ROCK HARD FESTIVAL 2017 – Dinner For One

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Adam Nergal Darski, Alia O'Brien, Amen, Amphitheater Gelsenkirchen, André Kvarnström, Angel Witch, Battle Hymn, Behemoth, Blood Ceremony, Blood Of My Enemies, Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel, Blues Pills, Bochum Total, Carcass, DAD, Deep Purple, Devil Man, Dinner For One, Dorian Sorriaux, Dust Bolt, Electric Wizard, Elin Larsson, Fighting The World, Furor Divinus, Hail And Kill, Hammong organ, Helene Fischer, Helvete Oberhausen, High Class Woman, Horisont, Iron Maiden, Jefferson Airplane, Jethro Tull, Ketzer, Kill With Power, Lady In Gold, Lord Of Misrule, Lucas Gadke, Manowar, Messe Noire, Michael Carrillo, Michael Kelso, Miss Sophie, Ora Pro Nonis Lucifer, Queen Of Spades Photography, Robert Pehrsson’s Humbucker, Rock Hard Festival, Rockspektakel, Ross The Boss, Sean Kennedy, Somebody To Love, Steven Hyde, That Seventies Show, The Dead Daisies, The Eldritch Dark, The Satanist, The Vintage Caravan, Ván Records, Wasted Years, Welcome To The Night, Zack Anderson

Same procedure as last year, Miss Sophie? Same procedure as every year, James – Skål! This is not an untimely attempt to awake year festive spirit, which should be the case at least if you have the same country of origin as I do, but a bit of a nostalgic retrospect on the past 13 years of my annual event highlight. Though I missed the very first time of it, Rock Hard Festival has become the only event I have been visiting since 2004, skipped it three time between 2006 and 2008 (for very different reasons) and have been to every single year since 2009. This makes a total of eleven and nine consecutive years now and nine passes as well. Pretty excited to find out what bands will perform at my personal anniversary in 2018. But let’s take a look back on this years‘ event: The weather was amazing for the most, I watched quite some more bands than last year and met many old and new friends.

Love that Carcass shirt!

My plan for the first day was to hike all the way from my place in Essen to the Amphitheatre on Gelsenkirchen. But to the weather being at its very best, I feared to melt while in the sun and decided to drive as far as I could, using public transportation and just walk about half an hour through the Emscher Park. Thanks to the metal „dress code“ I didn’t even walk alone and arrived right on time to catch up with Susan – my sweet partner in crime, Queen Of Spades Photography. After a first bit of sight-seeing, it was time for the first few bands. Dust Bolt turned out to be a legit opener, while Robert Pehrsson’s Humbucker are more on the laid back side. A bit to „harmless“ if you ask me. Our great expectations regarding Mantar ended up sorely disappointed. This is just not the kind of music/band/stage acting, I enjoy and it’s not even that they are bad at what they do. It’s just not my thing. The Dead Daisies are the living proof that you can rock hard and enjoy yourself on stage even past an average age of 30. The current US „supergroup“ are easy on the ears and know how to entertain a sophisticated audience. After a rather sloppy dinner – well yeah, my pulled pork burger was really sloppy and lukewarm – it was time for Friday nights‘ headliner and my first must-see item: Blues Pills.

Don’t need anything to get high but their own music: Blues Pills

Can’t even say it for sure, but the last time I’ve seen Blues Pills must have been at Freak Valley Festival 2014 – the very same year they first appeared at Rock Hard. Back then they were a sweet afternoon treat and have been touring, promoting and working relentlessly for three years. Many discussions if they are worthy of headlining one of Germany’s most important metal festivals started upon their announcement. As someone who has known this band pretty much from the beginning and has worked with them in the past, I know that they do „deserve“ it. It’s not only that Blues Pills deliver, you can see, hear and feel during every single who how much they enjoy it themselves and not I single time I’ve seen them did Elin’s voice sound wornout. But let’s focus on what really matters: they were great! The setlist featured a very well selection of their two full-length records, EPs and two cover songs. Kicking off with the title track of their current album, „Lady In Gold“ which cracked the official German album charts on #1! Elin truly if a lady of gold with a golden voice and tonight she was also a lady in black, earning her the name „Helene Fischer of Metal“ from someone at the Deaf Forever forum. This is a great comparison, cuz both are blonde beauties from the north (in case you didn’t know, Helene was born in Siberia), great vocalists, talented performers and look amazing. Unfortunately I had to leave early, to catch a bus and missed out „Somebody To Love“ and one of my faves „Devil Man“. But I’ll be catching up with them at Bochum Total and Rockspektakel in Hamburg.

