Shaman / Kotipelto / Dragonforce / Salamandra / Power 5 / Krleš
20 November 2004
Sports Hall, Martin, Slovakia
Rockers Digest was invited along to join and help out Dragonforce at a six band festival in Slovakia. Knowing we would be pretty busy, we took the decision that Johan should leave his main camera at home and hence all photos accompanying this report are taken on our compact cameras.
Heathrow - 19 November
Leaving work early the day prior to the gig, Johan and I headed out to Heathrow to meet up with the band for a 7.35pm flight to Vienna. Arriving first we of course went for a celebratory pint in honour of our weekend ahead.
Soon we received a call from Herman that he had arrived with the bulk of the gear. We met up with Herman, Vadim and Dave outside and helped load the gear onto trolleys before heading back into the airport where we were joined by ZP, Adrian and Aussie soundman Clem. Meeting time had been and gone so as the check in queue was pretty enormous, we decided to get in line in hope Sam would arrive in time before we got to the desk, which sure enough happened.
Nine people in metal attire and a bunch of trolleys with guitars and flight cases was getting a combination of curious looks and, from those behind us in the queue, looks of annoyance. Eventually we were checked in and headed through to security check. At this point Sam decided to put all his beer into his rucksack and promptly broke the zip. To everyone else`s amusement he then spent the duration of the queue swearing at his bag and trying to fix the zip.
Having joked about the effect on the metal detector of a metal band, Johan, Dave & I passed through with various other band members left behind removing various belts, jackets and boots. The three of us made our way straight to the bar, where we were joined by ZP, for a quick pint ahead of the flight. As Sam had his own beer he of course went to drink it in the adjacent Costa Coffee. Fittingly the music channel on the big screen in the pub was playing metal, well Guns N Roses and Alice Cooper anyway and a metal looking barman wandered over to ask if we were a band.
Flight to Vienna
With the gate call very late we were mercifully very quickly onto the plane and all seated nearby. Johan and I had been seated together, with ZP on the adjacent aisle seat and the whole flight consisted of seeing if we could obtain more whiskey than ZP. Between us we were getting very good at this game, ably encouraged by our Steward, Will, who on a couple of occasions returned with a greater stock than requested. Having also got a couple of beers Johan and I were stockpiling a section of ours for later, whereas ZP continued to chug away whilst trying to steal Johan`s ice. Will came down to see us once again with some more and on discovering he wouldn`t be on our return flight, said he`d leave a note for his colleagues to have whiskey on stand by for us.
With a 100mph tailwind, unsurprisingly the flight was ahead of schedule and after about 90minutes we arrived at Vienna airport. Two points of realisation occurred on leaving the plane, all of us finding that it was much colder than London and Sam discovering he`d left most of his beer on the plane!
Vienna to Martin by road
After collecting our bags and the gear, inside the terminal we were met by one of the guys from the gig promoters, Julius, who was a very funny character with an off the wall sense of humour. Julius took us out to the car park and was pointing towards a luxury double-decker coach saying we had a very nice coach to take us to Martin. As we rounded the coach a second coach behind it became visible, looking decidedly cold war era Eastern European and sure enough that was ours.
No matter, despite the initial shock, inside the coach was warm, spacious and more importantly, full off beer. The partying thus begun, save for ZP who crashed out following his earlier whiskey frenzy. Martin is roughly in the centre of Slovakia to the North and our close to 5 hour coach journey would first take us just over the Austrian/Slovakian border to Bratislava to collect the Kotipelto guys.
We had already taken up residency at the back of the bus, so the Kotipelto guys took the front and after a few initially nods of recognition between each party, alco-fuelled up, I decided to forge ahead as the welcoming committee.
I hadn`t initially realised who was playing in the Kotipelto band besides the mainman himself, but whilst chatting to one of the guys, who introduced himself as "the bass player", after a while it suddenly dawned on me it was Lauri Porra who I had seen with Sinergy at Bloodstock. Meanwhile Johan had been chatting to keyboard player Mikko Harkin, an ex-member of Sonata Arctica, who was also very sociable. The rest of the Kotipelto band and crew were more reserved and possibly tired from the flight. I had of course to say hello to Timo and we shared a brief conversation and photograph, though it was apparent partying wasn`t on his agenda tonight.
Meanwhile at the back of the bus the party raged on and a pit stop was required for the loo, and to restock with beer and snacks. Having already heard Skid Row`s first album twice, as it seemed to be the only cd available, Sam dug into his collection and we got Busted! Worryingly Sam and Vadim seemed to know most of the words. Busted mustn`t have been very big in Finland as the Kotipelto guys didn`t seem to mind, though that wasn`t the case for Sam`s second selection, Avril Lavigne, which was very quickly rejected.
