Rock Am Ring
Located at the Formula 1 circuit in Nurburg, Rock Am Ring is Germany's number one rock festival. Big names have played there and this year a number of the biggest were booked to celebrate the 20th aniversary of RAR. HIM was one of my main reasons for going, they were playing on the main stage on the third and last day.
Singning session
HIM was scheduled to do a signing session at the Metal Hammer stand at 4pm. When we got there at 2.30, the queue was enormous already. Our hope to get in immediately vanished, but we wouldn't give up that easily, so we joined the line anyway. picture The band was late, 40 minutes late to be exact, which frustrated everyone a lot. That was made up by the fact that Bam Margera would be there as a special guest. Bam doesn't do a thing for me, so I could't care less if he would be there or not, I just wanted them to get there! When they finally did I went out of the queue to try to see them sitting at the tables and took a few pictures, which you can see here. Of course we didn't get to say hi to the band. They were supposed to sign for an hour, but because they were late they had to leave after just 45 minutes to get ready for the show. That and the fact that the whole thing was badly organised pissed me right off. They had a lot to make up for at the show later!
HIM
Getting to the front of the stage was madness. Billy Idol was playing before HIM and we tried to get as close to the stage as we could during his set, but got stuck at the center-barrier. When Idol (who was better than I expected) finished, a lot of people were leaving the first section, while at the same time a hell of a lot of others were trying to get in. I have been to quite a lot of gigs and some queues and crowds were nasty, but this was plain horrible. All I could do was let myself be pushed into the direction the people around me were going and try not to fall. One of my friends later told me she had been truly scared of being crushed. There suddenly was an opening that we pushed through and then it was all over. Adrenaline rushed through my body while I made my way to the front of the crowd. I ended up where I wanted to be; Linde-side, third row. Nice detail: while we were waiting for the band to arrive, some guys was pulled up onto the stage by the presenters and proposed to his girlfriend. She accepted.
When it was time for the band to get on stage, Bam appeared again: "I came all the way here from Philadelphia to see the best band ever, so here it is, it's fucking HIM at Rock Am Ring." Yay. Ville said hi and then they kicked straight into Right Here In My Arms. Excellent opening song and a very welcome change from the usual opener Buried Alive By Love, but the sounds was crappy. The bass and drums were too loud, the guitar and vocals too soft. The only thing that was on the right volume was the keyboard. Migé's vocals were too loud as well, but it was nice to be able to hear him sing. By the time they started to do The Sacrament it was a lot better. The crowd was not as bad as I expected, but there were a hell of a lot of crowdsurfers coming over! Apparently I was standing right at the crowdsurf-highway because Bam was sitting at the edge of the stage right in front of me.
The setlist was great! It was a different order than usual and they had left in my favourite songs Soul On Fire and Your Sweet Six Six Six. With the new album just being recorded (due out at the end of September), we hoped they would play a new song. They did! First up was Killing Loneliness, which sounded awful to be honest. The chorus was ok, and maybe it was crap because it's a new song that they haven't played live a lot yet, but I didn't like it. Towards the end Migé's bass broke down and Ville ordered the band to stop. He was visibly pissed off and made an angry comment about needing a decent bass in order to be able to play. The second new song they played was Vampire Heart. Now this was great! Rocking guitar-riffs, nice piano-bits and good lyrics! Good old HIM style! The crowd was a lot more excited about this one than Killing Loneliness! I am very curious about the new album. Your Sweet Six Six Six had us all jumping around and the crowdsurfers were suddenly going mad again. I saw some people coming past again while we had pushed them over the barrier only a minute prior to that. They finished with Funeral of Hearts. I don't really like that song, but I have to admit that it sounded very good that day! While Ville left with the usual 'see you soon' and a quick wave, all of our attention was focussed on Migé. He was smashing his bass violently until it was completely destroyed and pushed over his amps. I don't know if it had anything to do with why they were late for the sigingsession, but the vibe the band was giving off the entire show was not good. Their minds didn't seem to be on playing. Especially not Ville's. Burton was smiling and waving at the crowd, Gas was his cheeky self and Linde was being Linde, walking around and showing off his new tattoo, but Ville seemed annoyed. He was doing his job, singing the songs, but he sang fast, sometimes almost mumbling. His accent was very American after spending months in that country recording the album, especially when saying heart. He didn't say much between the songs, just 'thank you' and the occasional comment about something. The charming Ville Valo was nowhere in sight. The band was very good during the last couple of songs and it was a shame that they were only on stage for 55 minutes. They left when they were just getting into it.
Verdict: Though the setlist was good, the vibe that was coming from the stage was not. It was an ok gig; not very bad, but definitely not one of their best either.
Pictures of this gig are here!