Reviews

Fri 23 Jun – Hurricane Festival 2006

The following text is my report of this year's Hurricane Festival. The festival takes place in Scheeßel, a small town in Germany between Hamburg and Bremen (closer to Bremen).

This was my third festival after 2002 and 2004. I had been there 2002 mainly because of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, I enjoyed No Doubt a lot as well.
I discovered great bands in 2004: Billy Talent, Franz Ferdinand and The Pixies. Gentleman and the Far East Band, Placebo and David Bowie were also great. A pity I didn't know and see bands like The Hives and Mando Diao at that time.
2003 and 2005, I wasn't very interested in the bands or simply didn't have enough money, I can't remember. ;)
So now, in 2006, where I am much deeper into music and where I know many more artists than in the past I had big hopes for the festival.

_{See here for all the bands that were at the festival.}


Friday

Seen Artists: Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals, Seeed, Arctic Monkeys, Manu Chao Radio Bemba Sound System

Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals were cool. Their funky, bluesy Rock with a touch of soul (that's what I think it was anyway :D) got the crowd going. The bassist was very impressive and I liked the drummer, too.

I have a weakness for Reggae and Dancehall but Seeed were a bit boring and repetitive in the end.
Arctic Monkeys played well but the crowd was a bit sick where I was, the pogo was quite vicious with elbows out and all.

Manu Chao Radio Bemba Sound System were my highlight of the day, with "punk party" and laid back Reggae and (Latin-)Rock. Moreover, Manu Chao seemed to be a nice person.


Saturday

Seen Artists: The Kooks, Donavon Frankenreiter, The Raconteurs, Hard-Fi, Mando Diao, The Hives, The Strokes

Unfortunately, we didn't hear and see a lot of The Kooks. We came after they had started and trying to get into the pit we only saw them from the side. But, what I heard sounded promising, it sounded like so-called "Indie" with offbeat (Reggae) elements.

Donavon Frankenreiter was great, too. His music was similar to that of Jack Johnson which is no surprise as they are friends and the latter produced his album. I was very impressed by the drummer, his play was perfect accompaniment and he showed an amazing solo.

Surprise, surprise: The band I enjoyed most at the Hurricane Festival were The Raconteurs. The didn't do much show but they had a very clean sound which was almost exactly like the album's. Their music is special and inspiring to me. It just seems so genuine. Even the drummer has his own style of playing and therefore contributes a good deal to the originality of the band. It was interesting to see him using the traditional grip.

Hard-Fi were a disappointment. Though I cherish their album I somehow felt bored by their gig. I regret not having gone to see Wolfmother.

I know Hurricane Bar and I listened to it plenty, especially last summer but I would bet there are much bigger fans of Mando Diao than me. Still, this concert was big fun. They appeared highly motivated and gave a sweeping show. Their vocals in particular were outstanding. The two lead singers sang very well together. I wondered if and how they could be able mentally and physically to give such a convincing show at every gig but a friend of mine pointed out the importance of this performance (TV coverage etc.). Another friend thought they could also be motivated by the challenge of playing every song a lot faster (which, by the way, was something that annoyed me slightly).

The only song of The Hives on my Mac Mini had been The Hives Are Law, You Are Crime and the only other song I really knew well was Walk Idiot Walk. My notion of their music being quite uniform was proven but nevertheless, I liked their performance a lot, like at the Mando Diao gig the atmosphere was superb here and the singer made some good jokes and also explained their excellent form with their touring break of 8 months. ;)

Oh my god, now it's The Strokes. Well, they were actually the biggest disappointment of the whole festival. I had been looking forward so much to this concert. But, the problem was, Julian Casablancas was drunk and in a terrible state, his motivation seemed to have hit rock bottom, he sang badly and he did this. Nick Valensi, the guitarist jumped around and even Nikolai Fraiture, the usually exceedingly reserved bassist moved his head to the music ;), just to compensate for Casablanca's behaviour. The band left the stage early and a frustrated Valensi threw his guitar on the ground. The crowd wasn't happy at all and though some were clapping I think most of the spectators booed for more. After some time, they returned and played 2 or 3 more songs but then left immediately with at least 15 minutes left according to the timetable. Sad!


Sunday

Seen artists: Panteón Rococó, Billy Talent, Wir sind Helden, Gnarls Barkley

Well, I didn't know many of the bands well that played on Sunday, and being quite tired I didn't have the nerve to try out new ones. Plus, we wanted to pack our tents and stuff for my friend's mother to collect, so we only went to the aforementioned four bands (we only saw three or four songs of Panteón Rococó).

What I saw of Panteón Rococó was ok, they pulled out a nice Latin-Rock-Ska-Punk party, I would have liked to see more. Unfortunately, we didn't see any of the similar Karamelo Santo and Mad Caddies.

I wasn't disappointed but I wasn't blown away either by Billy Talent. The vocals were a bit weak but I guess it's hard to reproduce the sound of the multitrack vocals from the albums. If I remember correctly it was the same in 2004 which put me off them a bit at that time.

We watched Wir sind Helden from the stands and I noticed once again that though there are some songs I really like (mostly the popular ones / singles) they are far away from being my favourite band. They're ok...

We had short look at Gnarls Barkley. There were big technical problems apparently, technicians ran around trying to fix something (mics?), so they started quite late. We weren't overly impressed and didn't want to be late for Muse so we left early. However, I must say Crazy is an excellent song.

There was no Muse. :(
At first, the crowd responded to the starting rain with clapping and singing and the organisers of the festival said they would take precautions to make it possible for the band to play but the sky was becoming darker and darker, massive amounts of water came down and there were strong winds (of course, most people were wearing only tee-shirts). Soon, everyone was trying to get away form the thunderstorm. We ran to the toilets and waited for the time and the bad weather to pass but the latter did not and after a while some security guards came and told us to leave the premises so we were forced to find shelter somewhere else. We got home well, my mum collected us. Luckily, we only live 30 kilometres away from Scheeßel! :)

All in all, it was my best festival of the three I have been at (2002, 2004, 2006), probably because I just know a lot more bands now and because my musical horizon has broadened since the first festival which I'm very happy about.

Feel free to ask some questions if I left something unclear.
And don't hesitate to point out grave mistakes I made (in the language or so).