Setlist Blues Pills

Lady In Gold
Little Boy Preacher
Black Smoke
Bliss
Won’t Go Back
Little Sun
Outro
Elements And Things (Tony Joe White-Cover)
You Gotta Try
Astralplane
High Class Woman
Ain’t No Change
Gone So Long
——————
Somebody To Love (Jefferson Airplane-Cover)
Devil Man

Sweden’s sweetest temptation of Rock: Elin Larsson

Saturday started off as a wonderfully warm day with just two bands catching my attention. Not so much a day for a band like Ketzer to enter second one might think, but the Colonge-based five-piece. But hell, did they deliver. It might not have gotten dark across the waterside venue, but the spirit of their blackened trash was received by the masses. Weird to admit, but this was my first time watching and consciously hearing Ketzer and yes, they do have at least one new fan: me! And this will clearly not be the last time. Random note: Guitarist Chris has a cool The Devil’s Blood shirt and vocalist Gerrit (and yes, his last name is Schwarz, meaning „black“ in english!) has a pink kiddy umbrella, so cute!

Setlitst Ketzer

Satan’s Boundaries Unchained
Starless
The Fevers Tide
When Milk Runs Dry
Godface
He, Who Stands Behind The Rows
The Fire To Conquer The World

Master of Black Masses & Black Metal: Nergal

Taking the rest of the afternoon to relax on my couch, I return to the dusty grounds of RHF just as Exodus finished playing. Round two of festival food turns out to be a slightly overpriced case of asian noodles with hot sauce and a hint of veggies. Could have been worse, but it could have been better as well…And three songs and no flash of D.A.D. later, we find ourselves preparing for the second headliner. Another first time sees the night, as I finally see Polish Black Metal masters Behemoth for the first time (those few minutes at Wacken 2014 while passing by in the Hell band bus do not count!). And even though I haven’t really been that big of a fan in the past, I am totally intrigued by their 2014 massive musical monument „The Satanist.“ Right in time at dusk, the trio states its first plead with „Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel“, followed by „Furor Divinus“ and „Messe Noire“. My personal black mass peaks with the infernal hails of „Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer“. If my neck and fiercely flying hair won’t summon the dark lord, vocalist and guitarist Adam „Nergal“ Darski most certainly will. „Amen“ to that and yes, this pun is of course intended. And if you haven’t guessed it yet, the band is playing ist current record in its entirety. Nothing to complain imho, cuz it really is the only one I know song by song and happen to love it! Can’t even say at what point I leave the scene, but it’s my bus call again…worn-out, tired and sweaty, I take off happy as one full-time music nerd can possibly be.

Setlist Behemoth

Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel
Furor Divinus
Messe Noire
Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer
Amen
The Satanist
Ben Sahar
In The Absence Ov Light
O Father O Satan O Sun!
Ov Fire And The Void
Conquer All
Chant For Eschaton 2000

Gone pro with stage props: Behemoth

The final festival day begins with a band I just recently discovered. While they were on tour with Angel Witch, Susan and I have been hooked on Night Demon. They are such an awesome live band and some of the greatest people you’ll ever meet, if you have the chance to. After their show at Helvete metal club, we partied with them till 4:30am. Oh yeah! Starting their appearance with the opener of their latest output “Darkness Remains” might seem a bit strange, cuz it’s a bright sunny day. Still „Welcome To The Night“ is inviting the slighty zombified masses to join them to one heck of a show. If you enjoy straight forward Hard Rock with a touch of NWOBHM, Night Demon from Ventura is your new favourite band. Last into their set is a very well-known and heartwarming received Maiden classic: „Wasted Years“. But this time the Amphitheatre has an audience that some headliners will not attract and only few bands to play first on the last day will ever see.

Welcome to the Night Demon!

