Event:	Raismesfest
Written by:	wrathchild, Jeff
Published:	11.10.2006
Galleries:	Raismesfest 2006 - Sunday by Jeff (74) Raismesfest 2006 - Saturday by Jeff (51) Raismesfest 2006 by wrathchild (6)

Raismesfest 2006, Raismes, France, 9th of September

Table of Contents

Introduction
Saturday 9th
Skeptical Minds, Marlyn's, The Outburst, Stereotypical Working Class, Steel Pollution, Pure Inc., Myrrhe, Dagoba, Tronckh, Watcha, Epica, Freak Kitchen
Sunday 10th
Atlantys, Manticora, Lonewolf Corp., V8 Wankers, Valkyre, Leaves' Eyes, Kells, Andromeda, Cristal, Axxis, Adagio,
Edguy
Conclusion
Acknowledgements





Introduction
Overview
Raismes is a small town located in the North of France, close to Belgium. The Raismesfest started 9 years ago as an indoor melodic metal festival (mostly rock, prog, power) and never stopped growing since then. It first turned into an outdoor festival, using a sort of castle as a background, and became a two day festival in 2002 (Edguy was one of the headliners that year). By taking place early in September, the Raismesfest marks the end of the Summer festivals and opens the touring season.
There are two stages: the main stage and the small stage for promising bands. Bands on the main stage play from 30 to 90 minutes depending on the schedule, while every band on the small stage plays 20 minutes.

Weather
This year, a bright sun blessed the festival. This wasn't the case last year, so you can imagine it was important for the success of this new edition.

Camping
The camping is located inside the festival area, since the latter is delimited by a wall. This year, to face the increasing amount of people, both the right and left side of the entrance were used. The price is ?5 per tent but there's no shower... Instead, you can have breakfast!

Food & drinks
Speaking of food, two stands serving typical "fast food" were placed on both sides of the main stage. Not really what I'd call good food, but you know, it works. Note that you pay food with normal currency.
However, you need to buy coupons for drinks. Drinks can only be purchased at the bar. They have beers (Heinekein and Affligem this year), cola and water (and maybe orange juice, but I'm not sure). You cannot take any bottle with you inside the festival area.

Specials
At the bar, you could also ask for free earplugs, which was very useful (not only to prevent ear damages but also to sleep).
On Saturday night, a special meeting was held in a nearby room. Normally, only the members of the festival's website forum were invited but there were far more people. It was a great moment and we could meet and discuss with many people, now friends.
I've also told you about the breakfast, consisting in bread, jam, orange juice, milk and some coffee. Everything is on a table and you just have to help yourself! Of course, this is possible because the Raismesfest is not a big festival (yet it's becoming bigger and better every year).
Right after breakfast, we could attend Adagio and Manticora's sound checks, both bands offering the crowd one full song.
Finally, thanks to a partnership with Ibanez, you could win one guitar per day! Mattias Eklundh (Freak Kitchen) signed the guitar of Saturday's winner, while Stéphan Forté and Edguy signed the other guitar on Sunday. To participate, you had to fill in a survey about the festival and give ?1. The winners were announced before the last show of the day.





Saturday 9th

Skeptical Minds
Marlyn's
The Outburst
Stereotypical Working Class
Steel Pollution
Pure Inc.
Myrrhe
Dagoba
Tronckh
Watcha
Epica
Freak Kitchen

Skeptical Minds
wrathchild: We were still setting up our little camp when the first show began on the small stage. Skeptical Minds, composed of 3 musicians and a female vocalist, were a surprise to me as I expected something softer, with more electronica (see their MySpace). Even though it took away the specificity of their sound, it was perfect to launch the festival.





Marlyn's
wrathchild: Marlyn's is a local band whose motto is clear and simple: beer, sex and rock'n roll! They won the battle of the bands that took place earlier in May and so could open the festival on the main stage. Their songs are written in French in accordance with their motto (here are two title translations: 3 am, luxury whore) and hopefully, their friendly attitude on stage is also in the same vein. Just look at Jeff's shot of the singer/guitarist during his solospot!
But Marlyn's weren't very lucky that day: the PA on the right wasn't working during the first half on their show, and we could barely hear the first solo they play. Later, one head amp died... Despite all those problems, they prefectly accomplished their mission and offered the audience a great entertainment.

Jeff: Marlyn's was the winner of the Raismesfest "young band" contest 2006. This band from the North of France plays a pure "old school" Hard Rock and their lyrics, in French, talk about our society. Musically-speaking, during their set, Marlyn's wasn't so revolutionary but their music was full of energy and for sure our guys were really communicative with the audience. It wasn't something new, but it was a good way to start the festival and the best thing with the band is that they were all with us in the festival field listening to good music, and partying, of course?





The Outburst
wrathchild: The Outburst had to get on stage earlier to fill Steel Pollution scheduled slot, as the latter were late... That's probably why the first thing I noticed about the band was the bad sound they had. Too heavy for me to distinguish everything. As with the other bands, it got better with time but their overall sound was a bit monotonous. Nevertheless, I enjoyed their show, mostly because of some good riffs and an active frontwoman who can easily switch from growls to clean vocals. Along with Skeptical Minds, The Ouburst were the most promising band we could see on the small stage this Saturday.





