I just donated my DNA to be dropped into the Marinaras Trench, along with 4999 other people. Sweet. Now I’ll have a backup.

Third day…and I’m starting to feel it…

Yesterday was one heck of a day, and my feet are still yelling at me for doing such a thing to them. Very busy day of shows, and long day of shows.

Started at 2pm listening to the Swedish band First Aid Kit from outside the tent. There were too many people inside to get any more people in. It sounded good: 2 sisters singing more folk/acoustic songs.

Went over to the Japanese band Mono instead. If you like Mogwai, Tortoise, Battles, or sometimes heavy instrumental rock, this is the band for you! Wow…what an amazing sound out of just 4 people. I got some great shots of the girl rocking out with her long, flowing, black hair. What? It was the only angle I had!

I thought I would take advantage of the Nikon Professional Services that are on-site here. I checked-out a 500mm f4 Nikkor lense! Check it out! I should have had a monopod for it, because this is a monster of a lense! I put my small backpack on backwards just to have some sort of support for my arms to hold this thing up. It’s almost 40cm long, and weighed 3800g! Yes…my wrists were sore after handling that thing for a couple hours. “Big” cameras aren’t allowed in the pits up front (where people are allowed), so I had to stay just outside of the pits, at the front of the second security barrier. That was perfect for me though. With that lense I could zoom in and get a full person in the frame just perfectly. I think I took around 10gbs of photos of Faith No More with that lense? I was pretty much fixated on the singer the whole time.

Faith No More was the next show. I had a great standing spot. I had a great lense… and the show was incredible! They opened with an old song… something about “reunited”. Very fitting, since they just reunited from a 12 year break. They played during the day, so there really wasn’t any kind of light show. But they all had on matching pastel suits. I enjoyed hearing and seeing people’s reactions to such a monster lense. I don’t know how many people wanted to look through it. I did meet some nice Danish people before the show started. One of the guys teaches at a school in Greenland! I can’t wait to check out his photos. I returned the lense after the show. As much as I wanted to keep it forever… I felt a little scared that something would happen to it, or some drunk would dump beer on it.

The Mars Volta was next… one of the most amazing bands, that I’ve never seen before, and looked forward to the most… and did they deliver… I will post some videos and photos when I return. Just an amazing show. They didn’t do anything insane on stage… but just delivered a performance that was amazing to me as a TMV virgin. The singer and guitar player were just amazing together, along with their backup band of another 4 guys. The singer used a big white microphone, real high-quality sounding, that you don’t typically see used live. He has some incredible dance moves too…and handstands!

After the show, I checked in my backpack and most of my carrying posessions, and headed over to the main stage. Oasis just started. I like their music, but come on, they have no stage presence. I got in line right away to get into the front pits for Nine Inch Nails. Had to stand in line for 2 hours just to get up front. I had a good view of Oasis though and it sounded good. Me and a guy next to me took turns buying beer and holding our place in line. Good festival!

And then…the final act of the night… the band that has the honor of being the very first concert I ever saw in my life… and then one of the best shows I ever saw in Milwaukee… and now… potentially the last time ever to play live…. NINE INCH NAILS!

I got a great spot up front and could see the whole stage quite nicely. It was worth standing in line for 2 hours. Trent was a little destructive in the beginning, on his equipment, but you can tell he is getting older and maybe wiser. And oh my gosh…has he been working out! His arms were the size of my legs, and I’m not sure if he has a neck anymore… The guitar look liked a toothpick in his arms! Great show though… great visuals, incredible instrumentation, and great stage presence by everyone! I think he relied on static loops playing early in his career. But last night, almost everything was played live! Live drums for his music is just amazing, really. They played for 2 hours too. I was so tired after that, I just went home to sleep. The sun was beautifully coming up over the horizon when I crawled into bed at 3am…so pretty…

My allergies caught up with me a little today… I slept in a little, but then started sneezing so much I had to get up and take a shower. I feel so spoiled taking a shower everyday this year. In years past, I was lucky to get one shower the whole week. My feet, ankles, and lower shins are starting to kill me. So much walking and just standing. It’s a good pain though!

Happy 4th of July!! Why isn’t anyone celebrating here…

Today’s lineup… And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, Elbow, Fever Ray, and Pet Shop Boys.

Same routine: shower, coffee, internet, repeat. Slower today for shows, which is good, my feet are still screaming from yesterday. chk blog.

Borrowing a 500mm f4 lense for the Faith No More show. It’s so big it has it’s own strap and makes my big camera look like a point ‘n shoot!

Morning blog post and coffee, and now to start day2 of festival!

@diegopulido You just named my fave list! nin/tmv today!

Another day, another shower, another cup of coffee…

Yesterday was quite eventful. The festival area didn’t open until 5pm, so I had most of the day to expore the empty festival area, and even did a little looking around in the west camp City. I’d stand around mostly, just checking out people and taking photos of the crazy ones.

I asked a volunteer next to one of the main entrances, “Do you know if it’s going to be crazy when the gates open?” He said, “I don’t know. I DO know! It’s going to be crazy! These kids really want their music!” I scoped out a spot that might allow me to mount a camera, and get a interval shot of the whole action. There are a lot of poles holding up hamocks near the gate and my little gorillapod nicely held my small digicam quite nicely on top of a pole! I started shooting still images every 30 seconds at 430pm. There weren’t too many people then, but the spectators slowly gathered. They even needed to rope off the area so no one could get in the way of all the people running in. There were cheerleaders getting the crowd ready, and even a guy dressed in a rabbit suit leading the mad dash!

