October | 2019 | Sara Hammerzmith

Archive for October, 2019

Raubtier @ Frimis Salonger, Örebro, Sweden 11/10 – 19

Posted in Concerts, Music, Uncategorized with tags alfahanne, frimis salonger, raubtier, utmarken on October 31, 2019 by Sara Hammerzmith

After my little trip to Belgium, I very sadly ended up being ill. I’m not gonna go into details, but painful it was. But when was the last time a bit of illness or pain stopped me from going anywhere? Never.

So, I decided time with my ever so loved partner in crime Toivo, and we set the time to meet up in Örebro around 19 to grab a quick bite and then get in line for the show. A little after 19 I arrived – traffic is your best friend right? – and we grabbed some weird ass food from the trainstation before getting in line. It was “only” around four to five people ahead of us in line, which was great.

The doors opened pretty much right on time and Toivo and I could.. Well, we didn’t need to run we could very simply just walk to the front row. And not long after that, the first band for the evening started.

Alfahanne

So first band was a Swedish band called Alfahanne. They’re from Eskisltuna from what I understood, and I’ll admit I never heard of them prior to this. The drummer came out on stage and pretty much intimidate me with his insane stare in his eyes, and I got these kind of.. trying to be alpha male vibes off him. Not that weird I guess?

The rest of the band came out on stage, and I expected this to be some sort of punkbank, but in reality it was more of a hardrock band. They sang primarily in Swedish and I’m saddened to say it wasn’t exactly my cup of tea. But they delievered as good as they could!

Next band to join the ranks, was Utmarken.

Utmarken

So, Utmarken is in fact a band I did see live earlier this year, at Sabaton Open Air. I liked their show, and was looking forward to seeing them again.

They opened the set with “Förfallstid” and I was happily surprised how well the audience responded to them! They quickly moved on to “Välkommen till Norrland” and they had this special kind of energy that, if you ask me, you can only really find with folkmetal bands. Then it was time for “Jaktmarker”, which, judging on the audience, is one of their most popular songs. Great times! “Älgtid, Björntid, Vargtid” followed suit and then “Triumfera” before wrapping the whole set up with “Bröder i Strid”.

That was an amazing show, but the excitement we now felt for Raubtier was something else.

And so was the arena.

As usual with this kind of things, its typical to get tighter when the main act goes on, but even more so considering the typical Raubtier fan. But I’ve survived worse, so how could I not know?

Well we were about to see about that.

And before we knew it.. “Be Mig” started echoing through the speakers and the show started.

Raubtier

They walked onstage to the tunes of Björnes Magasin and opened their show forcefully with “Det Finns Bara Krig” and pretty much the entire crowd turned into a battlefield. But I guess, what else could I be expecting?

“Kall Död Hand” was next on the list, before heading into one of the new songs – “Bunkern”. And it was quite the crowdpleaser, if you ask me! From the bunker into the death with “Dieseldöden”.

“Bothniablod” followed suit, and you know. Something I notice with this band is this.

The place is packed. And every single person in the room seem to know every single song. This band is popular, beyond anything else. Why don’t they tour more often? Or is this the reason, to make sure to maximize profit? Who knows?

“Änglar” Followed up before it was time for another new song, “Ovtjarka”. “Hjärteblod” was next song on the list, followed by what I can only assume is like one of the most popular songs from Raubtier, judging my few experiences in seeing them “Achtung Panzer”.

The band on stage, are delivering better than good this evening. The energy they radiate would get pretty much anyone to.. go beserk? Is that the best way to describe the primal behaviour of the majority that is this crowd? Somwhere along this place in the set, the crowd is getting, very, very, nasty. And we aren’t talking moshpit nasty because that is more than fine.

“Vittring” followed suit before Buffeln got some time in the spotlight for an amazing drumsolo which lead into “Polarvargen”, which was amazingly beautiful. “Götterdämmerung” was next, and it was swiftly followed with “Sveriges Elit”.

“Besten i Mig” and “Dobermann” wrapped up the first part of the set, and the band left the stage.. for a moment as per usual and came back. Started off the encores with a new song, “Högt, Fritt, Blött” before launching into “Världsherravälde”.

And at this point.. Things got real nasty. For some reason, we managed to get a guy behind us who must have been really high on Alfahanne’s testosteronfilled chants, because he thought it was a good idea to start really going for it at me and Toivo. At some point it turned into a complete assault, and gladly, he was removed.. Not by security guys, but by other guys around us, Toivo being the one who pushed him away at first. Where are the security when you need it?

“Kamphund” and “Låt Napalmen Regna Ner” wrapped up the show for this time, and the band thanked for themselved and left the stage.

Aside the shitty event that happened towards the end, this was a really nice show. Enjoyable, and I can’t wait to see them again some time! Thank you!

