Loading ...Hellyeah, KoRn, 06-12-2013, 013, Tilburg
At the end of the afternoon my girlfriend told me she might go to see KoRn and Hellyeah tonight for half price. Hellyeah is a cool band and KoRn is one I’ve wanted to see at some point anyhow so I asked how and if she could get another ticket maybe.
Turns out it was through her housemate who was studying at the music academy. So she asked him and he would go get a ticket, but instead managed to get in for free due to getting backstage and on the guestlist after talking to KoRn’s drumtech. She ended up not going because she wasn’t feeling well.
Hellyeah was really cool, it was a shame nobody seemed to know them at all because their music makes for some really good pits. Their performance was great all around though it was a bit of a shame they opened with their best songs; War In Me and Drink Drank Drunk.
KoRn for me is a band I’ve not listened to in ~10years. To my surprise the first 30minutes were full of all their old songs which I actually recognized which made for a really wild and active crowd. After that came their modern djent/dubsteppy songs which were okay but seemed to blend together and the crowd died down. Still; good beginning and glad I saw that; but won’t see again.
After the show we went back to their place and everyone was sitting outside talking and I was immediately offered a beer. They were great people and ended up sitting there for at least 2 more hours just chatting.
Had a good day at work; went to a concert and spent time with my girlfriend and her friends. That day couldn’t have been better. 
What’s been keeping me busy lately
I’ve not been very active in the whole let’s playing thing and the whole gaming scene for at least a week or 2 now and that has a couple of reasons. It feels a bit weird to be out of touch especially now with E3 happening and the whole console-war going on. I’ve hardly spent any time gaming or at home for that matter compared to normal. I have managed to browse giantbomb.com (my go-to site for anything gaming) every couple of days when at home to keep somewhat up to date, but I’m noticing that I’m not in the know.
The biggest reason is actually linked to my previous post about FortaRock, or more specifically to the girl I met there. I’m not an outgoing person at all and I’m an introvert so I don’t meet too many new people… at all. When I met her we had a very good click, so much so that we started talking so much we basically killed the game of Cards Against Humanity that we were playing with some others.
The downside is that I know a friend liked her and she ended up kissing me (though I did push her away then) and we ended up sleeping next to each other on the couch with her hugging me, which my friend didn’t like at all. So this caused some drama, especially after we agreed to meet again my friend was rather pissed at me. Though this was only after he’d told me he never wanted to talk to her again after a fight they’d already had and her actions on saturday. And I just wanted to see if we’d have any sort of click without the alcohol in play.
So this past weekend she came over on friday until saturday in which we both had things to do in the afternoon, we ended up talking until 8am and not sleeping much at all. Then my friend calls me saying that we really need to talk, which was rather strange.. so I went over for a drink at a terrace and he basically said that he was so angry with me for seeing her without him knowing that he wanted to punch me in the face, which struck me out as weird considering I don’t feel like I did anything wrong. He explained his view of things and I explained mine and he understood me then, although it took a little while.
After that he’d given me some information on her and that made me sort of question some things, so I said we should talk to be sure. I just got home by train only to be faced with the option of immediately leaving to catch the last train to see her or go the day after. It felt a lot better to get it over with and thus see her. When I got over there it was around 2am, and we were both tired from the little sleep we got the night before already; plus she had made a big deal about stuff she’d have to tell me which made me rather nervous.
In the end it all worked fine as we stayed up talking until 6 or so as she really opened up to me about some things that happened in her past that hardly anybody knows. It’s really quite incredible just how good of a click we have, I’ve never had this with anyone and I feel like I’ve known her for a long long time already and want to spend a lot more time with her. What makes it extremely frustrating is that we probably stood right next to each other at a concert last october when she met my friend, and could’ve known each other much longer. Why’s this important? Because she currently is only supposed to be within the country for 3 more weeks.
Fortarock, Saturday June 1st, 2013
My town has an annual metal festival which had a particularly good lineup this year as it also moved from a park that holds 13.000 people to one that holds 50.000. So that means big names, big bands and a bunch of friends coming over. I had arranged for my friends to be at my place around 11:30 so they could drop their stuff and then we’d meet some others at the Central Station. There were some buses going to and from the park.
Beforehand we had had some beers and generally talked some bullshit as you do with friends. When we eventually got there Delain was playing which was good enough for us to go buy coins and spend some time casually drinking beer and talking. We continued to do so through Enslaved and Textures, though I have to say that Enslaved was really enjoyable and I was very glad that I saw them. Very good “opener” for a festival.
After them the real festival started with Entombed and Airbourne both which where really solid and enjoyable. They got me warmed up for the first band I really wanted to see again; Finntroll. Finntroll put on a great show, seemingly playing all the right songs from their latest album Blodsvept, which people seemed to dig a lot. It was quite a shame that they played so early on during the day, because it would’ve been so much better later on in the day. After Finntroll I was quite due for a break, which I did actually get because Motorhead was playing. So we got some food and walked around a bit heading for the next big band.
That band was Amon Amarth, which I love. They put on an awesome show as always and I swear my neck was crying throughout all of it, haha! After that I have to admit that I was so tired from standing/moshing all day that I had to just about take a break, as such I grabbed myself 2 large beers and sat down briefly during Volbeat. However just a minute or 2 later I found myself having to stand back up because I could not sit still during Volbeat, c’mon, it’s Volbeat! It’s impossible to not be at least dancing or moving on the spot.