We eventually arrived at the hotel in Martin at around 3am and if we thought Vienna was cold that was nothing compared to what we were hit with once we left the coach. Very quickly the gear was shifted inside and rooms allocated.
Saturday 20th - Pre show
Johan and I surfaced around 11.30am and headed down for some breakfast where we met ZP and Dave who were captivated by a young waitress whose skirt resembled nothing more than a belt, with the look completed with flip flops. She was on shift with a waiter who amusingly looked a bit like Vadim, but with a mullet.
From the four alternatives on offer, ham and eggs was ordered by all except Clem, who had just joined us, and ordered "a selection of cheese" which actually turned out to be "a selection of the same cheese"!
Herman had a new toy for the weekend in a pair of walkie-talkies, which proved very useful for important issues such as buzzing down from his room to check if anyone had any shampoo for him and Sam and generally buzzing through insults. The other guys eventually surfaced in time for the lunch menu with Adrian apparently ordering three different meals.
Johan and I popped back up to the room to collect things for the day and returned to find the restaurant/lounge room bustling with people. Shaman had arrived and a group of fans had spotted the two bands and were collecting autograms (which Sam had noted people were asking for rather than autographs). Unbeknownst to the fans seemingly was that Kotipelto was hidden in the corner of the same room and had escaped their attention.
Julius arrived in usually good spirits with a couple of other cars which we loaded up with Dragonforce gear and band members for the short trip to the venue. As we arrived, and indeed left, at night we unfortunately didn`t get chance to see much of Slovakia save for this short journey. Daylight had brought with it the realisation that everything was covered in snow and it started snowing again as we left for the venue. On route, Julius joked to us that we blow out the gig and go find a cool bar. He warned us that the exterior of the venue was not very impressive, but that the stage looked great inside.
Sure enough we arrived at a rather decrepit looking sports hall, but on getting inside the main hall, as Julius promised, the stage that had been erected was very impressive. The rest of the venue consisted of a typical rectangular sports hall, with banked seating on the other three sides and carpeting laid over the wooden floor. At the rear of the venue some trestle tables had been set up as a bar selling bottled Staropramen beer and as a stand for a local metal magazine and band merchandise. Dragonforce`s base for the day was one of the changing rooms in the centre of which a variety of snacks and drinks had been laid out.
At around 2.30pm the main doors were opened and a steady stream of fans started to arrive in the hall. Meanwhile backstage Roland Grapow, who was the special guest for the day, had arrived and called in to see the Dragonforce guys to renew acquaintances made at Bloodstock 2003. A very cool guy, Roland, who I believe now lives in Slovakia, said he would be making an appearance later to play a couple of songs with Shaman. Unfortunately as it turned out we missed his appearance to guest on Shaman`s Pride and Judas Priest`s Breaking The Law as we had to start our long journey home before Shaman`s set had finished.
The show
Pretty much right on time at 3pm, first band Krleš took to the stage and we headed out to check them out. I believe all the first three bands were from the Czech republic, though I don`t know how you pronounce this band`s name and I have to confess I`m not so linguistically skilled to have managed to identify the set list below. I actually found a copy of the list on stage whilst helping set the Dragonforce stage up and, on showing it to Sam, shared a joke that it resembled a list of Countdown conundrums and that we`d need to get Carol Vorderman to help us solve it.
Similarly the band`s website is entirely in Czech though it would seem they`ve been going since 1990. The band`s sound however brought memories of the previous decade, with Judas Priest and Accept as reference points, as did the rhythm guitarist`s big Ian Hill moustache. You can add Warlock to that as the Krleš are female fronted and embarrassingly we`d actually seen their frontwoman backstage and mistook her for a member of the catering crew. Cue another joke about her nipping off to butter some sandwiches during a guitar solo. She certainly was putting her all into the performance however running around the stage.
One of the songs, possibly Kráv`n`roll (which I think translates as Rumpus n`Roll as an alternative translation for Krav had something to do with cowsheds!), had a very odd almost umpah like rhythm with members of the band engaging in some Cossack style leg kicking. Joking aside however this was a very enjoyable start to the day and Sam in particular was most impressed.
