Pinkpop 2012

My second time at Pinkpop this year. Me and my brother Frank only went one day this year, because monday was the only day with and overall good line-up. It started at 12 and we saw Serena Pryne and the Mandevilles, a band from Canada. I never heard of them before, but I'm glad I went to see them. What a great band and a fantastic new discovery. I bought the album right away.

< br/> I also saw Jonathan Jeremiah. Not my genre, but pretty enjoyable, especially his opening.

The highlight for me was "Mumford and Sons" (I'm actually listening to their album right now). I love this band and their unique music. This performance was just perfect.

The headliner of this day was Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band. The whole reason we came. What a show and what an energy this man has. After so many years Bruce still enjoys performing and it's so great to watch him perform. His setlist wasn't all perfect because I expected more classics. Instead he did more new songs. But it was great.

I also saw Herbert Grönemeyer, a German singer with a lot of heart and power. And Sea Sick Steve, who made all his own guitars and was only joined by one other bandmember. Real fun guy with great lyrics. Pinkpop 2012 was a succes!

Pinkpop Day 3

For us it was the second day, but overall it was the third day of the festival. Everything went very smoothly this time. The first band we saw monday was Scouting for Girls. Didn't really expect much, but they were actually really good. Especially when they played "This Ain't a Lovesong". We saw a little bit of The Plain White T's. They are okay, but they didn't really impress me much. Beatsteaks did a better job. Never heard of them before, but a real good band from Germany. And a very entertaining lead singer. Next stop was The Gaslight Anthem. My brother told me they were very good and I can now agree. Amazing band, great songs. Really good! We saw Volbeat, but after hearing one song, we heard it all. Not very surprising. We left this act earlier to see Band of Horses. I was really looking forward to see them. And I got what I wanted. Great atmosphere and they gave me the chills a couple of times. Especially when they did "Funeral", such a beautiful song. Then we saw 30 Seconds to Mars. I really wanted to see them, but it wasn't what I expected. They started out very well and I love their music, but then it went downhill. Jared Leto is entertaining, but he abused his fame. He let the audience sing big parts of the songs (I payed to hear you sing, not the audience), he asked the people to jump every freaking song or to take three more steps forward (really dangerous, we all got squashed). And the fans.... it was like a Justin Bieber concert, all those screaming girls, come on it's a rock band! We left earlier then we planned. We got a pretty nice spot to watch the Foo Fighters and damn were they awesome. Best perfomance of the festival. And I'm seriously in love with Dave Grohl (okay, not for real but he's awesome). They played for two hours (a half hour longer then planned) and the played non-stop. Songs like "My Hero", "Times Like These", "The Pretender", "Best of You", "Learn to Fly", "Break Out", "Walk" and "Rope". They closed with "Everlong", my favorite song. And drummer Taylor Hawkins sang two songs, one of them being Queen's "Tie Your Mother Down". Those guys really showed us how it should be. AWESOME, thanks guys. Here are some photo's.

Scouting for Girls, a surprisingly fun band to watch.

Beatsteaks with the very energetic lead singer Arnim Teutoburg-Weiß.

The Gaslight Anthem. I'm glad I discovered this band!

Band of Horses

30 Seconds to Mars, a bit of a disappointment.

Last but not least The Foo Fighters. It was hard to make pictures, but like with the Colplay photos you get the idea.

My top five performances of the festival:
# 5. Manic Street Preachers/ Band of Horses (couldn't choose, sorry)
# 4. The Gaslight Anthem
# 3. Alter Bridge
# 2. Lifehouse
# 1. Foo Fighters

Pinkpop Day 1

Yesterday it was the first day of Pinkpop, the biggest music festival in The Netherlands. It's spread out over three days. Getting in was kind of a problem, so nothing ran smoothly. We needed a wrist band and we didn't get one. Ever person send us in a different direction, so it took a while for us to eventually get those wrist bands. The first band we saw were The Manic Street Preachers. Never saw them live before but we (my brother and I) always wanted to. They were awesome. They played 'Motorcycle Emptyness','If You Tolerate This', 'Design for Life' and many more. Next stop was Lifehouse, probably the main reason I wanted to go the first day. Because we had to go from one stage to the other, we mist part of the first song. But still I got to enjoy 'Halfway Gone', 'Broken', 'You and Me', 'Spin', 'First Time', 'Hanging By A Moment' and some other great songs. And I'm really glad they played 'Take Me Away', which is one of my favorite songs and they didn't play that when I saw them in Tilburg. After that, Lifehouse was going to sign. And yes! Jason, Rick, Ben and Bryce all signed my copy of "Smoke & Mirrors". I was super happy and nothing could ruin my day anymore. Not even the stupid wrist bands I didn't get at first. While we were waiting in line for the autographs, we saw Elbow and after that we saw Alter Bridge. The big surprise of the day. Damn they were good. Singer Miles Kennedy never missed a note and they had some great songs. We actually planned on leaving their show earlier, so we had a good view for Coldplay, but we wanted to see the rest of Alter Bridge. Coldplay was the headliner of the first day. They were good, nice show with fireworks and laserbeams. I got the chills when they played 'Fix You', but I kinda missed 'Lovers in Japan' and 'Life in Technicolor II'. All in all we had a great day, even though it didn't start all that well. On sunday we're going to stay home, to re-load. Monday, the last day of Pinkpop, we will go again. Here are some photos.

The Manic Street Preachers

Couldn't get closer, but I did see Lifehouse again.

My happy Lifehouse moment, after getting their autographs. The guys were super nice, Jason actually shook my hand and ask me how I was doing. Thank God my idols are nice people!

Alter Bridge, very cool band. Singer Miles Kennedy looked like Kevin Dillon.

And Coldplay, couldn't really make any good pictures. But you get the idea.

New Musical Adventures

I have a lot to look forward too. The 11th, 12th and 13th of June I will visit Pinkpop, the biggest music festival in The Netherlands. I will not go all three days, but there are so many great bands I'm going to see there. Coldplay, Foo Fighters, 30 Seconds to Mars, Manic Street Preachers, Band of Horses, Gaslight Anthem and..... Lifehouse!!! Among others off course. So I'm really looking forward to that. They already sold 50.000 tickets, yesterday, on the first day.
July 6th me and my brother will go and see Brandon Flowers. I'm a big Killers fan but I never saw them live. When we heard that Brandon was coming to The Netherlands, we decided to go to his concert. Because Brandon alone is also great. Really cool, because this is going to be his only concert in our country.
Last, but definitely not least, me and my mother will go to the musical Zorro, november 11th. Totally different from the other musical experiences, but I really like musicals. And I haven't gone for a long time. Last time was May 2010, Mary Poppins.
So there are some great musical adventures waiting for me. And I'm super excited about all of them. As soon as I visited them, you will read about it on my blog.