LIKE A BAWS - Didn't even have to show my passport at Helsinki-Vantaa airport's counter, cause the lady recognized me ;) The journey to Belgium started in a neat way for Masa as well, when he was informed that they had overbooked his flight. We were supposed to fly to Brussels with different companies, I with Finnair and Masa with KLM through Amsterdam. Since there was no space on KLM's flight, they switched him on FINNAIR'S flight - the same one as me! - that was a straight flight to Brussels and they even gave him 150€ worth of vouchers for KLM :D So all in all he paid 35€ for the flight... What's best was when they apologized that unfortunately they didn't have a window seat left on Finnair's flight 8D Masa must've been devastated ! Oh, and the fortunes continued when we realized there was a seat next to mine free, so we got to sit next to each other : )
The adventure continued in Brussels when we noticed that Masa's luggage was no where to be seen ! : D Oh well, I'm sure Masa didn't mind the 70€ worth of necessities (does that include beer?) he got to purchase on Finnair's expense ;) After some H&M shopping and Carrefour we set out to the train station where we took the train to Leuven where we hopped on the Rock Werchter Bus. We were a bit bummed to get our camping spot at camping A4 cause it seemed a bit dead... we were just next to the cool camping site A3, where I had been staying in 2009! Walking the road to from the camping site to the festival was slightly deja vuish, since that's when I actually realized I was staying in the camping site next to the one where I used to stay. Walking that straight road some twenty times three years ago had burned the image in my mind so vividly that no matter how everything might've looked the same with the trees and all, I knew I was walking the same road.
Masa's "luggage" hahahah
Swopped our e-tickets to our wristies (which were mainly white.. noo) and got our vouchers. We had time to kill as the first and only bands we wanted to see that day were The Kooks and Justice which were starting at 00:00 and 01:15 so we got some beer and went to see what else the festival had to offer. We stumbled upon Netsky playing in Pyramid Marquee and stayed to watch the young guy dj. My bro had said something about Netsky to me and he was actually pretty good, regardless that he was playing drum n bass which I usually hate to dance to!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_5KDk3IJ-k&feature=youtu.be
Next we checked out Selah Sue, a Belgian female artist I had never heard of but which pleasantly surprised me with her combination of reggae, soul and jazz. She had a beautiful voice which created a nice and chill atmosphere in the setting sun. After her performance that we had been watching as we were sitting outside The Barn, we headed back to the Pyramid Marquee which was full of people waiting to hear Skream ft. Sgt Pokes. I hadn't ever listened to Skream but knew the name from a lot of my mates so figured he was worth checking out. And right I was, weird how dubstep, a genre I rarely listen to as 99,9% of it seems to be shit, turns appealing when you are dancing to it outside in the dark with ten thousand people as the lights flicker...!
Since I was mesmerized by dancing to the hypnotizing beat, I decided to skip The Kooks as I had already seen them the previous year in Heineken Open'er. Masa left to see the band and we decided to meet up in our meeting spot after Justice. As Skream ended his set, I walked to the Mainstage and wondered who the f*ck was on stage before I realized it was The Cure. Not really my cup of tea but they were nearly done with their set so I didn't mind. Not bad though from Robert Smith - age really seems to only be a number!
I ran to line to get in front as in Werchter they have this system that they only let a number of people in to the second closest area of the stage and then close the gates so that no more people can come in (and thus the risk of people getting squished is diminished). From the second area there are one more set of gates from which the willing - the true fans - can enter to the nearest area - to the are where the magic happens!
So naturally I got to the first area - cause it's just in my genes to get into the front row if I will ;D Waited impatiently for Justice and was super stoked when they began ! But... I was really disappointed... The songs were mixed in a really terrible way, and the remixes intros weren't really something that people could dance to... Seemed like the French DJ duo were just really bored of their minds and willing to see how far away they could get with fucking around with the crowd. Then again, might just be that I'm comparing them to the first time I saw them in Provinssirock 2008. That time they were fucking amazing - I might've been pissed drunk that night but I remember dancing my ass off with this reporter girl from NY and being amazed by the light show and how everything was mixed so well together. Maybe like in Provinssirock Justice should've been situated in the Marquee tent ? Some acts, and usually most electronic/dj sets are way better in an intimate tent setting. Also, seemed like Justice had nothing new to offer. I mean, yeah i've heard that they have a new album and I've heard Civilization but that song just really bores me and doesn't make me intrigued to check out their latest abum.. Kinda seems like Justice has come to the end of its life.
Also one thing that really got me aggravated and might've been the reason to spoil my Justice experience was the crowd... HOW FUCKING RUDE WERE PEOPLE? I mean, usually when I go to a gig / festival, the music is such an amazing thing that it connects people and creates this sense of community. So no matter if I'm in a gig with Finnish people - which are the most socially retarded people in the whole white world - I know that if I'll look at a total stranger and smile at them, they'll do the same and we'll sing along together like we're long lost friends. But not these Belgians. They would respond to a smile by ignoring you and looking in the other direction ??? :D Luckily I bumped into two Dutchies which one resembled my mate Tom along his Aussie accent he had picked up from an Aussie mate and the other's eyes were an exact copy of Ryan Kwanten's chocolate eyes <3 ! I raved with them and I felt way better :) After the gig we met up with Masa who was super tired and decided to go straight to bed and I soon catched up with him.
Not bad for a first day :)