Krleš set list:
Zkrat / Noc / Prázdnotou svítí mi plamenomet / Rytíri bez koní / Kráv`n`roll / Kletba / TO (kruh se uzavírá)
Next up were a band called Power 5 who I didn`t see too much of. From the backstage dressing room I had thought they had a female singer, though it actually turned out to be a man with a very high voice. Having said that either he appeared to be struggling towards the end of the set or he had chosen some very odd vocal melodies to sing.
The band`s sound was heavily keyboard driven power metal. Again, this band also sang in their native language and perhaps due to this much of the material seemed to blur into one without being able to pick up a refrain in the choruses. All I actually wrote down during their set was "unusually high cymbals". With the stands on maximum height and reach the drummer was practically having to stand up to reach them.
Having wandered backstage again, I`d glanced out the window to see the largest snowflakes I`ve seen in my life falling outside. Having pointed this out, it was decided we should head out with ZP and video him stood outside singing the classic line from Starfire "…and the warrior stands on top of the hill in the snow!". Heading back through the main hall took some time as the crowd was quite sizeable now and members of Dragonforce were being stopped for "autograms". When we did get outside, aside from the videoing, the locals seemed to think we were a set of nutters laughing at the snowfall. The fact that most of my photos didn`t come out due to the amount of snowfall should explain however.
The third band was Salamandra, again from the Czech Republic. Of the three Czech bands, Salamandra were the only one to sing in English, suggesting they are looking at markets beyond their native country and on their performance today you would have to say they would be the mostly likely to if given an opportunity.
The band describes their sound as "speed metal gothic" though I couldn`t really see where the gothic tag came from. No it`s not happy, jolly power metal and does takes a darker route though hardly goth. The two reference points to my ears would be Walls Of Jericho-era Helloween and more prominently Blind Guardian.
Salamandra are keen on weaving tales of good versus evil, kings, battles and legends. From their second album, the concept piece Skarremar, choice cuts aired today included The Toady (All Hope Abandon) and The King (Skarremar`s Pride). The former of those mixes Pavel Slíva`s speedy guitar, Hanka Šlachtová`s symphonic keyboards and Dalibor Halamícek`s bombastic vocals in a very similar fashion to Blind Guardian circa Nightfall On Middle Earth.
I suspect Salamandra aren`t however used to playing such a large stage as at times they seemed a little lost and static, which was not in keeping with the music.
As Salamandra were immediately preceeding Dragonforce, I was unable to see the whole of their set as preparation and shifting Dragonforce gear to the side of the stage had to be done. There were a number of local crew present but Johan had been drilled before hand regarding setting things up, with myself as help / hindrance.
For myself I believe I excelled in taping cables down and putting out set lists. I was also tasked with setting up Vadim`s keyboards on a rather rickety borrowed keyboard stand and plugging in Sam`s wireless system. The crowd were well up to see the band, cheering at anything and everything including me walking on with Sam`s pedal board. Well actually that`s what I thought but my entrance had just happened to coincide with the backdrop being raised. By this point I hadn`t much of a clue what else to do so I left the remainder of tasks in Johan`s capable hands and headed out for my prime responsibility of the evening, filming the gig.
My plan was to film different songs from different locations and as it turned out this proved to be a unique way of seeing the performance. My first port of call was at the top of the banked seating to the right of the stage. From here I was amused to see the crowd cheering at Johan as he wandered round the stage testing Herman`s guitar.
Eventually the Dragonforce intro commenced, as did a chant of Dragonforce and the band hit the stage with Black Fire to a wall of mush. The band were playing through a borrowed backline and kit with no soundcheck so it was always going to take a while for Clem to get a grip on their cacophony. Similar to the UK tour a box had been set up stage centre from which the band were leaping off and posing on.
The sound was becoming more balanced for Fury Of The Storm for which I took up position behind the main throng on the main hall floor. The reaction had gone up many a notch with many of the arena seats now empty and most people packed to the front.
Next stop was right at the very back of the venue at the top of the banked seating for Fields Of Despair. From here the stage was a constant blur of band movement underlined by a sea of waving fists. Behind me was a large window and glancing over my shoulder to check out the depth of the still falling snow I was amused to see two guys in the snow, one with a dog and one headbanging furiously. Neither could see anything but were enjoying the music for free.
Time for a trip into the photopit for Black Winter Night, for a real close up encounter of the mayhem. In the middle of the photopit were three speakers on the ground just below stage height which ZP, Herman and Sam were jumping down onto right in the crowd`s faces. At one point whilst Herman was ripping through a solo, ZP beyond him had leaned into the crowd who decided they wanted him and nearly ripped his hair out.
