My unhealthy addiction to cigarettes wears hard on me. I tried to quite multiple times but alas those times were mostly breaks before I started again. Sometimes longer (even a year), sometimes shorter (three days till yesterday). So it might be time to actively do something against it. My punishment for the pack of cigarettes that I smoked yesterday is simple: I won’t go to the Eläkeläiset concert in a few days. Concerts are the one thing dear to me, maybe missing some of them reminds me that I want to stop smoking in my weaker moments.

Also I might need a carrot matching that stick. After I’ve bought one of those limited NiN Ghost CD sets last month I’m in dire need of record or blue-disc player (yeah, I’ve opted for the very limited autographed set). That will be a perfect gift to myself after, let’s say, one month of not smoking.

The day after I watched the godfather of Grunge one of the founders of the Gothic scene visited Vienna: The Cure. They did a lot of strange music but I really dig some of their unplugged albums. As long as they wouldn’t play too much disco synthesizer music I might be happy.

Life tends to surprise. No synthesizer, also no pure accoustic stuff but lots of Alternative Rock led, sometimes scourged, forward by Robert Smith’s unearthy voice. He by the way still looked like “pop culture’s unkempt poster child of doom and gloom“, albeit some pounds heavier around his waist. The music worked for me, I started moving to it and wondered three hours later that the concert was over. Some people meditate in silence, I relax at the sound of electric guitars.

The last song was, of course, “Boys don’t cry”. This comes somewhere after “Nothing else matters” and “Hurt” when it comes to willingness of the audience to sing along.

The bad thing is, that after Neil Young and The Cure I got the feeling that the best concerts of 2008 are already over..

 I would tell you that I loved you
If I thought that you would stay
But I know that it’s no use
That you’ve already gone away

The Cure - Boys don’t cry

Neil Young payed Vienna a visit today and I couldn’t resist.

It was situated in the Vienna International Center which is a large conference hall. I got my seat at the edge of the 33rd row which in hindsight wasn’t that bad.

The supporting band was Peggie Young, Neil’s wife. She played some slow Country love songs. Nothing to get exited about but better than most supporting bands. After her an announcer asked the audience to turn off all cell phones as they would interfere with the sound system. I thought it to be a cheap shot, but I was wrong. More about that later on.

The stage got prepared: There were around half a dozen guitars, one banjo and two piano standing on it. Quite enough for a band. Then Neil entered the stage, wearing a white suite. He sat down directly in the middle of all instruments, took a guitar and his harmonica and played a slow tune. After the first few songs there was a theme detectable: Neil would stand up, walk around confused like an old grandpa and select an instrument and just start playing a tune he’d like. Also he reacted to the audience, after an ‘take the banjo’ he really played it. Cool! After the third song I couldn’t stay at my seat as I got some people placed next to me that were to chatty. So i got up and walked down the isle and stopped around the 13th row, leaning at the wall. Much more pleasure.

The end came after 70 minutes. Way to short for me, but I thought that Neil isn’t the youngest anymore so it was okay for me. I walked a bit disappointed down to the T-shirt stands and chatted with a security lady. She finally told me that this was just a break and the show will go on soon. I took my place at the 13th row and watched Neil reappear.

He was dressed in a black suite, covered with paint, every bit the rebellious. The instruments had disappeared but a band manifested: four rather old guys, everyone reminded me of kinda of  my grandparents. Neil’s instrument was a black E-Guitar. And he knows how to use it. What followed where 110 minutes of pure rock. The cherry pies were the long (10-15minutes) soli.. unbelievable. I’d never thought that I would jump to cinnamon girl, but there was no way in hell that I wouldn’t. Did I already mention that I went forward till i was in the second row, directly in front of Neil, two arm’s lengths away? I never seen anyone so absorbed and happy while playing guitar. Standing quite at the front I was also able to observe the instruments and amps. It seems like he got all his old hardware. There were amps from 1978 and one black guitar looked like from around 1985. All of his instruments were good taken care of, but you could see the bare wood through the polish, a sign of frequent use. The old hardware in combination with Neil Young and the band: perfect.

Another nice idea where the paintings. A guy put up a painting after each song began, on them was the title of the song and a picture illustration about the lyrics. I think the same artist was responsible for the paint drops on Neil’s black suite.

There was also a moment of fear: the ground literally was shaken when ‘Rocking in the free world’ was played. Too many people were jumping. That’s the way the song needs to be played, it even beats Pearl Jam’s interpretation.

So in short: Best Convert Ever! Also a new thought entered my head: I want to get old.

I want to live,
I want to give
I’ve been a miner
for a heart of gold.

Neil Young - Heart of Gold

Today a long dry spell was ended: at last I attended another concert. The main act was KoRn as perfect as ever. Jonathan Davis (including his potbelly) still can animate the crowd, although I must confess that the Gasemeter’s sound crew fscked up again and almost nobody could understand him. As the band started I was standing with some friends of mine, after the very first song my place was the second row. It’s almost an instinct: as soon as there’s the chance of letting of some stress through music I must get near it.

Another Highlight was the second supporting band: Fly Leaf. While I knew the band (”I’m so sick” as some of my friends might know) they seemed a little bit to monotone for my taste. But they finished with “something I can never have” which is one’s of Nine Inch Nails best songs. Those of you that know me might image how I reacted.

I’m currently very aware of my neck.