Setlist Night Demon

Welcome To The Night
Full Speed Ahead
Maiden Hell
Curse Of The Damned
Ritual
The Chalice
Screams In The Night
On Your Own
Night Demon
Black Widow
Wasted Years

I’m under their spell: Blood Ceremony

Up next my favourite Canadian export enters the stage to bring some early darkness to the city of Gelsenkirchen. Blood Ceremony are the ever so charming and living proof that a Hammond organ and flutes do contribute to contemporary music and are still as present as Deep Purple and Jethro Tull. Throw in some of the most endearing female vocals you can imagine and you know what to expect from these four musicians. Their six track setlist features songs from the 2013 album „The Eldritch Dark“ and their latest creation „Lord Of Misrule“ from 2016. The latter one sounds like something a 60s garage rock band could have done and all members of the band totally live the spirit oft he hippie era throughout the show: Guitarist Sean Kennedy with his blue jeans, BC band shirt and brown suede vest ist he epitome of cool and let’s me think of „That Seventies Show“ – just image Hyde with Kelso’s head! Michael Carrillo changed his shirt in favour of w black wife beater; good thinking cuz as the drummer he might be sweating the most and with arms like that he might as well show the (off). Bassplayer Lucas Gadke took off his shoes and rocks the barefoot style, way to go bro. And last but clearly not least there the enchanting chanteuse, flutist and organist Alia O’Brien. To quote Susan on this: I realised my closet is in need of a blue velvet turtleneck onesie!

Setlist Blood Ceremony

Old Fires
Goodbye Gemini
Drawing Down The Moon
Half Moon Street
Lord Of Misrule
I’m Coming With You
The Magician

Ready to fight for any battle hymn: Ross The Boss

The final serenade for me will be that one band playing songs from that other band no one wants to admit to like but in the end everyone will go all crazy when any of their songs will be played in any metal club. You know that one, the one with the fur bikinis, striking poses and high-pitched vocals many opera singers will be totally jealous of. In one word: Manowar. And in three words today: Ross The Boss. So very bosslike the old hymns work at this very present day. With „Blood Of My Enemies“ I just let go and get lost into the music like there is no tomorrow. Night Demon’s Armand who watches the band along side Susan and me is no stranger to those metal anthems either. Some „Kill With Power“, „Fighting The World“ and „Battle Hymn“ later, I’m good to go (home that is). And what better note to end the event than „Hail And Kill“?

Setlist Ross The Boss

Blood Of The Kings
Death Tone
The Oath
Blood Of My Enemies
Kill With Power
Thor (The Powerhead)
Sign Of The Hammer
Fighting The World
Metal Daze
Battle Hymn
Hail And Kill

The event for the whole family: Rock Hard Festival!

All pictures courtesy of Queen Of Spades Photography

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Psychorizon – Featured on Rock’n’Vintage

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Almost Famous, Alunah, Apocalypse Now, Blood Ceremony, Clerical architecture, Courtney Love, Crucified Barbara, Elvis Presley, Essen, Full Metal Jacket, Gallons Of Mud, Grand Magus, Groan, Grunge, Harasai, Hole, Interview, Jefferson Airplane, Jex Thoth, L7, Motorjesus, Northrhine-Westfalia, Orchid, Pop Art, Psychorizon, Rock'n'Vintage, Romanticism, Sigiriya, Soph Alunah Day, Surrealism, The B52s, The Byrds, The Cement Garden, The Devil's Blood, The Donnas, The Mamas And The Papas, Uncle Acid And The Deadbeats

Well I might not have done so much for the page during the last few days, but check out this really cool Interview I did with the fabulous Rock’n’Vintage Blog.

It was great fun to be on “the other side” for a change and it might answer some of your questions as well.

 

Thanks to Soph and enjoy it!

THE ACE OF CUPS – Psychedelic Circles And A Swirl Of Rock

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60s, Denise Kaufman, Diane Vitalich, Female Musicians, Golden Gate Park's Panhandle, Haight Ashbury, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, Joan Baez, Jorma Kaukonen, Marla Hanson, Mary Ellen Simpsons, Mary Gannon, Michael Bloomfield, Muddy Waters, San Francisco, The Ace of Cups

As the San Francisco scene was about to bloom during the 60s Marla, Denise, Mary Ellen, Diane and Mary (left to right) found each other right in the middle of it: Ashbury and Waller St. where they played their first few notes, in Golden Gate Park’s Panhandle with the smell of patchouli oil in the air, and where they opened for Jimi Hendrix. It was a creative time when you could choose to pursue anything that was new. It was a time of change, people could be anything that they wanted and music was the most important thing the express this spirit.

