Fan Review: Rock im Park By RaydenLP6

Photo: LPUnderground.com – Join the LPU for more pictures!

Hey lovely readers, I’m going to tell you about my super awesome experience at the Rock im Park Festival, Nuremberg – Germany.

How it began/Thursday, 31st June:

Everything began as the bands for Rock im Park were announced. Linkin Park was one band of many. And I just had to go, because hey Linkin Park! I just HAD TO GO! So I thought: ‘Okay, when I’m going then for real’, so I bought myself a 3-days-ticket.

A good friend of mine was with me and we arrived on Thursday evening in about half an hour. (Yep, very cool to live just 20 kilometers away from Nuremberg another reason why I had to go.^^ )

After about two hours during which we searched for our camping ground, we finally pitched up our tent at the Centerstage Camping place, talked a bit and felt very excited for the upcoming days. Then on the same evening the worst happened! And I thought I have to die! (Okay, it wasn’t SO bad but for the first few moments it really was!)
You know, I got my guarantee M+G with Linkin Park on Sunday, and yeah… I packed everything just not my Linkin Park pillowcase I wanted to be signed. Shame on me! 😀

Thank God it was Thursday! Because I could call my mom, I told her and asked if she could bring it along to work because her working place is like 20 minutes away from the festival ground. She told me yes and I could sleep peacefully.

Friday, 1st June:

First of all we visited my mom at her work to fetch my LP-pillowcase. We talked a bit and then we went back to Rock im Park, because it was about time to rock!

We went to the Centerstage where we met up with another Linkin Park Fan, I got to know in person, because I only knew her from Twitter before. She’s a very kind and an awesome person and we got to be good friends in this awesome three days.

We were like in the third/fourth row and jumped to the first band Gojira, then Shinedown and Enter Shikari. Every band kicked some asses, especially Shinedown was very good!
As the third band played we said that we let us fall back just so we could easily get out of the crowd after Enter Shikari, because we wanted to change stages. So I kindly pushed my friend, with whom I came to RiP, to show him he should go backwards, because it was a little bit too loud to talk. The upshot was that we totally lost him!

So the two of us got out of the crowd after Enter Shikari had finished their setlist. We searched for him, texted and called him, but because of the concerts all mobile phones didn’t do their jobs well. I don’t know why exactly but you couldn’t call anyone who was also at Rock im Park and you got text messages 45 minutes later by the time they were sent.

That was why I missed Billy Talent and I wanted to see them. He and I said we would go there together and the girl I was with wanted to see Halestorm at the Clubtage. My friend was still lost and it was the first time I went to a festival, so I was just too unsecure to be all alone in such a big crowd. However, in the end I enjoyed Halestorm from the second row. They were very good, yet again I got to see two or three songs from Billy Talent. So everything was fine.

We fought our way to the middle of the crowd and watched half of Metallica’s concert from there. Then we changed to the Alternastage to see The Hives and a bit of Skrillex, before we said our good-byes and while she went home I went back to the tent to sleep.

Oh and yes there was my friend again! Phew, he survived! 😀

Saturday, 2nd June:

Saturday was not that problematic. My friend and I met up with our ‘new friend’ again and we just stood the whole day in the first row at the Centerstage. We enjoyed the bands, shared five ‘Caprisonnen’ together and got sun burns on our cheeks and noses.

King Charles played as the first band on this day. It was said that they’re a new band from England and that they’re just too good for the charts. I did not like the first song at all but throughout their concert I got more and more into them. Still I don’t think I will buy an album, but it was really good!

Then the Donots came up the stage. That was an awesome show and they fired the crowd up pretty good. They joked with us about Rock am Ring. A lot of ‘Ringrocker’ say that Park is just this little brother and not that good. So the Donots singer said that this isn’t right, we’re the big sister with this hell of an ass, the long legs, the mustache and the pecker. Pretty funny.

Dick Brave & The Backbeats was next. Not really my thing, but not bad. He also covered Adele – Rolling In The Deep and Green Day – American Idiot. Yeah, I didn’t like his voice so much… Green Day, okay but Adele? You know the song from her kick asses and after Linkin Park covered it, nah go home!

Dropkick Murphys, very good! I jumped all the time. The same with The Offspring, just so awesome, simply The Offspring!

And then the headline band of Saturday: Die Toten Hosen. In principle: enough said, but it’s a review, so… the show was just awesome. Campino (singer) was stage diving a bottle of beer to a worker who manual guided this spotlight after him or so I don’t know exactly what he did. Just because he bet that he would make it without losing the bottle, if not he had to pay for the minibar invoice of the whole crew. Of course he won. ^^
They played ‘Halbstark’ after twenty years again and they had this ‘Living room Tour’ going on lately, where they came to the fans homes. And he told us that like every second home asked for this one song and he told us their reaction:
“Hey, that’s the other band!”, they said every time.
But they found it kind of funny so Campino said: “But we thought you would like to hear a GOOD song, that’s why we play it now!” So they covered a song from Die Ärzte.
All in all: super fun!

Sunday, 3rd June:

My first thoughts after I woke up: “Linkin Park! Meet + Greet! Today! Oh my god!”

I went to the showers, like Saturday morning and had to overcome myself because the water was cold – like reeeally cold, but I had luck – or it was because it was Sunday, anyway, we had warm water! Yay!
So I showered, did my morning business and put on my make up. Yep, it’s not like I’m a Barbie but I put on a bit of make up everywhere I go, also I didn’t want to look that wasted in front of my favorite band!

