4th June 2005 Rock im Park Festival, Nürnberg, Germany

Event info: Rock im Park Festival
Location: Nürnberg, Germany
Venue: Zeppelinfeld
Date: June 4, 2005
Website: https://www.rock-im-park.com

Samstag ALTERNA timetable:
23:45 The Prodigy
22:00 Slipknot
20:30 Apocalyptica
19:20 Within Temptation
18:15 Papa Roach
17:10 Mudvayne
16:10 Killswitch Engage
15:10 Simple Plan
14:20 Dir en grey
13:35 Wednesday 13

Review by neko:
After an amazing 2hour sleep I’m up again to catch a train to Nuremberg for the “Rock im Park” festival. This feels like a homecoming, I’ve been to this festival about five times already, including 98 when Prodigy played, I really love it here. Also my old flatmate from London lives here now, so I visit and can stay with her and we spend the afternoon drinking local white wine in her garden, lovely.

We’re off to the festival after 7pm and get there just in time to see Green Day. Oooh, Rock im Park is so much nicer than Rock am Ring was yesterday. Not as crowded and less weirdos around. Green Day are absolutely excellent once more, really enjoy their gig tonight.

Then we wander around a bit. The setup of the festival has changed quite a bit over the years. The second and third stage used to be in tiny tents a couple of years ago, then the second stage got moved into the icehockey hall, and now this is the third stage, while the second one is open air and about as big as the main stage at other festivals. And the second stage, or officially the ‘Suzuki Alternastage’, is where Prodigy are on tonight. yippeee!

We head there at about 10pm to see Slipknot. I’ve seen these guys a couple of times live, even once before at Rock im Park in 2000, when no one in Germany knew who they were and they played the smallest stage in the early evening. One of the best shows I’ve ever seen actually. So while I don’t really ever listen to Slipknot, I think they’re a really great live band, and today turns out to be no different (that should be enough Slipknot praise now to get me slagged off by my forum members for the next couple of weeks, ha ha).

As last night, the audience changes drastically after Slipknot. All the metal kiddies are leaving but the place quickly gets filled again. Not long to wait!

Almost on time, Prodigy come one and what we experience next is one of the really great gigs. The setlist goes pretty much like ‘normal’, but there is a great element of surprise and madness  in what they do tonight.

They aren’t playing the new track Razor tonight, not sure if down to time restrictions or whatever. However, it’s definitely the best performance of Back to School tonight I can remember, with both Keith and Maxim doing these cool vocals, almost going to whispering level and then building it up again fully. Amazing.

Another long standing favourite is still the action radar link, as i stated many times before. Again, the great live drums (thank you Kieron) make it just that bit better and standout.
And then Keith during Mindfields… While appearing to be at his absolutely best tonight already anyways, during this track Keith steps down and dares a balancing act along the fence which is in front of the crowd, looks pretty mad (and dangerous)!

The sound tonight is great and the audience is keen. In the middle they’re all crowd surfing and jumping, while where we are on the side there are people into it, but still leaving enough space to enjoy the show. Maxim and Keith are both like on fire and it’s all in a way more relaxed but also more mad than last night. There’s the odd new sound a la Howlett in between tracks as well, but unfortunately the Caipiroshkas that evening seem to have erased that particular part of my memory. Rob also seems to have settled in with the band now and his presence seems totally natural and in line with the overall gig now and fits in well (although you still can’t hear that much).

Usually they’d leave after Mindfields, but they just about remain and Liam starts the first few beats to Dead Ken Beats, and then stops, just totally teasing the audience. Oh please! Just play that tune! He plays another, slightly longer bit and then stops, which of course once more provokes massive cheers. Then finally they start the tune full on and it’s once more an amazing performance of this great track. I love it. I quite like this directly after Mindfields and as last one before encore. Nothing against Mindfields, but Dead Ken Beats is just slightly more powerful.

Now the band leave, but with all the Germans shouting “ZU – GA – BE” they come back soon again and start Poison / Release Yo’Delf. The already amazing show then peaks one last time with the final SMBU.

I know I say this at least once a weekend lately, but this is another standout gig (and that’s not just due to the free bar afterwards), definitely one to remember.

I just knew Rock Im Park wouldn’t let me down.