The Ace of Cups at Golden Gate Park’s Panhandle

The Ace of Cups played for the sake of the music, not for the possibility of stardom. Although with the no other girl bands around during that time in San Francisco the possibility was there. The band’s name came from a Tarot card: Five streams of water flowing from the hand of the Almighty The five girls were going with the flow wich took them to the Straight Theater on Haight St., the Avalon Ballroom, the Fillmore, where Bill Graham introduced their opening, the Carousel Ballroom, on the road with Jefferson Airplane to Vancover, Canada and to Winterland opening for The Band. In Chicago, where they opened for Muddy Waters and Michael Bloomfield, they went to the south side with renowned drummer Sam Lay where he had the Ace of Cups play at his club.

Inspired by Joan Baez, Mary Ellen Simpsons started guitar lessons were at age twelve with a woman named Naomi Heali in the desert. Later when she was about twenty and a psychology major at San Jose State she met Jorma Kaukonen, before Jefferson Airplane even existed, and he gave her a couple of lessons on playing old blues.With stanting ovations after winning first place at a high school talent contest, Mary’s mind directed her towards playing music professionally.

Born and raised in San Francisco, Diane Vitalich listened to the big band sounds and loved the jazzy vocalists. She took piano lessons, ballet, tap dancing, and modern dance. During high school she was singing and dancing in a doo-wop group, and hung out at Mel’s drive-in where the outdoor waitresses wore roller skates. It was the drums that made Diane dance and she began sitting in with any band that would let her just to get the experience of playing drums in a band. She even dreamed of playing drums in a all-girl group, and that’s what happened.It was 1966 in the Haight Ashbury district that Diane met the girls who would become The Ace of Cups, and she would be dedicated to this group until 1972.

Mary Gannon was 23 when the band first got together. She worked as a Kelly Girl and then at First Savings and Loan as a receptionist/secretary, was attending night school at UC Berkeley and also San Francisco State. The year was 1965.
Things started to happen – very low key: after quitting her bank job and dancing at a “Go-Go” place for a while, Mary hooked up with Marla somewhere in the mix of fresh communes and off beat music.

Marla Hanson was born in San Francisco into a musical family. Her father played guitar and piano. He was also a writer. Her mother was a Columbia starlet and met her dad at the studios in Los Angeles, California where they lived before Marla was born. By the time she was 18 Marla hated L.A. and was ready to do anything but stay there. Together with her friend Joel Beverly she decided to went to San Francisco. With only a bunch of stuff in a laundry bag they took a bus to SF had no place to stay. They made their way to Haight and Ashbury. Marla ended up living at 408 Ashbury, a block from the Haight, in a commune. There was an old upright piano there that she got to play.

Marla met Mary Gannon on Haight Street at Tracy’s Doughnut Shop and they became friends. Mary lived on Waller Street and there was an old upright piano in her basement. That is where Mary first got the idea of starting an all girl band. So the two tried to start one and it became the Ace Of Cups. One night Mary was skimming through a commune in upper Haight, and came upon a furnitureless room which was dark except for the fire of a beautiful female drummer sitting at a complete drum set and playing away. Another time a guy was hanging around and lent Mary a bass to learn it. That same guy knew a girl named Mary Ellen who played guitar.

The girls didn’t have a “concept” at that time – a thought of what they were going for, but that was soon gonna change when the fireball with the cowboy boots and a full set of harmonicas showed up. She was Denise – Denise Kaufman has been enthralled by words and music for as long as she can remember. Studying piano at the S.F. Conservatory of Music, spending five years in an amazing theater company called The San Francisco Children’s Opera and spending summers living outdoors in the Santa Cruz Mountains at Deep Woods Camp for Girls where she learned to sing harmonies under the redwoods and the stars. She wrote poetry as a child, studied piano for seven years, then started playing guitar at 14.

By the time she met Mary Ellen at Blue Cheer’s house and had a great time jamming with her. She had already been playing with Marla, Mary and Diane and invited me to come meet them. The idea of playing in a band of females was completely bizarre to Denise. During the early phase of the Ace of Cups all members lived in the Haight and often practiced at Fantasy Records where Denise worked. Her boss Max Weiss had even helped them rent an organ, a couple of amps and some drums. In a couple of months The Ace of Cups had about ten songs.

Over the years the Ace of Cups never lost track of each other and even had a reunion on Kauai, Hawaii where they played and recorded music, swam in the ocean, broke bread, and celebrated a record deal with Ace Records.

Inspiration: The Ace of Cups Homepage