Sara Hammerzmith

So, three weeks, three festivals, start off with Väsby Rock Festival.

We left home rather late according to what we had planned – we didn’t set off to Upplands Väsby until around 12. To our defence, we can’t really rule of the lines at the supermarket… anyway. Better late than never huh?

The carride went fairly good, and we did a smaller pit stop in Örebro to have some food at Subway before we after a few more hours of traveling finally hit Upplands Väsby and Vilundaparken. First of all, I must admit I’m a wee bit disappointed that they didn’t have real bracelets. The festival has about the same price as Skogsröjet, the artists are a little smaller, and no real wristbands? Makes me a sad monkey. Anyway, that’s really not a big problem per se, but a little disappointing.

The next mission was to find the camping. It wasn’t as easy as the volunteers had claimed, as there were NO major signs up about it all. Thanks to some help at the gates, we found it. And we went up the hill to put our tent… only to see there’s like… nine other tents there. Tops. So we were literally about ten tents only, throughout the festival. How cozy isn’t that?

Spent some time setting up the camp and getting ready, and then we went down to catch Ammunition.

Ammunition

While I went here to see H.E.A.T and Danger Danger mostly, I can’t deny I was very excited to catch up on what Åge (Glam) has been up to since the Wig Wam days. I haven’t listened anything to Ammunition, even though I’ve been somewhat well informed about it.

And in all honesty… it was like seeing Wig Wam again, but with happier musicians. And of course, it didn’t get worse from the fact he actually played a few Wig Wam tunes, such as “Gonna Get You Someday”, “Hard to be a Rock n Roller” and “In My Dreams”. Good to see the “boys” back on stage. Even though I have split feelings about some of the musicians in Wig Wam, the music they put out was flawless.

The show was good. They had good energy, and well yeah, basically like I said. It’s like Wig Wam, but with happier musicians. It was good, and I enjoyed it A LOT.

After Ammunition we headed over to the “shopping” area which consisted of like, five food courts, one record shop and three other tent featuring various things. Quite the contrast from Sweden Rock and Graspop, but in all honesty, I didn’t have any expectations here, so all good. We grabbed something to eat, met up with Paula, Sofia and Johanna and strolled around a bit before catching the last few minutes of Väsby’s Rock n Roll All Stars featuring Cherie Curie, amongst others. Was great seeing her on stage and all, she’s a hero of mine, you know?

After All Stars was done, it was just a mere minutes left until one of the highlights: H.E.A.T

H.E.A.T

So, spot on time does the introtrack to “The Heat is On” start, the band comes on stage and starts it off with “Point of No Return”, quickly followed by “A Shot of Redemption”.

As with all festival posts, I’m gonna keep this short. There is not really anything bad you can say about H.E.A.T ever, and I guess if there ever were, no really notices because of the one-man show Erik Grönwall puts on to distract from everything that might happen.

Maybe it’s something in the air here in Väsby, or simply just because we are in their hometown, that makes it a little bit extra special. It was a big crowd in front of the stage, and most people knew all the songs.  And just as H.E.A.T usually is, it was magical. With all the energy in songs like “Inferno”, the singalong in “Tearing Down The Walls”, the serene moment in “All The Nights”… I could go on forever.

They wrapped the first set up with “Emergency” before they returned and unveiled a big flag, that I assume are supposed to go somewhere in Väsby saying “Upplands Väsby, the home of H.E.A.T” and also a bit of chocolate rain and ending the show with “Breaking The Silence”, “Living on the Run” and “Laughing at Tomorrow”.

Thank you, H.E.A.T.

Right after, we headed over to the second stage for the last show of the day: Danger Danger.

Danger Danger

Danger Danger is the one band in this world who’ve made me go to the most odd festivals ever. Or more like, they’ve made me gone to festivals I normally wouldn’t have known off. Rockweekend in 2010 (no longer exists) and I found myself going to Väsby Rock only because of them. Danger Danger and I have this weird relationship, where I never really mention them as one of my favorite bands, but I wouldn’t miss them for anything in the world. A bit like me and Mötley Crüe. I have yet to figure out why this is.

Anyway. The last time I saw Danger Danger was actually not so long ago, it was just last year at Sweden Rock. Early day gig at Festival stage in the burning sun with a big audience was quite the difference from how it was here. Late night, a bit cold… and very little people. Judging on the crowds, I believe H.E.A.T should have been the headliners of this day. Like really.

They started off their set energetically, as I’ve always remembered them to do, and that’s the spirit they kept up during the whole show. But then, something very, very special happened.

For “Feels Like Love”, Ted Poley drags out a tattoo-artists, and gets the Swedish flag tattoed on his arm WHILE performing the song. Because that’s the kind of relationship the Swedish crowd has to Danger Danger. We love you too, DD, I promise.

The show all in all was really, really good. Such a feel-good show (what can you expect from a feel good band?) and even though I realise “Hearts on the Highway” counts as a hit, it’s still one of my absolute favorites, and the fact they keep playing is just makes me melt.

They wrapped up the whole set with “Monkey Business” and “Naughty Naughty” before saying good night and thank you for the evening.

No, thank YOU Danger Danger for being one of the best bands out there. I love you.

With all of that said, we headed back to the camp and crashed immediatley, seeing we had to get up early next day to catch Adrenaline Rush.

// Sara