I headed onto the side of the stage for first power ballad, Dawn Over A New World and then round the back of the drum riser to get some footage of Dave spinning his sticks. Adrian headed over to nod along with one foot on the riser. From back here it was an amazing site to look out into the crowd at a sea of swaying lighters. Vadim`s bonkers keyboard solo followed, offering a respite to the band, except Vadim of course!
ZP announced it was time to bring out the soldiers as Soldiers Of The Wasteland was played and things were really clicking now, pairing on stage energy with musical performance. This seemed to be noticed in the crowd who were going ever more bonkers. One bloke was rolling around on the floor at my feet playing air guitar which was slightly distracting.
By this point my arm felt like it was falling off from holding the camera so I decided I`d watch the next few songs from the back were I could position the camera on a chair facing the stage. I glanced out the window again and the two guys were still there. I was hoping one would raise his arms a loft for "the warrior stands on top of the hill in the snow" line from Starfire, but as it transpired, I think the dog was actually having a piss …in the snoooow!
I`d headed back to the stage during Starfire to film the lighters again, but whilst filming became aware of a commotion to my right. As it turned out the keyboard stand had fallen with all Vadim`s keyboards crashing to the floor. Whoops, who set that up then? Thankfully I learned the central leg of the stand was not secure, nothing to do with me and it turned out Vadim had found the whole thing quite amusing. Around the same time Sam`s wireless failed, though again not my fault!
Valley Of The Damned seemed to be the one most people new best and the crowd were bouncing up and down. Heart Of A Dragon closed the set which may not have been the tightest, nor best sounding I had seen by Dragonforce, it was certainly the most energetic and probably the best audience response I had seen them get also.
Dragonforce set list:
Black Fire / Fury Of The Storm / Fields Of Despair / Black Winter Night / Dawn Over A New World / Vadim solo / Soldiers Of The Wasteland / Prepare For War / My Spirit Will Go On / Starfire / Valley Of The Damned / Heart Of A Dragon
Quick work was required to clear the stage and it was decided to pile everything into the dressing room before the band headed out to meet and greet fans. Fan obviously comes from the word fanatical which perfectly describes some of those gathered. Many had made their own t-shirts and one had a collection of drawings he had done. One fan who could not speak English had his friend repeatedly ask if he could try on Dave`s hat, Dave politely declined on three occasions so the guy started tapping his shoulders. "Instead my friend would like a photograph with you on his shoulders" said the translator, to which Dave obliged. At one point Johan and myself were asked to sign an "autogram" for the simple fact we had been on stage.
The band were still out talking to fans when the lights went down for Kotipelto, which rather embarrassingly coincided with a chant of Dragonforce.
I really didn`t like the first Kotipelto solo album, finding it a bit lightweight and hence opening with two tracks from it wasn`t the best start from my perspective, though admittedly they were heavier live. It would seem this was echoed by the crowd, or perhaps Kotipelto`s set had hit that point in the festival when people need a sit down as the seats had filled up to the expense of the hall floor.
The following moody slow burner Evening`s Fall lifted things. Compared to the on-stage mayhem that had proceeded them Kotipelto`s band were much more static sticking close to their on stage monitors. The majority of movement was provided by bassist Lauri Porra, who similarly to his Bloodstock performance with Sinergy was full of energy. Timo Kotipelto himself tended to stay stage centre with one foot on the monitors, which is something I noticed when I`d seen him with Stratovarius before. Though then considered he was keeping out of Timo Tolkki`s way!
Seeds Of Sorrow, being very much in the vein of a Stratovarius straight ahead rocker, was one of my favourites on Coldness and worked well live. Unfortunately, as far as I was concerned, it was followed by a drum solo and at such an early stage took all the momentum out of the set which was starting to get going. As it turned out there were solos all round with only the guitar solo being palatable.
Guitarist Tuomas Wäinölä may look unassuming and certainly not like a rock star, but he can certainly play his guitar and would seem to be a fan of Malmsteen. This was seemingly confirmed later with a cover of Rising Force.
Can You Hear The Sound follows a very similar pattern to Seeds Of Sorrow, however things slowed down a bit with the very apt Snowbound considering the weather. This one left me feeling a bit cold (groan!) and Timo decided to do a bit of filming of his own heading out to the crowd with a video camera.
Rainbow`s I Surrender seemed an odd choice of cover to me and with some gear shifting chores to perform and a search for Dave`s drum pedals to conduct I headed off backstage. I did catch bits of the remainder of the set from the side of the stage and also heard bits from the dressing room.
