Vainstream Rockfest 2017 Impressions & Gallery

The beginning of July found me in Munster, Germany, covering Vainstream Rockfest for www.unraveled.eu. Despite the rainy weather and people not letting me move even with my camera over my head, I had a great time shooting the festival. I also got to see some of my favorite bands and interview a couple of them. You can read a full report here.
But let's take it from the top, and it's gonna be a long post. Don't say I didn't warn you.

The cheapest way to reach Munster was flying to Hamburg and then taking a train. Thankfully the flight wasn't super early so I made it to Hamburg in a reasonable time. So far so good. Booking a train ticket through a 3rd-party website can be a pain in the arse, though. Mainly because you think a seat is automatically reserved but turns out it isn't. The option to choose a seat, and apparently to reserve it, would come with a cost. Had I known beforehand, I would've bitten the price ~~tag~~ bullet. Fast forward to Hamburg's train station. After waiting in line for 20' to ask about my seat, I made it to a counter where I immediately greeted the lady and proceeded to ask in English what I wanted. The lady, on the other hand, responded in German only to continue (in English this time, amused by my confusion) in a strict tone that "it's really rude to walk up to her and not ask her first if she speaks English or not", and that "she wouldn't come to my country and speak German assuming everyone else did too". I bit my tongue and swallowed my snide remark that no one is stopping her from doing so at any given time, or that, since she's working at customer service in an international station, she is sort of obliged to speak English; otherwise she would be underqualified and replaced by someone more capable. Eventually, she told me that it's up to me to find a seat and sent me my way.

Architects

While She Sleeps

The Black Dahlia Murder

Northlane

I found out what she meant on the train. Long story short, and after a fellow passenger was kind enough to explain how not reserved seats worked, almost halfway through the journey I finally found one. By the time I made it to Munster, I was running behind on my schedule, but I was so tired from all this adventure that I needed to wind down at the hotel for 30'. The doors to the opening night would open at 18:00 but the show wouldn't start for another couple of hours. I freshened up and headed towards Skaters Palace, where I got my credentials, and entered the venue. Turned out that it wasn't packed as I expected it to be, considering that the opening night is a free show for ticket holders, on a first come first serve basis mainly due to the venue's limited capacity. At that time, my headache was only getting worse and I turned to beer to ease it.

Fallbrawl went up first. Their music kept me entertained for the 30' they played, not really affecting my headache. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case for Vitja. As I've already mentioned in my review, they weren't my cup of tea although I could clearly see why teenagers are attracted to this kind of music.

Vitja

Fallbrawl

Walking out of the hall to get myself another beer, I ran into (quite literally) a certain Jeremy Hiebert of Comeback Kid, who informed me that they arrived a day early and decided to catch the show. Sounds fun. Deez Nuts went on stage starting off with the hits straight away. You can't realize the size of the German market unless you go to a hardcore show and start observing the crowd. Right after they finished, Comeback Kid hijacked the stage and did an impromptu jam of "Wake The Dead". Damn, this song sounds great even with only one guitar. Some brave guy ran from the side of the stage, attempting to crowdsurf. In his defense, he made it in style over the barrier; I have no idea where he landed though.

Deez Nuts

The day of the festival required an early wake up call. I had to face 2 main problems; the weather, ie. showers throughout the day, and the large bag restriction due to security reasons. Yours truly had to improvise on everything. I borrowed a motorcycle raincoat (cheers dad!) and I weatherproofed my camera by measuring and cutting a circle on a zip lock bag based on the diameter of the lens, and securing it with a rubber band. I put my mini tripod in the raincoat's pocket, my 50mm. lens in the inner pocket of my jacket, and I arranged my necessary items (wallet, notebook, cellphone, voice recorder) and the camera with the 24-70 mm. lens in a bag insert/organizer inside a regular backpack. Needless to say that, at the end of the day, my lower back was killing me...

