Location: airport Borkenberge in Lüdinghausen (Germany)
By: Nina Mende
Last festival of this year’s summer and we had brilliant weather. The sun was shining the entire time, it was nice and warm. In the evenings it was getting quite cold already though. Area4 was a great closing festival for the summer festival season 2008, we all had loads of fun and enjoyed the time in Lüdinghausen, somewhere between Dortmund and Münster, in the middle of an airfield, surrounded by woods and farming fields, little villages, sheep and cows.
 So here I was at the Area4 arriving right in time for my favourite act on Friday: The Sounds from Sweden. I had seen them at another festival in Finland earlier this summer, but they are always a great live act and a must-see whenever you can. The Sounds are from Helsingborg/Sweden. Their musical style mixes punk and pop/electronic influences. Most songs make integrated use of synthesizers, and Maja Ivarsson provides a spunky vocal lead. Their debut album “Living in America” was released in 2002, with the follow up “Dying to Say This to You” in 2006. The band is currently working on their third album. The audience was not as amazed by the band as I know it from the Finnish audience but they liked it more and more towards the end. The Sounds played all their hits like “Ego”, “Hit Me”, “Living in America” and many more. For some ballads including “Night after Night” there was only the singer and the keyboarder on stage followed by a piano solo before the rest of the band came back on stage, one after another. Then they began playing the song “Painted by Numbers” and “Hope You’re Happy Now”. After an hour and an encore The Sounds were done playing. Now I can’t wait to see them live again. |
| Next band I went to see was Plain White T’s. Plain White T’s is a pop punk band from Chicago,Illinois. They have had most worldwide success with their song, “Hey There Delilah”, charting highly in many countries. But this song is quite different from the rest of their music, at least live. Now it was a lot more crowded than it had been for The Sounds and many of the fans were singing and dancing along to the songs. The guys rocked the stage playing many songs off the upcoming album. As they performed their hit “Hey There Delilah” really everybody was singing along, no matter whether they were watching the show, standing, sitting, eating or whatever because everybody knows it by now. That was really gorgeous to watch and hear. |
| As this Friday and first day of the last summer festival 2008 was getting closer to an end it was time for Bad Religion to enter the stage. It was totally crowded by now. Many new people had finally arrived at the festival after they had gotten through the traffic jam almost everybody got stuck in. Bad Religion is an American punk rock band, formed in Southern California in 1980. The band is quite political and many of their songs are about different social ills. Do I really need to tell you more about the band? No, I don’t think so. The audience rocked and sang along, shouted and clapped along all 1 ½ hours Bad Religion played. The band also commented on the new election including their candidates and talked a lot about some other issues as well. The audience listened closely to that and did not only cheer thoughtlessly whenever the singer said something which was great. Some people in the front rows even replied and began a sort of conversation with the band for a while. Bad Religion, a great band and interesting to see live. |
| The last band for me tonight was I Am Kloot, an English band formed in Manchester, in 1999 notable for their twisted, witty lyrics. Their music is nice and slow, very melodic with a touch of country music. The band interacted quite a lot with the audience that seemed to love them. The Coca-Cola Soundwave tent they played in was packed. Many in the audience were drunk or at least close to it, they began to shout funny stuff which was hard to understand at times. The singer still replied to some of it, not taking it too serious. I Am Kloot was a nice closing for me and this first day of Area4. I was off for the hotel now to get some rest, preparing to rock the next day. |
| Saturday: sunny and warm again. Not many clouds were to be seen on the sky, and off I went to the festival area. Before the first band began playing that I wanted to see today, I went walking around the area ground, seeing the typical festival camping ground, all the little shopping tents and stands, the food wagons and so on. It was still quiet everywhere, the visitors were all just arriving and waking up, not too many were there already. |