Overall though I have to say although Kotipelto`s set was well played it came over a bit lacking in energy and the combination of covers and solos left it feeling fragmented.
Kotipelto approximate set list:
Travel Through Time / Lord Of Eternity / Evening`s Fall / Seeds Of Sorrow / Drum solo / Waiting For The Dawn / Coldness Of My Mind / Guitar solo / Can You Hear The Sound / Snowbound / I Surrender / Rising Force / Bass solo / Take Me Away / SOS / Reasons / Black Diamond
It was an absolute age after Kotipelto`s set that Shaman`s Ancient Winds intro started, itself a drawn out affair. Finally Shaman set kicked off in a rather unexpected fashion. I`m pretty sure they started with Here I Am but was rather distracted as vocalist Andre Matos ran out and picked up his mic stand, which he seemed to like swinging about. Matos kicked the bottom of the stand in an attempt to swing it round into the air 360°, but the lower part of the stand had not been secured. As a result as the stand got to about 90° the bottom section took off into the air heading stage right towards where a group of us were stood watching at the side of the stage. As we scattered I glanced over my shoulder to see it hit an acoustic guitar on a stand, which had been painstakingly set up earlier, sending the guitar flying off the side of the stage.
The catalogue of disaster had not finished as it seemed the wireless mic itself wasn`t working. Matos rolled it onto the floor and proceeded to unwrap bassists Luís Mariutti`s mic. It seemed the lead for this had been securely fastened to the stage (wasn`t me this time!) and as a result the mic unplugged. Finally Matos was handed a working wireless mic, though he was able to grin as the crowd cheered that the drama was over.
The distinct intro of Distant Thunder commenced, with guitarist Hugo Mariutti dispensing with his woolly hat - it was bloody cold to us so must have been freezing for the Brazilians. Shaman had a guest keyboard player with multiple banks of keys, who I think was Fabio Ribeiro. Despite this, for the piano middle section of this song, Matos joined in on his own keyboards at the front left of the stage. I have to say this seemed a bit odd as I could see they were playing exactly the same piano line. Later Matos would perform a lengthy keyboard intro on his own and sporadically would join in on his keyboard.
Flanking Matos, the Mariutti brothers, with mass of hair and beards have a harder edge look than the usual power metal image, looking not unlike the Cavalera brothers from Sepultura back when they were still speaking
The acoustic guitar, having apparently been retrieved and retuned was put out on it`s stand for Hugo Mariutti to play during the start of For Tomorrow. I`d been rather intrigued by the use of traditional instrumentation sounds on this song on CD and live the keyboards were used to great effect with this song positively soaring. Easily the high point of what I saw of the Shaman set.
There were a couple of songs I did not recognise which I suspect must have been new ones. I couldn`t get this information from the between song introductions as Matos was addressing the crowd in their native language. We hadn`t seen head nor tail of the Shaman guys at the venue all day so perhaps Matos had been preparing some phrases which in any case went down very well with the crowd.
I`d popped backstage to grab another beer to find Adrian with all his gear in hand. Apparently departure time had been brought back an hour to midnight. As a result we ended up searching round the venue for the rest of the band whilst Shaman were playing their version of Lisbon, which of course three of the band had played with Angra.
Shaman songs seen:
Ancient Winds / Here I Am / Distant Thunder / ? / For Tomorrow / ? / Lisbon
Homeward bound
Once everyone was found we were dispatched to cars for the journey back to the hotel. Adrian and I were in a car with Vadim who was constantly praising the great new friends and beautiful country we had visited. Back at the hotel there appeared to be a posh private function going on, at complete contrast to the heavy metal band and crew slumped around the lobby.
As there was just the Dragonforce party heading back to Vienna airport, we were taken back in a minibus which proved a bit of a squeeze. I`d opted for the front passenger seat in the hope of getting some peace and quiet for a kip. This wasn`t the best idea as it turned out as what I got was the best, or more truthfully the worst, view of the horror of driving through uncut snow down the motorways of Slovakia at high speed. Herman`s reminder of what happened to Cliff Burton didn`t help ease our concern.
Miraculously, we made it to the airport in one piece and ahead of check in time. Sam kept us amused with tales of his idea for a new side project called Growler, or The Growlers if it`s aimed to the trendy market. Each band member to carry the surname Growler. Herman Growler being his particular favourite.
And with a flight back to London, thus ended a great weekend of rock …sleepless from Slovakia.
LINKS:
Shaman
Kotipelto
Dragonforce
Salamandra
Power 5 - tba
Krleš
Festival site
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