Stereotypical Working Class
wrathchild: Called only two weeks before the festival begins, Stereotypical Working Class is a rather unknown band that had to fill what was originally going to be Green Carnation's first show ever in France. After their tour with Tristania got cancelled, Green Carnation tried to find a solution to play in France, but couldn't, so they had to cancel their appearance at Raismesfest... Too bad.
But what was worse was that Stereoypical Working Class is nothing like Green Carnation. The speaker announced them as being influenced by Deftones, so you can imagine people who had bought their tickets to see Green Carnation were very disappointed. I was, but I know this is never easy for the staff to quickly deal with quality replacement, so I thought "let's give them a chance, after all, the band name isn't that bad". Unfortunately, the music was, at least to me. There's hardly a thing I liked - from their clothes, haircut and such insignificant things to their songs.
Not a bad performance, but a rather standard one that did succeed in creating a small moshpit. Also, more lights and smoke were used despite the show taking place in the afternoon. It may not seem very important but to me it is, since it helps getting into such early shows.
Not a bad moment, but it could easily have been better.

Jeff: They were at the Raismesfest to replace Green Carnation. And I'm sorry to say that but, in my opinion, it was a mistake. Not that the band was so bad, but only because they were not linked with the great music of Green Carnation. Actually, Stereotypical Working Class is a bit like the French Papa Roach, or something like that. Even if a lot of people seemed to like them, I know that a lot of French Progressive bands were probably better to do this replacement. It was just not my cup of tea?





Steel Pollution
wrathchild: Since they arrived late, Steel Pollution probably didn't have enough time to do their sound check properly. As a result, the men in leather jackets started with a really bad sound, which became lighter (and better) afterwards. As strange and lame as it may sound, I don't remember everything about their music. It was probably more rock than metal, and I know I had the feeling that I wasn't looking at "rebels in leather" but rather at shy guys trying hard to convince the crowd that their music was punchy (and it wasn't, it "looked" awkward in fact, especially after one cymbal fell on the first song...). A "not very good, not bad either" show. Their friendly look was what stood out the most to me.





Pure Inc.
wrathchild: Few people really knew Pure Inc. and some expected something average from them. But everyone praised the Swiss rock band after their show. I'm not really a fan of their music and right now I can't remember any passage from any song they played, but I would still go and see them live again if I could. They all were in a good mood, especially their singer, Gianni Pontillo: charismatic, dynamic, talented and funny! The only thing I regret was that the sound was somehow percing through my ears but at the same time, that gave Gianni's long screams even more power (really impressive).

Jeff: Without any doubt, Pure Inc. was one of the best surprises of the week end. With their mix of Hard Rock, Metal and Grunge, the band from Switzerland did a really good show. Gianni, their singer, was just exceptional, full of charisma, humour and I don't even have to talk about his voice which was just amazing. A lot of people enjoyed the show and a lot of them stayed there to applaud the bands after its performance. For me, it was just the proof that Pure Inc. completed perfectly its job of opener.





Myrrhe
wrathchild: What to say to explain what failed in Myrrhe's performance? I don't know, they may haven't toured a lot in their own area, and given the lack of information about them on the Web, that could explain that no one attended their show... Well, I saw two or three people leaning on the fence in front of the band, as well as some people passing by, but it was really cruel to see such a void. In fact, I did like most people did: I sat down and relaxed. The band never stopped playing, bravely facing this situation. Their music is hard to define, but I can say it's not really heavy, somewhat varied and with some funky passages. I think this band has to work on developping a strong musical identity.





Dagoba
wrathchild: Dagoba is a band from my country but I had never heard of them until they get added to the bill for Raismesfest. They were supposed to bring a more aggressive music to this peaceful festival and they did, thanks to their thrashy metal (not really thrash, and unfortunately, not the thrash I like). They - along with Watcha - also brought younger people this Saturday so you can imagine that this was the best moment for moshing and slamming. The singer even asked for a circle pit to take place while introducing the song The White Guy and to my surprise, it succeeded (it's quite unusual to see moshpits at Raismesfest). But from a personal point of view, their show didn't do it for me. The music failed to attract me as well as their slightly provocative attitude on stage - especially after having seen such enthusiastic performers as Pure Inc. Fortunately, they proved to be friendly when they walked in the festival area and talked with their fans after their gig.
A good show for many people but me.

Jeff: Dagoba was the next band of the afternoon. It was obvious a lot of (young) people were there for them. With their Nu Power/Thrash Metal, the band from Marseille did a powerful show full of energy and "anger". They asked to the crowd to do a "circle pit" and it worked! The guys of Dagoba were all really impressive but in the end I found their performance a bit boring. Not that it was bad, but it was just a bit repetitive.





Tronckh
wrathchild: The headliners for the small stage on Saturday won this "prestigious" place at the battle of the bands. While we complained about "core" bands invading last year's small stage, this year, Tronckh was the only band whose music approaches this genre. In fact, the music was a lot better than what I expected, very varied. I can't really write more about them, since we were stuck somewhere else, waiting in vain for some informations about possible interviews...


