Rockavaria - Day 1

Bonaparte – The Hives – Babymetal – Kvelertak – Muse

Luckily, thanks to my work place shutting its doors early cause we all went to the festival, I was able to leave just in time to catch Bonaparte [7]. Despite having seen that band twice already, they never disappoint to entertain. Though, organizationally speaking, they were rather misplaced on stage at such an early hour. Personally think that they simply are more of a past-midnight band. A festival closer, if you want to. Due to the early schedule, the arena was hardly filled so the party-factor wasn't too high either which drained the atmosphere a little. Too bad, really, cause the band and their ridiculously messed up performance was as great as always.

Next up were The Hives [7] and while the area had gotten a bit more crowded meanwhile, the people somehow didn't feel like partying all too much still. Rather fitting for all crowds in Munich, to be honest. If you're not big enough to constantly get played on the radio, you just might not be good enough for those folks.

The Hives didn't let themselves get irritated by that though and put on an ace gig. Adding to their good mood, it was Per's [vocalist] birthday who didn't let himself get brought down by the lack of response. Though the people did get awoken from their comatose state by some of The Hives' bigger hits such as 'Tick Tick Boom', during the encore.

Up next, on the stage inside the Olympiahalle, Babymetal [5] were about to start with their rather odd show. Due to the awful sound inside the hall, it was rather hard to depict any musical specialities apart from the odd mixture of little girls singing along innocently to heavy metal riffs. Most of the crowd wasn't sure what to do with what they were confronted with and ended up simply staring at the three girls on stage. The rest, me included, celebrated the hyped band with cheers and fittingly odd dance moves. Sadly, thanks to the terrible sound quality, as mentioned, you weren't really able to enjoy their performance to the fullest cause of having to leave the hall again after a few songs to not leave the first day of the festival already with an ear infection.

Back outside, it was already time for Muse [9] to hit the mainstage. The reviews and videos of that band bringing absolute madness to their crowd did not exaggerate. Not only did they have a rad light show, paired with brilliant sound management, the band itself also delivered exactly what they promise. Even though the fact that they headlined a festival called 'Rockavaria' got a lot of critic due to them not fitting said name, they definitely shut down those who doubted them with their performance. Matt Bellamy's voice did not differ from the record at all, if anything, it sounded more impressive live. Definitely a personal highlight to finally have experienced their show first hand. Their set had a great mixture of old songs, hits and newly released, and even unreleased, songs off of their latest record 'Drones'.

To end the day, I had actually planned to watch Limp Bizkit tear the Olympiahalle a new one, sadly though, the organizators had decided to close that venue down, saying it was already full inside. There is picture proof though that the GA arena and the seats were far from being 'too filled'. There had been several organizational mistakes throughout the day, but this one certainly was the most disappointing one. To close out people from watching a band who paid to see them, together with many others, when there clearly was enough space for everybody. Especially considering that 70% of the crowd were busy watching Muse end their set on the mainstage, it was a letdown to have to turn on experiencing that show.

As a little aid, I ended up at the Kvelertak [8] gig on the club stage. The crowd there gave off about the same energy as the one standing at the mainstage watching Muse. Having seen that band multiple times already, I knew what to expect (especially with no new releases ever since the last live set) and got nothing less than that. While I still got absolutely no idea what these guys are screaming and singing about, it's always a fun time with that Norwegian bunch of metal heads and their catchy music.