 First band I wanted to see today was Less Than Jake. Less Than Jake is an American ska punk band from Gainesville, Florida. Originally formed in 1992 as a power pop trio, the band evolved into a hybrid of third-wave ska and pop punk. To date, the group has released seven original full-length albums and a number of singles and compilations. The special thing about Less Than Jake is that they have a saxophone and a trombone player. This sounds totally cool together with the punk style they are playing. Although it was still quite early the field was filling up totally quick as the band began to play. The guys had lots of fun on stage and so did the audience. Less than Jake jumped around on stage entertaining and animating their fans and everybody else who was watching. Since they were filming this show for a DVD the singer asked everybody to sit down to do a wave. Almost everybody did. It looked amazing. Later on he asked the audience to run around the sound tower during a song, many people did so. For a song they got somebody from the audience up on stage who must have looked bored in the crowd, he had to dance which he didn’t but it was still quite funny to watch that guy just standing there while the band tries to get him dancing along. Less Than Jake was great to watch, great sound, great music and gorgeous performance. Let’s do it again… |
| Next was a little band in the Coca Cola Soundwave tent called aVid*, a really great newcomer band founded in 2005. The music is soft and melancholic, the vocals clear and thoughtful. Unfortunately there were not too many people watching and the guys only played for 30 minutes because they really had potential. But maybe we’ll be able to see them on bigger stages soon. We’ll see. |
 Coming up on the big stage was Pennywise. The space in front of the stage and around was totally crowded by now. Pennywise is an American punk rock band that was formed in 1988, and is named after the monster from the Stephen King novel, It. Really everybody was now cheering and singing along, jumping and dancing, simply rocking. Whenever the band was not playing and did not say anything for maybe 10 seconds or so the audience began to shout the band name very loud. A very energetic performance by the Californian guys that everybody enjoyed. |
 After a little break we went to watch Madsen. Three out of the five Germans are brothers and Madsen is their family name. They sing in German and play indie-rock. Several people were watching it and singing along, but somehow that band just didn’t get me. The music was quite slow and not as energetic and powerful. |
| Back in the Soundwave tent where newcomers were playing till 5pm or so we watched Ghost of Tom Joad, a German indie band whose performance slightly reminded me of Disco Ensemble which might also have been because I was looking forward to see them later on. The tent was quite empty. Probably because of the great sunny weather and Madsen playing right now. |
 Outside again, in front of the big stage and ready to see the first half of ex-Sytem of A Down: Serj Tankian and the F.C.C. A totally crazy guy, still sounding a lot like System of A down. They were all wearing tuxedos, Serj wore a white one. They all had fun on stage and the singer put up a great performance, very passionate and energetic. The audience was thrilled and just didn’t quit shouting, screaming and singing. They went totally crazy. The band even played “Money Money Money” by ABBA, a really interesting and funny version of it. The light was amazing and the show itself as well. |
 As Serj’s performance was getting closer to an end I began to warm up for the following band which was playing in the tent: Disco Ensemble. As I entered the tent I was glad to see how crowded it was and that everybody could sing and dance along. The guys totally freaked out on stage as they usually do and got everybody going along. Nobody stood still. The audience was jumping big time, sang along very loud to all the songs and had a great time. The tent was filled with a great and warm atmosphere. A very energetic and powerful yet very emotional performance, I so can’t wait for their tour with Lapko now. |
| Last band of the night was coming from Sweden, a band that I have seen at many festivals before: The Hives. Somehow they were not as good as last time, but the audience still loved them tonight. The singer got the whole field shouting whatever he wanted to and got everybody going along. Tonight they wore black suits and their background banner was not “The Hives” as light, but only a black banner with the writing in red. The lights on stage were gorgeous but somehow their performance was the same as last times. Anyways, they played all hits and many more, talking a lot with the audience and entertaining them a lot. The whole Area4 was cheering to The Hives and enjoyed the closing of the day. |