Watcha
wrathchild: Watcha are the most famous "nu" metal band from France. That doesn't mean they play bad music, but that's something quite new for the Raismesfest (and for me). Actually, this was their final show for the current tour and this was also the last show for two members (the bassist and the drummer), before they part ways with the band. The memorable moment of their show was without any doubts when they covered the disco hit "And The Beat Goes On" but apart from that, my ears hardly remember a thing. Ah yeah, I think it was also one of the member's birthday. There was a significant part of the public that were wathcing them and participating to their show.

Jeff: The organisation wanted to attract some new and younger visitors to the Raismesfest and they chose to add Dagoba and Watcha, which are both very well known to the "young" French metalheads. Raismes was the last date of the the French Nu Metal band's big and long tour and actually, it was also the last date for 2 of their members who wanted to leave the band. I saw this band in 1997 on the tour for their first album, and at this time let me tell you that their music was really heavy (close to Death Metal actually) and their shows were really cool. Now, after four albums, Watcha is more a mix of Groovy Pop Metal and the show of the Raismesfest, even though if it was extremely professional, was a bit boring for me. My musical orientations are clearly not the same now so I suppose that it didn't help a lot but also, let's be honest, Watcha was just better in the past?





Epica
wrathchild: I had seen Epica on stage only once before, at Graspop 2005, contrary to many people at Raismesfest who are getting used to seeing them (for instance, the band played in a nearby city in April and later in Belgium). That's why they have a pretty big fanbase here, but also some people who are bored of seeing them. Anyway, that night, they did their job. Nothing to fancy about even though it was their last european gig before they spent some time touring the US. We've got a new song, called Never Enough and sounding more poppy than the usual Epica song. They also played a cover song of Death, which seemed highly appreciated by the audience. Even if I'm not particularly familiar with the band, I think their show was good, but not as enjoyable as their performance at last year's Graspop. Of course, many people (me included) would have paid a bit more attention to their show if that evening was less cold... so we could see more of Simone :

Jeff: I don't remember how many times I saw Epica in the past (but a lot of time for sure), but if all their precedent shows were good, this one was just their worst. You know, when it's always the same setlist, with always the same songs and when a band tours non-stop during at least two years, it's obvious at the end that it is just impossible to manage to do something good. The musicians were all tired, the light show was not so good (it was like impossible to take some good pictures)? it simply didn't work. This date was also the last one in Europe for the band, before an American tour and an upcoming break to write the new album. I can tell you that this band is able to do amazing shows (really!) but it wasn't the case at this Raismesfest. Obviously Epica needs to do a break?





Freak Kitchen
wrathchild: My first Freak Kitchen concert, finally! The freaky Swedish band is well known in Raismes, since that's where they played for the first time in France, 2001. They came back in 2003 and Mattias held several guitar clinics in this part of France since then (the last one was in June). Even though they experienced some probles with the sound (especially at the beginning: on the first song, we just couldn't hear Mattias' guitar at all), they played a great set, quite heavy (including many songs from the album Spanking Hour and some more rare live tracks such as Hollow, from their first album), and as usual with the band, quite humorous. I didn't laugh as much as I expected but we've got our faire share of jokes, from Chris' military clothes to his gas mask (given by someone from the staff) to Mattias' solo using a toy with lots of trafic sounds (after he told us that the roundabout at l'Arc De Triomphe in Paris was the scariest thing ever). Two children even went on stage after they put on the gas mask that Chris had thrown to the audience. A very friendly atmosphere, but unfortunately, some people just didn't belong there... Mattias stopped two songs because of "fights" taking place in the crowd. I can't tell whether it was real fights or just people moshing (cause they were people constantly moshing at their songs) but that's just not the thing to do when attending a Freak Kitchen show. How ironical: one of those two songs was Taste My Fist...
In the end, I really enjoyed this show. Freak Kitchen is a one-of-a-kind type of band.

Jeff: I was there to see (once more) one of my favourite bands and even if I saw some better performances from the Swedish combo in the past, it was a great way to finish this first day. As always, IA, Bjorn and Capman were there to produce a really communicative show with the audience (they even took a little kid with them, who was wearing a mask that Capman threw in the crowd in the middle of the show). Full of jokes, fun and evidently great music, we all had a good moment with the Swedish combo, even if they had some real sound problems at the beginning and even if they stopped playing twice because of some drunken people who were violently moshing on the left of the pit. They played some of their hits like Razor Flower or Silence but they also played some songs like Jerk that they don't put a lot in their setlist in general. A lot of people were there to see them, and I think that they were happy of the result. All in all, we can say that the last concert of the day was "freaky goodie goodie tip-top" (the connoisseurs will understand what I mean?)






Next:
Sunday 10th
Atlantys, Manticora, Lonewolf Corp., V8 Wankers, Valkyre, Leaves' Eyes, Kells, Andromeda, Cristal, Axxis, Adagio,
Edguy
Conclusion
Acknowledgements


Photos by Jeff and wrathchild. All right reserved, do not use without permission.