Last Sunday I have been to Arrow Classic Rock festival, in the city of Nijmegen. Entering the festival compound took more than hour because of the thousands of people queuing, and for that reason I missed REO Speedwagon. I also missed Journey later on, because I was walking around by the merchandise and forgot myself in the middle of collectors CDs and DVDs for sale, among other interesting stuff. Yes, I bought a number of patches of favorite bands. The weather was not that good, actually it was bad, despite that it was full of joy and fun watching great bands like Whitesnake (the main reason I have been to the who in the first place), Motorhead, Def Leppard, Kiss and others. Speaking of Def Leppard, they were great and powerful, playing old pop-rock favorites, with a great set list. The only disapponintment, not playing wise, but the singer, Joe Elliot, lost his voice more than once while singing. The surprise to me was Kansas and Motorhead - both have seen for the first time. I know how fun and great attending a Motorhead concert, but was over expectation. Sometimes couldn't hear the guitar sound because of the loud base guitar (Motorhead trade mark) played by the legendary Lemmy. I adore his bass-playing technique by the way and the total sound comes with other musicians. His dark sense of humor is also helarious, especially when exchanging jokes with the guitarist. From time to time the drummer poke out and ask the audience for some yelling. Kansas, I mentioned earlier that it was the first time I go to a show by this classic progressive rock band. One word: this band is perfect!! They are professional musicians who could play one song forever without making the public get bored. How many rock bands can ricruite a violen into their work and can produce the same excellent music quality as Kansas do? I don't think there are any! They are one of the bands that I wish they could play for longer time, unfortunately time is up and had to go to the other stage for another great act.
Whitesnake: no need for introduction, the years were obvious on Coverdale's wrinkles, also on his voice, sometimes. I don't understand why his way of singing changes when playing songs from new album. However, he still able to crack the floor of the stage beneath his band members with his voice. Whitesnake played three songs only from their new album, two are my favorite from that album. The crowd, at least where I stood was horrible: I couldn't believe it! They were like zombies standing staring up at the huge stage, except of course for some ten people in their late thirties who were enjoying their time on every song. There was a man and a woman standing in front of me, the man was like dead but standing, didn't move a bit, not even a node (I didn't hope for some headbanging), but not even a finger moved forward, except when smoking a cigarette. I thought he should be used as the mummy on stage by Iron Maiden in their current "somewhere back in time" tour. The woman with him was a little different: I thought she was just awake after a standing nap in the middle of Whitesnake performance and started taking photos! The highlight of Whitesnake show was when David Coverdale invited his "Dutch brother" to stage, Adrian Vandenberg where they played with the rest of the band "fool for your loving" and "Here I go again".
Here are some pictures I took from the festival
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