After that, my friend and I again met up with our ‘new friend’ at the entrance to the stages. We could hear Linkin Parks sound check (Numb and With You obviously also Lies Greed Misery, but we or I did not hear it or notice) as we waited to be let in!
As we waited, we met a few other Linkin Park fans who all travelled for just this one day to see them. We had great fun in talking with them. I really love it to be like instant friends just because we’re all LP fans – simply family, huh? Great!

After we could go in, every one did this little’running-fight’ for the first row, just to be stopped at the Centerstage entrance again. The stage was still closed as long as the police didn’t give the go to let the fans in. That meant waiting again. My friend was with the other fans. So again I was alone with our ‘new friend’ what of course didn’t bothered me (because like I already said she’s awesome and this time I knew where he was. ^^)

We didn’t run, because there was no point in doing so seeing that we would go to the M&G. Okay, my friend with whom I came to Rock im Park, got one too, but he skipped it for the first row, since he had met them before, which I didn’t.

We went around, joked and hoped to meet Adam eventually, but it did not happen – unfortunately. After we met two other Linkin Park fans (I also met them the first time there – both pretty cool too) we went to the Alternastage. We saw Tom Beck, Steel Panther, Trivium and the first two or three songs from Anthrax. All bands were good. Special and very amusing to me was Steel Panther, I felt like I was thrown back into the 80’s or so. They had this cloth and ultra-long hair and played in the style from this time. I’m a 90’s kid so it was just kind of funny to actually see that and not only on TV.^^

We changed to the Centerstage for Cypress Hill, danced and jumped a bit. Then we got us all t-shirts, the new bandmerch for Living Things and stopped by at Music for Relief.

Sometime between the bands at the Alternastage, we got the LPU e-mail with the information of meeting time and point. We weren’t interested in another band and even if it was just half past four and the e-mail said we should meet at half past seven, we still went to the gathering place. We waited for like three hours and it began to rain, still it was much fun!

All four of us joked around about how it would be to be just this few people, because of course no one else was this early at the meeting point. Of course we didn’t stay only four, but to think about that was fun. About 70 fans signed in for the M&G in the end we were about… 40 or so, didn’t count them. Definitely more than just the four of us or even ten! ^^

And then, as the time came, Adam showed up! He checked his list of names and gave us our LPU M+G passes and led us to the room where the M+G was held. We saw the tour busses.

He informed us about what will happen and all that. Adam said that he would ‘love’ the Germans, because we would follow instructions so good, that there were barely problems if any. He just says what to do and we just follow it – he was amazed. German attitude, huh? ^^

We talked with him, some got hugs from him, other a picture and they sold the LPU 11 CD and the LP Underground X: Demos CD until the band showed up.

I was shocked about myself because I was so cool, no sweating or heart racing, I didn’t forgot my knowledge of English. Just nothing. I felt like I always feel, still it was surreal and a bit of overwhelming as I saw them and I spoke not much too. Maybe because it was my first M+G ever.

I was the second one who could go to them. Dave was the first.
With a very very big smile, which I never let fall again I laid my pillowcase down on the table, he signed it and asked me how I feel. Stupid me! I just looked at him, and then I thought: “Oh, what the hell! He asked me something, answer it!… Oh God! What did he ask me?… Ah yeah, oh how should I answer now?”
After like ages of just staring at each other I finally answered him that I’m very fine and thanked him. I would do everything just to know what he thought about me in this time – I would laugh at me, okay I actually do it anyway.

Rob was next. We said ‘hi’, he signed and I went on to my next little stupid moment: Chester. As I got to him he took his bottle of water to take a sip. So I had plenty of time to say something, like I wanted to joke and ask if they could take my with them to Berlin because I would be at the Telekom Streetgig too or I really wanted to say that I think that their current setlist kick asses, but no I said nothing and just waited that he would sign my pillowcase finally.

Then Brad. He smiled, pretty cool. The same with Mike and last but of course not least Joe. No much words were spoken just ‘hi’ and ‘thank you’. I think I was just overwhelmed to actually meet them. Now I could punch myself that I was so taciturn. But hey I met them, I got my pillow signed so I can cuddle with it even more now – it was still pretty awesome.

The group photo was taken, which was a highlight, because in the right front of me kneeled Mike and in the left front of me Chester. I bet I look very crappy, but who cares – I’m between both of them!

Photo: LPUnderground.com – Join the LPU for more pictures!

Then it was over. Adam accompanied us back. I went next to him and one fan approached him. I heard him tell Adam that he wanted to propose to his girlfriend on stage. Obviously he had asked the band at the M+G already. He thought it was nice and that he should wait, so he could manage it. I was amazed and a little bit pissed at the same time, because it was my dream to do that, so yeah now it isn’t special anymore. However he was faster and it’s cool.

We left the ‘backstage’ area and it was our time to do the “running-fight” to the stage! We run and run in slalom and didn’t care about anyone we nudged. At the stage we pushed us through the crowd here and there fell bad words but no one cared. In the end I was like in the seventh row and towards the end I was in the third or fourth. The show was freaking awesome and the proposal was a highlight more. It had taken place just before the bridge of Sabotage. It was very cute and sweet. At this juncture: Best wishes for them!

So an awesome weekend passed by. I enjoyed it very much, despite rain and sunburn. It was worth everything and especially for Linkin Park. Now I have to overcome my post-concert depression and I hope time will fly fast so I can see them again – hopefully soon.

Adie: Thanks so much for this review, RaydenLP6. It sounds like you had a blast at your first Meet + Greet! Also, thanks to ShineyShadow for the pictures. They are really good!
I already got three more reviews in my mail box (another one for Berlin, one for Romania and one for Warsaw) which i will post as soon as I have time again. Only after I posted those, I’m going to annoy the reviewers from the other shows to send me their stuff! XD