Right on time the gates opened! They did have to check each and every wristband, and check bags for bottles, but after the security check everyone ran to chase the rabbit! I thought this was going to be a short animated movie of still shots… but still 3 hours later people were still pushing to get!

I was able to fashion a laptop cable lock to secure the camera to the pole, so I wasn’t too worried. But still, two guys that “thought” they knew cameras had to mess with the camera and mess up my flawless animation! Why is that guys have to mess with everything, and girls just point and stare?

In the process of taking the photos, I did meet some nice people though! First guy was right up there with me for the mad dash. Mike is from Canada but moved to Copenhagen and does cabinetry. He built a bar in the festival area for a friend. Later on when I was sitting off to the side in the shade, stalking people with my long zoom lense, I met a group of Swedish/Norwegian kids. They were really nice and friendly, with some quite funny stories, and one sad Swede who was dissappointed that Lil Wayne cancelled his show. I ended up hanging out with them, having a few beers, and hanging out at their camp, named “The Second Best Place In the World to Get Laid!” They had homoerotic playing cards hanging up all over the place. Nice.

Band review of yesterday…

St. Vincent was excellent! I stayed for half her show. She is quite dynamic on stage, really getting into the music! I was so far up front that I couldn’t see the stage that well, but I did get many great shots of her.

Kanye West was quite dramatic and very good too! When I left St. Vincent, he was just starting. He was on the main huge stage. Really nice and simple stage setup: he was on an elevated platform with most of his musicians with a huge LED screen behind him. I don’t know any of his music, but what I heard was actually really good. I have a few shots of him, but only with my 300mm zoom from quite far away.

Headed over to see Mew then, in a large side tent stage. I have their first 2 albums, and their new album comes out later this summer. I saw them once in Chicago in a small bar. And here, they fill out the 2nd largest stage here! (20,000 maybe?) I don’t know what happened, but they got weird since their last album! The curtain dropped and 3 of the guys were wearing long black ropes and masks, just like “Eyes Wide Shut”. They were singing strangely and playing some bongos? What? Even when they started playing their music, they kept the robes on for awhile. Quite strange. Music was good. I think I like their older stuff better, but whatev.

Left towards the end of Mew, in order to get to the main stage for Trentemoller (DJ). Tried to get up front, but didn’t work, and now I’m glad I didn’t. I always forget how much the Europeans LOOOOOOVE their electronica dj’s!!! Wow! The show was pretty good, well, it sounded quite amazing, but the stage show of weirdly dressed people walking around slow with big sticks… not so great. He had some special guests too, but I didn’t know who they were. He didn’t start until 1230, so I left around 2am. I could hear him from my camp, and I think he stopped around the time the sun starting coming up…maybe 3/330am?

Today…

I was thinking I’d wear jeans today… no chance! It is soooo freakin hot again!! Music starts at noon today. I’m hoping to see… Mono (japan), maybe Grace Jones (?), Faith No More (usa), maybe some of Oasis (uk), The Mars Volta (another world), maybe some of Royksopp (norway), and of course Nine Inch Nails (usa). Supposedly this might be one of the last NIN shows. They don’t start until 1am, so this will be a late night. I’m holding up for the most part… feet are sore already, but I’ve been religious about sunscreen. I’m not going to let last year’s sunburn happen again! That’s all for now.

Ending the night downloading memory cards, eating a snack, and listening to my neighbor tent snore…hmph!

Such decisions: what concert to borrow a nikon D3 and a 200-400mm lense?? Hmm… check my posts here: http://www.euronero.com

Day 1 of the Roskilde Festival 2009! This is my 4th year in a row attending, but my first year with a Media Pass. What is a Media Pass?… Well, it gets me almost anywhere, and more!

I’m currently sitting in the Media Center, using the internet for free, with a cup of free coffee, waiting for my phone to charge for free, and waiting for my Nikon dSLR to be cleaning by the Nikon Professional Service, also for free! It is quite sweet in here. I think I might borrow a lense later too, for free… maybe the 400mm f4 or something?? Hmm…

I woke up this morning to birds chirping outside my tent. I never thought I would hear such a thing at festival. But this year I’m camping in the Media Camp, which is on the north side of the stages, on the opposite side as all the other camping. I took a shower this morning at the Media showers, which were inside the school that I’m camping near. Real plumbing for a change! After the shower I got dried off by the special Media personal drying service. They were quite friendly and cute… ok, just kidding! Why should Media privileges stop there though!

I walked around one of the two ”cities” they have, where all the food is centrally located for the commoners! Walked around the skate park and some camping areas too, and then walk around the main stage some more and inside the festival area. The festival area opens at 5pm today, so it is mostly empty now except for workers/volunteers and of course, Media. I haven’t seen any rockstars yet, but I don’t know if I would know if I saw any anyway.

It’s only taken 4 years to figure out how to pack for festival, and I’m still learning. I forgot kleenex this year, oops. I did remember alergy medicine for the first time though! It is so incredibly hot today…better than rain though! I’ve had cold rain here before, and that is the worst, by far!

Today’s bands to see… Petter (swedish hiphop), Mew (danish rock), St. Vincent (american woman member of polyphonic spree), and Trentemoller (scandinavian DJ, whom I saw his special stage setup last night, and oh my goodness will that be an incredible show tonight!).