Last Friday Irma and I went to Kilafors in Sweden to attend Rockweekend. We were there for the sole purpose of seeing Chickenfoot (see my review). But I figured I should share my thoughts on the festival experience in general as well.

Now, we didn’t camp out at the festival or anything, we are way too lazy and in need of comfortable sleeping arrangements, so we booked a hotel. Before we left for the festival it had been raining but it was clearing up. I don’t know what we were thinking, since we actually considered wearing sneakers, but luckily we opted for boots. That could have been a total disaster, because as we got to the festival site, we discovered that it was basically a mud-covered field, due to 2 days of rain!

Arch Enemy were playing as we got there. Not our kind of thing, so we made our way to the food area, and consumed some very questionable but tasty pizza. Our main source of amusement was watching all the people that were drunk off their asses, and had consequently proceeded to fall on said ass. Some were covered in mud from head to toe! We even saw a guy dressed only in a t-shirt and underwear that said “The Hulk”!

We made our way back towards the stage past the open-air urinals(!!!), and finally managed to find a mud-free spot from where we watched the end of Arch Enemy’s set. I should also mention that there was a water hose in the festival area that people would use to hose off the mud from themselves. Now I’m no expert, but I would think that if you’re covered in mud and proceed to spray water on yourself, isn’t whatever mud that stays on you going to harden into some sort of crust? Not to mention the obligatory pneumonia you’d get from walking around soaking wet in 10 degrees Celcius.

So we stayed in this dry spot and watched German rocker Udo Dirkschneider. Man, I love saying that name! German i such a beautiful language. Aside from all the weirdos we ran in to during the evening, next to us was the cutest little girl. She couldn’t have been more than 5-6 years old, and was standing there with her long haired heavy metal fan of a father. She was decked out in a studded necklace and braclets and wearing huge pink ear-muffs. She seemed to be having a great time and kept doing the devil horns sign. I think it’s so cool with parents who takes their children to concerts – that’s the best education right there! Halfway through Mr. Dirkschneider’s set we started making our way towards the stage in preparation for Chickenfoot, and since I’ve already written about that, this seems like an appropriate place to wrap things up.

We both had a great time at Rockweekend, and really enjoyed the whole festival experience. Now we won’t hesitate to go to a concert just because it’s a festival gig anymore. As long as we can stay in a hotel and be dry and comfortable at night I’m game. But next time we’ll make sure to buy rubber boots so we don’t have to ruin another set of winter boots with mud.

I found two GREAT videos from Chickenfoot’s concert in Sweden last week. They’re both in HD format. And the coolest part is that at 2:50 in “Get it Up” you can see Chad apologizing to my wife for hitting her in the head with the drumstick. This was before he came down and apologized in person.

Get it Up

It’s All Over Now & Nature’s Way

Yesterday was the opening night of U2’s 360 tour in Barcelona. From all accounts it seems to have been a fantastic show, albeit with a few hiccups, which is customary to the beginning of a tour.

The concert started with 4 songs off of latest album No Line on the Horizon, followed by an amazing performance of I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For. From what I’ve heard, the crowd singing along even overpowered U2! Angel of Harlem was dedicated to Michael Jackson (R.I.P.), with Bono singing a few lines from Man in the Mirror and Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough.

This tour U2 are bringing back The Unforgettable Fire, a song they haven’t played since January 1990. From the clips I’ve heard it sounds really good, and the stage is really spectacular during this song. The giant screen actually splits in to smaller screens that are lowered towards the stage in a funnel-like shape. Click here to see for yourself.

In a very ZooTV-esque moment, Bono called the International Space Station, and one of the astronauts actually joined the One campaign from Space.

For the encore Bono wears a jacket with hundreds of laser’s on it, which creates a very cool effect. When they play Ultra Violet, Bono sings through a steering-wheel looking microphone that’s suspended from above the stage. He also hangs on to this and uses it as a sort of swing.

As I said, most of the show went off without a hitch, except for One, in which they had to redo both the first and second verse. Surprising that it would happen with an old song like One, which they’ve played hundreds of times. It seems it would be more likely to happen with one of the new songs, that they are still getting familiar with. Guess it’s all opening night jitters!

Here’s last night’s setlist:

01. Breathe
02. No Line On The Horizon
03. Get On Your Boots
04. Magnificent
05. Beautiful Day
06. I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For / Movin’ On Up
07. Angel Of Harlem / Man In The Mirror / Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough
08. In A Little While
09. Unknown Caller
10. The Unforgettable Fire
11. City Of Blinding Lights
12. Vertigo
13. I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight
14. Sunday Bloody Sunday
15. Pride (In The Name Of Love)
16. MLK
17. Walk On / You’ll Never Walk Alone
18. Where The Streets Have No Name
19. One

Encore:
20. Ultra Violet (Light My Way)
21. With Or Without You
22. Moment Of Surrender

Now, I’m just hoping they will add Drowning Man to the set, since they rehearsed it almost every night during the last couple of weeks.

Click here to see a super-quality video of Ultra Violet.
Also check out the other videos by the same user, they’re truly spectacular!

Here’s a link to a video of the One snafu.

Here are some great pictures from last night:

Click here for tons more great pictures.

As I’m writing this, U2 have just started the first concert of their U2 360 tour in Barcelona. Songs played so far are:

1. Breathe
2. No Line on the Horizon
3. Get On Your Boots
4. Magnificent
5. Beautiful Day
6. I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
7. Angel of Harlem / Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough (Snippet)
8. In a Little While
9. Unknown Caller
10. The Unforgettable Fire

Reports so far say that Larry’s Drum riser spins, as does the bridges connecting the stage and the catwalk. They have also done a live linkup with the International Space Station – ZooTV for the 21st Century!

Now I’m off to bed. I’ll post the entire setlist and any interesting videos and images I find tomorrow.

Click here for a video snippet of opening song Breathe

Click here for real-time picture updates from the concert