 Sunday, last day of the festival with a changed headliner since Slipknot had to cancel a week before. Now Soulfly would end the festival. But till then there were still many bands to go. First band for me was The Blackout. I didn’t know what to expect from them, so I went there quite curious. The Blackout is a post-hardcore band from Merthyr Tydfil, Wales with a very British accent. Although it was still early in the day, there were already quite some people waiting for the band. The two singers twisted and threw around their microphones, played with them and jumped around all over the stage. The blond singer had Slipknot written down his knuckles and they were playing some covers of them as well. The six guys were rocking out on stage mixing “Like A Prayer” with a Pantera song and played something between emo, punk and metal. Quite interesting and very energetic, the audience liked it. |
| Next on the same stage was The Subways, an English indie rock band. Although the band have not experienced a great deal of commercial success, they have gained a very loyal cult following amongst attendees of the annual Reading and Leeds festivals, in which on each occasion they attracted a crowd big enough to fill the second stage tent beyond capacity, resulting in the band becoming main stage mainstays. So it happened that there were many cheering fans already waiting for them to begin. The audience supported the band not only by singind along, but they also danced and cheered a lot. The Subways spoke a lot of German during the show and even performed half of “Rock’n’Roll Queen” in German. |
| Staying on the big stage for now I got to watch Dredg. Dredg is an American progressive/alternative rock band formed in 1994 in Los Gatos, California. The music is quite psychedelic, melodic and melancholic, slow and thoughtful. Very interesting to listen to. But there is not too much going on onstage. |
| More interesting to watch and see in general was the other rest of ex-System of A Down: Scars on Broadway. Many people were as curious about that as me. And several fans where there to watch as well. The music is fast and still a little bit like System of A Down, yet not too much, which might also be because the typical SOAD voice of Serj is missing. Anyways, the show was very powerful, many people sang along. The audience simply loved it. As I walked around on the festival area I heard some fans wondering why there’s no special SOAD show since both parts were at the same festival anyways…. |
 Area4 was getting closer to an end and I finally had a break to get food, some drinks (non-alcoholic since I had to drive home) and just take a look around, before I would go to the Soundwave tent and see Bloodlights. I don’t think I really have to give these Norwegians any introduction here anymore, do I? Before they would go on the Jägermeister tour and such they were here at Area4 in Lüdinghausen to rock with us. The tent was getting quite crowded as they began playing, some people could sing along and everybody seemed to enjoy the rock performance of the four Norwegians who were sweating quite a lot in the heat of the tent. They played more new songs but only played for 40 minutes, so no cover songs like “New Rose” and not all songs from their album. The audience and even the security enjoyed the short gig though, so all was good. |
| Last band on my plan was Apocalyptica, the renowned Finnish cello band. The field was totally crowded for them and the fans sang along to the songs Apocalyptica played, so actually no singer was needed. But they still got a singer up for one song: An Austrian guy performed “I Don’t Care” with them. Although I thought the drums were a little too loud, it was still a great show. And I am always amazed by their lights. The singing of the audience was very loud for some songs which was great to see and hear. Apocalyptica had fun on stage yet didn’t they run around as much. I always enjoy seeing Apocalyptica live simply because I love cello and their show, so it was a great closing for me. |
| That doesn’t mean that I left now, no. I only packed away my writing pad and my camera and hung out with friends. We went over to see Goldfinger for a couple songs. An American punk rock band that once covered “99 Red Balloons” and were even able to sing it in German by now. |
We even went to watch a little of Soulfly but they were to metal-like for me so I went back to the others of us, hung out for awhile and had a great time.
Area4 2008 was a great festival with many great people, great bands and a great atmosphere. The location is well chosen and easy to find, the organization works out very well and there was really nothing I could complain about. Many thanks to everybody for this wonderful weekend and closing of the summer festival season of 2008. Now I am off touring…
Links:
Area 4 Website
The Sounds MySpace
The Plain White T’s MySpace
Bad Religion MySpace
I Am Kloot MySpace
Less Than Jake MySpace
A*vid Official
Pennywise MySpace
Madsen MySpace
Ghosts of Tom Joad MySpace
Serj Tankian MySpace
Disco Ensemble MySpace
The Hives MySpace
The Blackout MySpace
The Subways MySpace
Dredg MySpace
Scars on Broadway MySpace
Bloodlights MySpace
Apocalyptica MySpace
Goldfinger MySpace
Soulfly Official
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