Exclusive | In And Out Of Sweden Rock Festival

By Dutch bassist Alex Jansen

After returning from Rock meets classic 2024, I am back at the keyboard again. Not that I didn’t do stuff in between… I wrote articles for Aardschok Magazine, it is in Dutch and it is great fun to write those articles. I write about what I experience on the road. The good and the bad things. Guess where I write you these words? Yeah right, on a plane. We have just taken off from Copenhagen airport. It is 7:20 PM and we are heading to Frankfurt with a short lay over and then onwards to Stuttgart. 

THE BEGINNING

Let me start at the beginning though. We left yesterday from Stuttgart. At least Tom Naumann, Ralf Scheepers and I. Alex Beyrodt left from Luxembourg, Michael from Hamburg, Cedric from Zurich, Armando from Prag and Aaron was already there doing duties with Orden Ogan. That is the travel party. We all fly to Copenhagen and except for Alex Beyrodt we all arrive early in the evening. After we checked in in Stuttgart we had some discussions about our luggage, took a while but got solved in the end.

It is always the same, we have too much gear or they think the bags are too heavy or the guitar cases are too big. It all got solved and we proceeded to get through security and a quick drink at the bar before boarding. The flight was not too long so after taking off I watched an episode and we made touch down in Copenhagen already. The luggage came pretty quick and we went for a stroll through the airport to get to the subway. Aah the romantics of traveling. We carried all the heavy gear to the subway and fortunately we only had to ride 2 stops and a 2 minute walk to the hotel. 

THE HOTEL BAR

We met with everyone except for Armando who went to bed directly. He just got off a tour with Mr. Bungle through South America and directly after that with Mr. Bungle and Anthrax through Australia. He was pretty jet lagged. We all went for diner and it was the first time since Japan that we were with Michael again. So we had some good talks and eating delicious food. In the meantime there was a Danish lady sitting at the bar. Well sitting, it was more hanging. All the time she tried to get into our conversation, in Danish, although we couldn’t understand a word she was saying. I can’t tell if it was because of the Danish or the alcohol… I think option 2 was to blame here.

We tried to ignore her but she didn’t get the message that she was more disturbing than having a conversation. One time she almost fell from her barstool. All of a sudden she was sitting at our table, mumbling and we couldn’t tell what was said. She almost fell from her chair and then the bartender came and advised her it was better to sit back at the bar. She didn’t understand what he said, in the end we left. It was very annoying and I can tell you, if you would have put a lighter next to her breath, the world would be on fire.

THE RIDE

This morning we met at breakfast at 6:30 AM and the shuttle arrived at 7:15 AM. The ride from Copenhagen to the festival is a fine 2 hours. You go through a tunnel that goes directly on a massive bridge and then you are in Sweden. The ride was pretty smooth and we arrived at the festival at 9:30 AM. Dropped off the gear and the crew. We went to the container that is our dressing room for the day. 

THE WAITING GAME

We didn’t stay too long there and went back to the stage to see the conditions there and check the rental gear. It is too expensive to bring our own gear, except for the guitars and basses. So we have rental gear and it is always good to check everything before to be sure there are no surprises. It was all good gear and then the waiting game began. Showtime was 12:30 PM which is early but on the main stage that is not a problem, right?

The waiting game was caused by Parkway Drive and their crew. They had a lot of gear to set up and that takes a while of course. We all went back to the dressing room to get dressed and then we headed back to the stage. When we got back the stage was set and we did our line check. Checking monitors and volumes. We are so used to it that it all goes quickly. 

12:30 PM intro runs and we hit it off with a powerful setlist. We have 60 minutes and we try to play most of the favorites and some of the new record, which is not that new anymore but we are still not done promoting it. We see some familiar faces from Germany and Japan, the audience is enthusiastic and the weather is great. This means the 60 minutes are done in what feels like 60 seconds.

IN AND OUT

After the show Ralf does a short interview with a journalist from one of the biggest mainstream newspapers in Sweden. We all head back to the dressing room, change clothes and pack. Lunch is served and next to the fact that everything is organized very well, the catering is superb and very nice situated. It’s my first time here so I didn’t know what to expect. We finish lunch at 2:30 PM, fun fact… our driver is already waiting and we head back to Copenhagen airport. We didn’t see a band, we just had the time to say a quick hello to some friends and now we are already back. 7 hours in Sweden, good title for a movie.

The flight home will take us to Frankfurt first, short layover and then to Stuttgart. A cab will be waiting there for us and after I load in the gear in my car I will head home. 

Next week there will be another adventure as we will play a festival in Finland. That will be an adventure too. More about that soon.

All photos provided by Alex Jansen