Allright, now I have second Sonisphere behind me. This time it was two day festival. Man, it was very dramatic experience in good and bad.
I havent much to say about Saturday, not too many metal bands. Serj Tankien wasnt particularly interesting. Alice In Chains was surprisingly good, but considering what kind of music they play it dragged on IMHO. I've never been into them, or Grunge overall. Volbeat was a surprise, fun and energic. I surprisingly liked it. Apocalyptica is always fun to watch too. The Cult, not intersted but nice. Negative, blah. 69 Eyes, blah. HIM, double blah. It was a last band to play so we picked our stuff and left. Only truly good band on that day that I would have enjoyed so much would have been Stam1na but it was first band to play and I had to pick up my friend from train station and train was very late. And this was the official festival train for ***! VR, we know you are infamous for late scheludes but when official festival train is over 30 minutes late, EPIC FAIL! Jesus!
Also I got sunburns... nice... But sunday, oh boy. It started really good, with VERY DISASTEROUS middle and nice ending.
Imsomnium started the day. Wow, I really digged them. Finnish melodic deathmetal, but not in Norther and such way but much more closer to Gothenburg stuff, the better ones. I have take a closer look at this band
Profane Omen was nice, not my stuff but it was better than anything on saturday.
Anthrax was fricking awesome! I dont like their CDs but on live it was a blast.
Mokoma is always great so no comments there.
Slayer absolutely slayed. My neck and throat hurt a bit from headbanging and "singing" with Raining Blood and Angel Of Death. I was in heaven, so to speak.
Then disaster struck. We noticed a wierd looking cloud on the horizon, not too far away (And oddly enough it looked like a dragon head, everyone noticed
) Few minutes after Slayers set the festival was struck with strong downburst storm. It was possible that there was a small Tornado too somewhere according to news papers, or a Trombi as we Finnish call those. If there was, it was impossible to see anyway. But downburst storm was certain and what caused damage. Suddendly there was rain and hailstones flying almost arrowstraight to one direction, and thats the direction where the broken or loose equipment was also flying. Couple of Food and store tents were torn down and one was sent flying about 20 meters or so too. It was quite nasty feeling when water and small ice pieces are battering your back. It was also almost impossible to breath when the burst peaked! Only way I could get some oxygen was quick surface-breathing, hyperventilating sort off. It was very nasty feeling. Luckily the peak lasted only few ten seconds. But I would rather not experience that again anytime soon, feeling of getting drowned is not exactly fun. What elevated the mood was people singing a clichee finnish hit-crap song about storms and one joker screaming "Gods are angry at us". This disaster happening right after Slayer gig, I giggled at the irony within.
Second stage where Iggy Pop was just about to start was completely busted. Stage itself was standing, but equipment were destroyed. Luckily the main stage suffered only minor damage. 40 people were injured. 2 of them were relatively critical and sent to surgery, 6 was sent to hospital to patch up. Rest was luckily minor and were patched on festival, and most of those small injuries were caused by alcohol, people intoxicated falling in the storm. So we were very lucky in the end.
We were extremely wet and very miserable. I was so wet that even if I would have jumped to lake, it would have not made a difference to worse... this also marked a death to my brand new Nokia 5230 cellphone+navigator, it got completely soaked too. There went 125€ down the drain, guess how happy I am.
But we managed with unhealthy doses of childish humor, singing childrens songs about spider and rain.
So there we were, standing in muddy grass or flooding asphalt, waiting for what will happen to this festival. Yes, we waited. We are finnish and wont let such a minor thing as mother nature spook us.
Only few people left during the storm, but still after the storm the festival area was practically still at full capacity.
They managed to get audio equipment on mainstage working and made announcement that second stage was so badly busted that it wont be used anymore. Iggy Pops and Motley Crües equipment (who was preparing to play on mainstage) were also totalled. Motley Crüe had to cancel to some peoples chagrin (saw some lady Motley fans borderline crying). Iggy Pop however refused to let us down and cancel his gig, and to bring up to mood he did come and play 4 songs, SEMI-ACOUSTIC. Crowd was clapping the beat and one of the Stooges was playing acoustic guitar and one was playing saxophone. It worked and was fun.
Unfortunately 4 songs is too short for Iggy to get any messed up ideas, bit dissapointing...
In any case, while I wasnt expecting Iggy (other than his wierd ideas his music is quite unknown to me) my respect for him skyrocketed. If he ever comes to gig in Finland again, I want to see it.
After this we got good news. While some of Alice Coopers and Iron Maidens equipment were either damaged or too wet, Anthrax and Slayer loaned theirs to replace them so they could play the full gig! YAY!
Alice Coopers show was fantastic, though I didnt see the whole show as I was starving (and tired) and had to get something to eat so half of it I had to listen. Probaply a mistake.I really should have watched it to the end.
Iron Maiden was also fricking good. Dissapointingly they focused on either very new songs or very old ones, which I dont particularly like or am not familiar with. But it was still a blast. Bruce Dickinson was running and jumping (and slipping, it was still wet) like Duracell/Energizer bunny on speed. Even if he slipped at and fell at the beginning of the show, singing still started right on time, IN MIDDLE OF THE FLIGHT. It was both funny and awe-inspiringly awesome at the same time, a true professional!
So, I still had fun, despite getting sunburned on one day and soaked in cold water on second (heh). I definetly want to see Sonisphere next year too, hopefully this time without violent storms... I guess I can brag that I have survived Sonisphere of Pori 2010 too.
*edit* You can read a bit about it in here. I guess there are more information around the net too.
http://fi.sonispherefestival.net/freak-thunderstorm-hits-sonisphere-finland/
http://uk.sonispherefestivals.com/2010/08/iron-maiden-iggy-and-alice-help-save-sonisphere-finland/
*edit2* Heh, just read that the storm also hit the airport, and there were small Tornados there! If there were Trombies/Tornado on Festival is not certain, but on airport there was. And Iron Maidens (or actually thier roadies) airplane took a hit! o_O
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU5RglfZz5k
