Rock Am Ring!!

Despite the gloomy skies on Friday morning, the 3 rocker chicks (mel, char & h'annette) and me traveled down to Koblenz, a city beside the beautiful Rhein river to catch the shuttle bus to Nurburgring. Lugging a full bag of snacks, a tent and half a crate of beer, we were all set for 3 days of head banging and grooving to disco beats. We arrived at Nurburgring about midday and could already hear the drums from the Centrestage. After meeting the other Singaporeans, Gab, Ed, Cheryl, Ian & Davina, we took a long walk to our campsite where we set up our tent beside where Gab’s tent was. Despite the small area, it was an excellent location. We had a good view of the nearby hills, not too far from the stages and best of all, we were camping next to a bunch of mad Germans with a truck-load of cold beer. Thank God we made friends with them-free beer and music all day long.


Casa Viva Singaporea: Our humble campsite.


We had a pretty nice view though.


Happy campers at 3am - we were so dead!


Posing with our neighbours. They did nothing but sit along side the road, drinking, disturbing passerbys while blasting their music.


Poor girl.. caught in German cling wrap..


The rocker-wannabes... getting high at 12pm.


5-litres of Vetters from Heidelberg


Me and Ed.. all set in our Zero tshirts for the pumpkins.


Day 1

As we made our way to the stages, we caught the last few songs from The Used from afar. We managed to push our way nearer to the Centrestage to watch The Hives. Intending to keep pushing our way to the front the watch Muse, we were greatly turned off by the mad rough crowd during the next act, Billy Talent, and their punk, crappy 4-chord music. The Germans loved it, pushing and jumping around and not caring about the ladies who were being crushed in the mosh-pit. We had no choice but to push our way out of the dangerous arena. It was a good breather being out of the mosh-pit and after dinner, we made our way back for Muse. Unfortunately we could not get as close to the stage as we wanted to but nonetheless, it was an awesome performance by Muse. I always thought of them as Radiohead rip-offs but now, I think I’m beginning to like them. Maybe it was because we had a mad Muse fan among us, Annette! She owes me for sitting on my shoulders!


Muse!!


Annette's gonna kill me for this..... but she owe's me something too...

Deciding to skip Linkin Park, we made our way to the Alternastage to watch Arctic Monkeys. I was not impressed and left for the indoor arena to watch Funeral for a Friend. I guess the Germans are not big fans of them as the arena was not packed and I managed to get a place near the stage. It was really good, high-energy performance as they played all their hits. They ended with my favourite FFAF song, Escape Artist Never Dies.


Funeral for a Friend

I made my way out to join the rest to catch White Stripes. The duo’s performance was not really my cup of tea after watching FFAF but nonetheless, the drummer looked really cool. Chick drummers rock! They ended with their famous 7-Nation Army of which the riff was stuck in our heads for the whole night. By then, it was almost 2am and we were dead-beat tired and so decided to skip Evanescence and head back to camp.

Day 2

By the time we awoke from our slumber to the heavy German rock from our neighbours, it was already midday. We made our way to the arena where I and couple of others went to watch the heavy metal Lamb of God while the others caught 30 Seconds to Mars. After meeting up, we pushed our way back to the Centrestage to catch Kaiser Chiefs! That was a performance to remember. The lead singer went crazy running up and down the stage and climbing the scaffoldings while playing all their favourites such as Everday I love you less and less, I predict a Riot, Na Na Na and ended with Oh My God which had the 50 000 people jumping up and down. After such a performance, we had to sit out and rest while watching Mando Diao and Beatsteaks from afar.


Lamb of God


Kaiser Chiefs

Just before Beatsteaks ended, Ed, Gab, Annette and me (mad Pumpkin Fans) started pushing our way to the front. I never felt that kinda excitement watching a band before but the atmosphere, the crowd and the thought of watching The Smashing Pumpkins live was driving us insane. 45 minutes later, there we were, 10 meters in front of the Pumpkins stage, in the Pumpkins mosh-pit! Then the lits dimmed and the crowd went mad as Jimmy took his seat on the drumset, Ginger (new bassists who’s freaking hot) and the new guitarist came on. Billy Corgan came on a while later wearing a kimono-like gown and without saying a word, strummed the opening intro to Today. The crowd was insane as they jumped to Today. “The World is a Vampire” – Bullet with Butterfly wings came on next and this time, the crowd became really wild; pushing and body surfing. It was then I realized that this was gonna be an awesome performance. True enough, the next 2 hours were the most nostalgic concert experience I ever had. They played all the songs I wanted to hear plus some new songs from their new album Zeit Geist. It was also great to see hear some softer Pumpkins hits such as To Sheila, 33 and Disarm played on an acoustic guitar. The performance ended with the famous Zero, 1979 and Untitled. During the encore, a guest guitarist who looked like Santana came on and they played one of their new songs which more than 20mins of guitar solos exchanged between the 3 guitarists. Ich war zufrieden!


The Smashing Pumpkins - Their 2nd live performance since 2000.


Zero : god is empty just like you!

The Pumpkins Set list:
01. (01:44) Today
02. (05:13) Bullet With Butterfly Wings
03. (09:49) United States
04. (20:39) Bleeding The Orchid
05. (25:39) Stand Inside Your Love
06. (29:27) Cherub Rock
07. (34:13) Shame
08. (40:14) Silverfuck
09. (50:50) Thirty-Three
10. (54:47) To Sheila
11. (60:05) Tonight, Tonight
12. (64:43) Tarantula
13. (68:49) Starz
14. (72:53) Zero
15. (75:25) Disarm
16. (78:17) 1979
17. (82:30) Untitled
18. (90:12) Gossamer


Cherub Rock!!


in the pumpkins moshpit!

Day 3

After waking up at midday and getting really high from the free beer from our German neighbours, we made our way to watch Korn. Jonathan Davies came on with a bag-pipe just before playing Shoots and Ladders and it was really cool that this song ended with the bridge from Metallica’s One. Korn ended with their 2 famous songs – Freak on a Leash and Blind. Next, me, Annette and Cheryl pushed our way through to watch Velvet Revolver. This was another exciting performance and I never would have dreamed to see the members of GnR live. Slash was in his usual black hat, playing his sunburnt Ovasion. It was a pleasant surprise to hear Mr. Brownstone.


Velvet Revolver

Travis came on next and we were lucky to be right in front of the stage again. It was a strangely, lively performance which I thoroughly enjoyed. I especially liked it when the guitarist body-surfed the crowd while playing the solo for All I want to do is Rock! Scissor Sisters came on next for a really gay performance but it got the whole crowd grooving to their lively, disco beats.


Travis


Travis guitarist bodysurfing...


Scissors Sisters - What the hell are they doing on stage??

By then, we were burned out and cold and decided to skip Megadeth and head back to camp. Rock Am Ring was truly an experience to remember; feeling 16 and nostalgic was really super! My 125euros was really worth it! Thank you all my rocker friends for sharing this with me!

Rock Am Ring Rocks!!!