When Volbeat’s time was sadly approaching the end we started making our way over to Hatebreed, which basically was me dragging some people over with me. Then they wanted to stand quite far back, which I was not okay with. So I asked them if they’d join me in the action or if they’d just be standing here. They opted to join me and so we were at the front where I knew there was going to be a massive moshpit. They seemed quite surprised by the fact, but really enjoyed it regardless and so did I. Hatebreed is simply such a rush and release of pure energy that hardly anything compares. The only downside is that I got hit and suddenly was staring at the sky during the pit and probably at that time lost my phone.
After an hour of pure moshing and energy-release I was really fucking destroyed, my body hurt all over from bruises and I managed to hurt my ankle which meant I was limping from there on out. I checked by the lost & found but the crew there said they never find any smartphones.. so that sucked, other than my phone I also lost a strip of 5 tokens, which meant 5 beers. Out of the 20 I had, I didn’t have much left.. so I got my remaining beers and sat down when Rammstein was playing. I couldn’t care for most of their show, just some old classics were cool to hear at some point.
Right after Rammstein played Ich WIll I had heard all I wanted and since some people were going to sleep at my place and I had no phone – I figured I’d best head over early. Over the next hour or so people arrived and some more drinks were had and we had 1 extra joining us, a friend of a friend who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to get home – no problem of course! Turned out that she was really cool and fun. At some point between 3 and 4am people were going and another was going to sleep so me and her went outside with the remaining of a litre of vodka which we finished while talking all throughout the night until 8am’ish when we went to sleep until 11am.
It truly was one of the best days I’ve had in a long long time.
Little moments that make my day #9
As you may have noticed if you saw some of my last couple of posts and last.fm page I’ve been getting into ska-punk and such music lately and as such wanted to pick up some albums by Leningrad, Gogol Bordello, The Cat Empire and such bands. I went to the recordshop across the street from me and looked for them but they’re weird genres and could be categorized in 4 or 5 locations, so I opted to simply ask.
First of all I asked about Leningrad and the old guy helping me asked if I meant Leningrad Cowboys, which I said no to; he hadn’t heard of them. But they apparently had an album but it’s no longer available. So I explained that they’re russian ska-punk and that didn’t surprise me much. I then asked about Gogol Bordello which he seemed to like and showed me where that was and we got talking about some other ska-punk bands and had a pleasant little conversation and exchanged some bands that we didn’t know of yet. This was something I didn’t expect at all from an old guy, I hope I’ll be like that later.
I ended up picking up a Gorillaz album I was missing (Demon Days), Gogol Bordello’s Super Taranta! and Rise Against’s Appeal To Reason.
This easily remains one of my most-loved tracks
Tomoyasu Hotei performing the Battle Without Honor or Humanity live. If you don’t know this; you are not prepared.
Played some more Fez
And it’s finally gotten to the point of secrets. So a bunch of decoding happened. So much more to do still though! Can’t wait to play more.
Some Russian Ska
So I’ve just discovered this Russian ska(?) band named Leningrad, which apparently are really popular in Russia. All I can think is why didn’t I discover them before!? This music is amazing! 
Ouya news has me kind of excited
OUYA’s just notified that all the kickstarter backers’ ouya’s have been shipped finally. It could still be another couple of weeks before I receive it they say, but this should be fine considering our national post system it’ll likely be here ‘soon’. What also is cool is that OUYA’s opened some of it’s structure on games on their webpage. This means that you can now use your browser to go look at some of the games on the platform on the following page: http://www.ouya.tv/games/
There’s some cool looking games on there already with many still being worked on, considering that almost nobody has their OUYA yet. But knowing it should be arriving one of these weeks has me excited, I’m really curious about what the system has to offer. I also wonder how the controller feels in your hands. I can’t wait to get some hands-on time with it.
Thoughts on Spec Ops: The Line
I finished recording Spec Ops: The Line this evening, it’s a short game that’s a third-person cover-based shooter with the emphasis on it’s story. And that story revolves around war(crimes), which makes it interesting. It’s not a terrific game or anything, but I remember hearing quite some debate over it’s story when it came out. As such I wanted to play it at some point. And considering it’s a short game the cover-based shooting wouldn’t trouble me that much.
I have to say that the game turned out to be rather good on the shooting part, all the weapons felt good to use which kind of surprised me. Normally average games don’t have a good ‘feel’ to the action, but that definitely wasn’t a problem here. The gameplay itself was completely fine; standard chest-high-walls everywhere for cover and masses of enemies to shoot. Nothing fancy, but if the shooting feels good it’s not a big issue for me, though I’m not a fan of cover-based shooters as you may recall.
The story however was interesting in the way it focused on the horrors of war, and the mentality that goes along with it. They definitely intended to make you think about what you’re doing, if you should listen or not. On the other hand some moments (mainly the white phosphorous) felt entirely unnecessary and forced upon the player.
At such moments it felt really weird to not be able to say “no” to what the story was alluding you to do. But largely I would say the story was quite interesting and left you wondering what the fuck was going on, only made worse by the ending(s). And that’s not a bad thing; because I believe this game wants you to think about war and what is right and wrong, and everyone will have a different outcome on that subject.
Queen anne’s revenge finished
It’s definitely a looker, it draws attention to itself and from a distance you can’t even tell it’s lego.