Hellfest Review

[skinnymartin]

Hellfest had a great line up which I had raved about for days. Have no douby about it though, KISS stole the show again with another great performance - despite struggling with some minor sound problems.

Had the privelege of meeting up with Karl prior to the show who dropped in on his way down to Madrid.

The set list was a pretty straightforward one with no Shandi and no Beth. But a KISS show is always a pleasure and a privilege to see and hear, and it is still great to see KISS as a unit clearly enjoying what they are doing more and more.

Somewhere in the middle of it Paul decided to growl the odd word in his raps - something I haven't seen before - can't remember where - maybe Karl will!! Paul also did his rap about everything being live. He also got the French crowd to sing La Marselleise - of course I didn't join in - but credit to the French fans, they were excellent.

But KISS were the prefect end to a great weekend.

Twisted Sister were also amazing - the included a great cover of Long Live Rock n Roll as a tribute to Ronnie - and it was absolute class.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSanRQhz1Pw[/youtube]

[Pete]

Sounds like it was cool...

Can I ask (and I apologise for going slightly off topic) but were Twisted Sister in full make up and costume?

[skinnymartin]

No they weren't. I'll link to some piccies later. Top form though. 2nd fave band of the weekend.

[Pete]

No they weren't. I'll link to some piccies later. Top form though. 2nd fave band of the weekend.

So they have actually unmasked...interesting. I guess that's the end of Bent Brother then!
Thanks.

[grunge]

Martin? You went to Hellfest???

Thanks for the review mate & glad you had a blast.

[skinnymartin]

I did - so did someone else:



Only one of us came back with Gammy legs though:

[Goat666]

Cool photos. I forgot to take your number with me as well. Great weekend although I felt Kiss were not at the top of the tree on this occasion - thought the crowd was a bit lack lustre - in fairness i was wrecked myself so it could have been just tiredmess sapping my strength. Enjoyed them all the same.NEver get bored of that intro. Some cracking bands - Slayer,candlemass, suffocation,behemoth,nevermore,carcass, doom, maugrudegrind, yawning man,godflesh, Nile, jello biafra,omega masiff - so many good bands.

[Karl]

I really enjoyed the Helfest show, though there were only a couple of bands I really wanted to see. The mighty Saxon were great, Motorhead were, well, Motorhead, and of course Kiss.

I really didn't think Kiss could pull off Hellfest, as the line-up was more thrash/death metal based, but they put on the usual great show, and seemed to win over the crowd.

Arrived at about 3.30 on the Sunday afternoon, met up with Martin, Adam and Craig (Greg), and set about setting up camp as quickly as I could. Big thanks to Martin for saving me enough space to set up the tent, even hough he told me later, it was where someone had thrown up the night before
The tent was never going to make the return journey, so I didn't care

As soon as the tent was up, it was time to head off for Saxon. The only problem I had here was I was still dressed head to toe in motorcycle leathers & boots, and it was rather a warm day. I had to quit half way through to go and get changed.

Met up with everyone again for a beer and dinner, though managed to lose sight of everyone on the way to Motorhead. This was resolved after the set, where we met up again for beer before we headed towards Paul's mini stage in preparation for the Kiss show.

Now, we don't need to go into details when it comes to Kiss shows, but there was one strange thing tonight, as Martin mentioned in the original post.
Paul kept growling words during his stage raps, seeming to be taking the piss out of the thrash/death metal bands. I thought it was quite funny, but it got on my nerves after a few times. National Anthem time, well those Frenchies sang for their country After hearing the poor attempts made in the UK at this, it was quite a show highlight for me

No Beth during the encores, to which I was a bit disapointed, as I had been looking forward to seeing this done acoustically. I did think they would pull this from this event, as I mentioned earlier, the crowd were not really there for Kiss ballads. Everything else was the same as the UK shows, with the exception of a rather huge firework display at the end.

After the show, we headed back to the tents, but that was a complete waste of time. There was so much noise, I didn't get any sleep. Just what I needed when I was riding for seven hours the next day. Oh well.

Anyway, like I said, great show with great company.


PHOTO'S

[Dan bach]

Karl and Skinny Martin,

Excellent reviews ....

Martin, love that fire video shot you - have - so apt for HellFest IMHO.
Could you email me that pic please.

[RippingFleshFromBone]

Sounds like a brill time was had by all!!!!

That TS video...er, can i just say i am very surprised at how good it sounds! Did not expect that at all. Dee even sounds like RJD (RIP)...great song played done justice...

[skinnymartin]

Sounds like a brill time was had by all!!!!

That TS video...er, can i just say i am very surprised at how good it sounds! Did not expect that at all. Dee even sounds like RJD (RIP)...great song played done justice...

It works so well that it seems to fit perfectly into the TS repertoire.

I have listened to it loads of times.