nick Cave is a freind of yours right, who is going Man, i have just found this band, you have to check em out!!! and it just so happens that the band he is talking about is his. He wants you to like the songs so much and really really tries to show you how great the songs are. Let alone the fact that all the band are in thier 50s and have beards to their arses and still rock out 1928349018 times harder than the Lame arse fucking Killers! Nick cave is the man.

Kings of Leon:... Nuff Said.

DAY 4:
SEASICK STEVE: Sooo cool, i love seasick steve. Him and his drummer rocked the fuck out. Bluesed that shit up. Dog House Boogie is one of my favourite songs going around. What a dude.

THE MARS VOLTA: Crazy as usual. Krams really enjoyed it. But it started to piss down with rain so i had to bail back to the campsite to ensure all our stuff was in the tent so i missed half of it. Its Volta. their nuts.

Unfortuneately i fell alseep for Black eyed peas... Shame

Actually i slept through Kaiser Chiefs as well!! Bummer.

NINE INCH NAILS: AWESOME. ITS NINE INCH NAILS! Hurt, was wicked as was head like a hole!!

METALLICA: Wow, way to pull a killers and plug your new album till its dead. I consider myself a Metallica fan and i knew 2 sngs in the first hour. All that shit from Death Magnetic and St Anger with a liitle justice for all?? Fuck off. Give me a set of The unforgiven, nothing else matters, Master of puppets, Fade to Black, I Dissappear! They played nothing else matters and master of puppets and they both went off! Cyanide? Who gives a flying fuck about CYANIDE?!?!
Jesus James Hetfeild. Dont make me come over there!!

So yeah that was the bands. Heaps of other crap happened but i cant be bothered to blog it. I had a blonde moment in Brussels airport and left my card in an atm and hopefully mastercard will send me a replacement tomorrow!! In berlin Now, fuck i love berlin its the coolest city. Have spent the day with spence rockin around the burbs. Went to the Richstag and the brandenburg gate... still need lunch actually...

But to sum up wrechter.

TOP 3 BANDS:
Coldplay
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Kings of Leon.

Top Three Songs
Yellow-coldplay
Midnight Man-Nick Cave
Grounds For Divorce- Elbow

I will blog again soon peeps!! Maybe from Berlin, maybe from budapest will see how i go!

Much loove peoplee!!!

Pat