// Sara

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Crashdïet @ De Verlichte Geest, Roeselare, Belgium 5/10 -19

Posted in Concerts, Music, Uncategorized with tags Crashdiet, highride, the cruel intentions on October 15, 2019 by Sara Hammerzmith

If there was any tour I was looking forward to this fall, it was this one. Crashdïet is one of my original favorite bands from a long, long time – we are talking 11 years here – and them playing together with my newfound heroes in The Cruel Intentions it was simply not an option – I HAVE TO BE THERE.

Said and done, I took the flight down to Belgium, and once at the airport I was greeted by Ivan and we took the train home to Antwerpen – the long route because of broken wires. Oh well, never hurt a soul.

Anyway, my stay in Belgium is a whole different story – on Saturday we hade our way to Gent and got picked up about two hours before doors opened by my dear friend Ginny and made our way over to Roeselare. We had a good drive, catching up on what was new in life and everything and arrived pretty safely and easily at the city. Headed over to the venue where Ginny caught up with some friends of her, and we waited til the doors opened.

Once that happened, we were inside and we.. took some kind of spots. De Verlichte Geest is one of those small club venues, so it isn’t exactly to run up to the front row, but we got some decent spots on the side. Why not?

And after some time, the first band of the evening entered the stage.

Highride

Highride is yet another band to come out of Stockholm and though I had tried listening to them prior to the show, I never really quite fell for them. But they still gave a pretty good show.. for those like seven people who were there.

They played for around 20 minutes before it was time for them to leave it over to someone else. Not any less than 15 minutes later, The Cruel Intentions entered the stage.

The Cruel Intentions

So, you guys knows that I fell head over heels for this band some time ago once I listened them through, and been in love since the moment I got their debut album. There was quite the turn out as the band walked on stage, which I was both surprised and not about. I didn’t realize they had grown so popular, but all the same they deserve it!

They opened the set with “Weekend Suffering” and both me, the crowd and the band were feeling it. The band continued on with “Accidently Intoxicated”, which is one of my personal favorites of them.

The band actually put on quite an amazing performance. Perhaps it’s the fact that I’ve waited very long to see them – a year and a half since I saw them the first time – and that I see them so rarely that made everything become a big blur and static euphoria rather than anything else.

Everything was simply perfect. Setlist, setting, the band, the crowd – all of it. And my heart weakened a little extra when they wrapped up their set with “Sick Adrenaline” which is ultimately the song that made me fall for them. And then they left the stage.

And.. A large part of the crowd did too. That, I did not actually expect at all, but on the same time, why not?

A little while later, the heroes of the evening entered the stage.

Crashdïet

They opened up the set with “Reptile”, and I couldn’t have imagine a better opening song, to be honest! “Tikket” was next to follow up and you know.. As they started with “Down with the Dust” I got this warm, familiar feeling spreading in my chest. They are back. You know?

And Gabe is one hell of a performer. It felt like I was watching a younger Erik Grönwall who had merged together with Jocke Berg from Hardcore Superstar, making him the ultimate little duracell rabbit and he got the crowd going really, really good.

“Legion” was next on the list before they headed back to “The Savage Playground” with “Cocaine Cowboys”. And after this, “Rust”.

And this song… You know. After giving the album a few listens, and really absorbing this song in particular something just clicked. This band has been through more, in this short period of time, than most bands out there ever have to go through. But for every single setback, they keep pushing through. Some times it takes a long time before they are back, but they get there eventually. And this song has grown to be one of the most important for me because of it, as it represents that. KISS fans, Lordi fans and Eurovision fans may be loyal.

But us Crashdïet fans has be given one fat pat on the shoulder as well, for enduring through all of this.

Next up, Gabe started talking about all of us ladies out there.. And I just knew “Queen Obscene” was coming up next. It’s really a strange feeling, when you see a band that.. You know. Crashdïet was the original band I toured for. My friend and I would travel around as much as we could during Generation Wild era to see this band. They are the OG band.

“In The Maze” followed up, and then back to the beginning with “Breaking The Chainz”.

“Idiots” from the most recent release was played and then.. a song I really wasn’t expecting. “Chemical”, from “Generation Wild”. This song was my favorite song off the album, if we don’t include the bonus track from the vinyl. So getting to hear it live was just… perfection.

And it seemed to be my kind of evening. My personal favorite song off “The Unattractive Revolution” was next, “Falling Rain” before taking it down a notch with “It’s A Miracle”.

And for the ending… we got “Generation Wild”. If that isn’t the perfect ending, I do not know what is.

And that was just pure bliss.

After the show, we hung around for a while to talk and hang out before heading back toward Gent where Ginny dropped us off after a perfect evening. I hope to do this soon again!

// Sara