Friendly piece of advice and one major thing I've learnt in my concert-related travels (which I also wish I followed more often); when in doubt about the direction, always follow the kids in merch. Nine times out of ten, they are heading to the same place/show. Anyway. I walked into the venue around 09:15, as I wanted to explore my surroundings, and check the location and the distance between the stages. 30' to kill is a great opportunity to do people watching and, over time, it only became clearer that wearing merch is a form of mating call. ~~YOU KNOW IT'S TRUE!~~

Chelsea Grin

While She Sleeps

While She Sleeps (I had every good intention)

The weather was severely trolling me. When Chelsea Grin got on stage, there was a shower going on. By the time the 3rd song began, the rain had already stopped. Since I already have the review published, I won't get into details regarding the performances, other than generic remarks. Like the fact that Chelsea Grin was the perfect substitute for morning coffee. Or that While She Sleeps is THE BEST band of their generation -a visit to a show near you will be more than enough to convince you. Or that I was satisfied with 85% of the pictures of Northlane. Or that I had a fangirl moment seeing Alexey Makhov and Adam Elmakias, two photographers that inspired me to pick up a camera.

Northlane

Northlane

The Devil Wears Prada

The Black Dahlia Murder

I had my first bite of actual food and the first sip of caffeine ~~God bless for Monster being a sponsor~~ in the light rain, between Against Me! ~~who deserved a way better crowd~~ finishing their set and waiting for my first interview of the day. Long story short, due to miscommunication the interview was pushed back 20', which also affected the following ones. About an hour and a half(ish) later, I was done and some annoying band was playing in the background, while I still had time to kill before walking into the Clubstage to see Brutality Will Prevail. I decided to push my way out of the arena and roam around for a bit, even take a few pictures of interesting things or people. Murphy's law was once again in full effect; I came across all the people who had dressed up when I was in a rush to get across the arena where the tour managers were waiting for me.
I decided that I needed a new boost of energy so I found myself queuing again at a Monster tent. After a short chat about the camera that was hanging around my neck ~~and a follow on Unraveled's Instagram~~ I walked away with an entire can of Monster (cheers mate, your contribution was priceless).

Obey The Brave

Comeback Kid

BWP were explosive on stage, super nice people too. Somewhere between finally sitting down and waiting for Architects to start, I got to meet some lovely new people and talk about adventures and travelling for shows. I had set my final interview around the time Architects were almost over. I was very satisfied with the outcome of the interview and an unplanned drinking game, and also very late, to even push my way across the field towards the Lonsdale stage where Dropkick Murphys were fueling people with their crazy tunes. But then again, it would be highly impossible to anyway, since people refused to let you pass even with a camera over your head, even when you felt you'd pass out and needed some air. A Day To Remember found me with my new photographer friend discussing confetti strings and asking the people around us about their highlights of the day. I had done a very good homework to calculate when stage production would go off so I did my best to catch everything. Unfortunately I had some focus issues because of the distance but it didn't stop me from enjoying the set as if I was listening to "Homesick" for the first time.

Against Me!

Nasty

Brutality Will Prevail

As I mentioned above, it was impossible to move from one stage to the other and I highly respect those who did. My calves were in pain from standing and pushing so I found a lovely spot near a beer tent (and I coincidentally ended up with another beer in hand) to watch Broilers. Not my cup of tea musically, but the reactions they got from people of all ages sort of reminded me of a couple of local bands like Bad Movies and XAT TPIK. When they finished, I got myself another beer, had some lovely bratwurst and then a hotdog in a pretzel bun (I absolutely loved the street food they provided us with), finished the beer and decided to head to the after-party, aka. the Clubstage, that would host shows by Tim Vantol and The Black Dahlia Murder filling in for First Blood. Unfortunately, I didn't make it on time so I was greeted with a red tape and security guards at the entrance.

Architects

A Day To Remember

Once I got back to the hotel, I left the pictures to import while I took a shower. I then quickly flagged a few highlights (about 1/5 of the total pictures I took) that I began editing -and yes, Northlane was the first batch to go- until I realized that I was drifting off. I continued editing the next day between sightseeing. Munster is so damn pretty!