So I finally managed to get to a concert again after a long three week break. It was the “The Dark Crusade” in the Gasometer, headlined by Machine Head.

The bands:

1. Unnamed opening band
   Only heard the last three songs, but those weren’t that bad.
   A little bit on the boring and monotone side but not bad at all.
2. Arch Enemy
   A small Blonde that can out-growl most metal bands.. amazing. I’d just watch them again for the stage show and the fun factor.
3. Dragonforce
   I laught a lot about the band. It is just to much Iron Maiden/Manowar for me. Rather disappointing, the rest of the audience also near-hated them. I mean, honestly, only G3 is allowed to use ventilators to keep their hair floating..
4. Trivium
   Wow! They played ‘Anthem (We’re the fire)’ and ‘Becoming the Dragon’. The soundsystem was disappointing or the vocalists voice just wasn’t able to transfer the album experience into the real world.. but still an act to watch in the future. And that brings me to..
5. Machine Head
   I never banged my head that hard during a concert. Really. While the sound still wasn’t as good as I wanted they just rocked. There was also right enough audience interaction that everyone went absolutely apeshit (to quote Pantera)

Nothing more to say except Metal On!

So I’m back home from the Sziget festival in Hungary. What are its results? I made the following promise to my body for the next week: no drink/smokes/gyros. The first amazing realization was the similarity between Vienna, Budapest (where the festival was held) and Bratislava. The festival wasn’t that well organized (there weren’t even extra busses or hevs (subways)) but nonetheless it was way smoother than NovaRock 07 or Aerodrome04. Maybe that was just the mentality of the people. I also suspect that not understanding anything said made the people and environment way nicer.

I was at the NiN concert (no surprise here), it was great. I wasn’t able to attend the Tool concert as this was on the forth festival day and motivation to move from my friend’s flat to the festival place was to low. I just read that Tool’s frontman Maynard Keenan canceled his appearance on this week’s Frequency festival due to problems with his voice– hopefully this will be soon solved. Another act which I was eager to watch (Chris Cornell) had to cancel his appearance at sziget due to the same reason. His slot was filled with Juliette and the Licks. Maybe it was just the feel of loss,or she really sucked that hard. The main act were The Killers which I’ve seen before at Nova Rock. As I knew more of their cds by now I really enjoyed the concert. There were plenty of other bands (Hives, Razorlight, P!nk) which were seen and the World Stage was populated with great musicians from all over the world.

But the best part of it was staying in a country with a language which I just don’t understand. No computer, no mails, no television, radio or magazines (which I’d understand).. felt really great.

Only few days are left before I will (hopefully) disembarking to this year’s sziget festival. As of now absolutely nothing is organized: I neither have tickets nor any clue how I’m getting there. The only think that’s for sure is that I’ll be standing in a crowd, waiting for NiN on Saturday.

Also I’d like to see a bit of Budapest when I’m over there.. and I’ll need lots of luck.

The last two weeks could be described with just one word: work. Both university and project related tasks happened to coincided which drove the amount of sleep that I managed to get to new lows.

Whoever wrote the BPEL engine for Glassfish/Java Application Server: I despise you. But don’t worry too much, the same holds for those ActiveBPEL guys.

After those two weeks I needed hard drugs, also known as concerts. A friend of mine got ill and needed someone to consume her Beatsteaks concert tickets. Concerns about a exam that I’d have the day after the concert were considerated for around two seconds and an Open Air concert at Vienna’s Arena it was. As I hadn’t slept much I tried to stay in the back (which worked for approximatly thirty minutes), vibes where great, seldom I wanted to shake as much. Two hours later, the inscription on their base drum “hope I die before I collapse” got a very special meaning for me. Soaking wet, but happy I took the long way home. This was the best concert since Pearl Jam’s last year, this means that they overtook NiN what is quite hard to do.

The last concert where I’ve been was Built to spill (Post-grunge alternative rock band, with falseto lead voice). While it was good it got tiresome too soon. But my endurance was quite rewarded by their thirty minutes jam session after the main concert.

My body’s bruised, but I will return to the Arena the day after tomorrow for the Wolfmother concert.. tuesday will be filled with pain.

From time to times I have a little love affair with nu-metal. The latest one was after KoRn played at the aerodrome festival two years ago and I had a short flashback today before the Deftones concert.

The affair was short, intense and later on painful. Before I continue I should state that i rather know the earlier songs of the band. I was standing around the seventh row when the concert started: i was in the middle of the mosh pit in other words. After trying to escape into the back the second song began: ‘Shove it’. I fell into a known ‘I-am-alone-at-a-concert’-pattern of mine and ‘escaped’ into the second row where I stood the rest of the concert.

First of all it was loud. Really loud. That I stood three meters from the loudspeakers could have something to do with that. But the ‘Arena’ is too small to stand more away than that. Already a little bit handicapped after the NiN concert two days ago I do not look forward to tomorrow. The coming day is already foreshadowed by pain.

Just awesome. After thirty minutes or so they had played ‘Mr. Selfdestruct’, ‘Heresy’, ‘March of the Pigs’ and ‘Closer’.. and still got better. ‘Hurt’ live is in the same leage as old Metallica songs and Pearl Jam.

If you hadn’t been there, don’t miss them again. I mean it.

They destroyed some of their instruments, I didn’t find any usb sticks though.