Ralphy's Concert Reviews

Pinkpop 2003 Rockfestival at Megaland in Landgraaf

Saturday 7, Sunday 8 and Monday 9 June 2003

featuring

Junior Senior, Placebo, Deftones, Skin, Moby, Peter Pan Speedrock, Silkstone, Ozark Henry, Flogging Molly, Lifehouse, The Dandy Warhols, Anouk, Counting Crows, Massive Attack, Danko Jones, Solomon Burke, Röyksopp, Moloko, Saybia, The Cardigans, Ilse DeLange, Krezip, Zwan, Junkie XL, Manu Chao, Evanescence, Audioslave and Queens of the Stone Age.

Warm, wet & wild: A better than average festival with lots of variation

Ah yes, another year, another summer on the horizon, another Pinkpop-festival, people who know me or my website know that I am and have been a regular visitor of the best known Dutch rockfestival, those who don't I refer to these reviews of the edition of Pinkpop 2001 and Pinkpop 2002 to get this info on my visits and the Pinkpop-festival in general. My companions of this year were basically the same as last year, my girlfriend Monja, her nephew Bert, her best friend Astrid and my nephew Alex(ander), only my friend Maurice lived up to his new nickname (der Versager, which kinda means the loser) and decided not to come this year.

Saturday 7 June 2003

The organisition under the inspiring leadership of Pinkpop-icon Jan Smeets (see picture) had learned an important lesson from last year's disaster with the dealing out of the obligatory wristbands, not only did they open the festival-terrain a lot earlier than usual, the handing out of these arm-bracelets was much better organised this time around and therefore it did not take us several hours to get into the grounds as it did than. This was my biggest complaint in my review of last year's festival, so this time I have to give a well-deserved compliment for solving that problem. The first band we wanted to see was the British group Placebo and their performance had been rescheduled to 17.15 hours. In the original time schedule they were supposed to play at 19.15 hours, but they switched places with the Deftones, because Placebo had been a last minute addition to the program of the German Rock am Ring-festival at the formula 1 racetrack of the Nürburgring. In the days leading up to this and that festival Linkin Park cancelled both of them, due to a back injury of the lead singer and Placebo had to fill in for them later this saturday at Rock am Ring. We had left early in case the problem of the previous year would occur again, so we left at home at 15.30 hours. Thanks to the fast handling of things this time we were in front of the North Stage less than an hour later and therefore we could listen to a couple of songs by the Danish band/duo Junior Senior. I didn't really know this band, but I immediately recognized the song they were playing (it was called "Move your feet") and the music they were playing was a nice opener for this festival-weekend. Although it is not music that I would (or did) pay any attention to when I hear it on the radio, this party-music-style they had going did go down very well with us (and especially Astrid) at this time, probably because we were in a party mood with sunny weather, a beer in our hands (for the men that is, and Alex was dancing and spilled his first beer all over my shirt) and lots of good music ahead. To describe the sort of music that this band (with lots of musicians on stage, kinda like a big band) played the best example is their choice as closing song, the Beatles-cover "Twist and shout", this song is familiar to most of you and was typical for the musical style of Junior Senior. Musically it would not be a band I would get excited about, but at this time it was good fun and I would rate what I heard with a 6.0.

Next up was Placebo , who started out with the one instrumental song of their latest album, "Bulletproof cupid" (for complete setlists of the different artists look in the tabels on this page). This set the right mood for their performance. I was kinda afraid they would rush their songs along and get it over with as quickly as possible in regard to the gig on Rock am Ring later this evening, but that wasn't the case. They played a very solid and professional show, but with few remarkable moments. After the second song frontman Brian Molko made a (what would later prove to be almost obligatory) remark about a nice sea of pink hats. "Protect me" was a bit different, because the bisexual (at least that's what I think, Alex thought he's probably having an affair with the bassplayer) singer played a mouth harmonica on that. Musically I especially liked the things drummer Steve Hewitt was doing on stage. Once before I had heard Placebo play live at the Rock Werchter festival in the late nineties and I had downloaded and listened to some of their stuff in preparation of this festival, I like their music, but not in a way that would make me rave about them and the show today was a confirmation of my feelings towards them. The song "This picture" was announced as the next single (commercially their singles do pretty bad in Holland btw, in Belgium they do a lot better) and during the persistent beat at the start of "Taste in men" the slender bassguitar player Stefan Olsdal began (with a naked torso) to do some sort of sissy snake contortion dance, which only emphasized their feminine-sorta attitude. Not that there is anything wrong with that, Brian Molko and the 2 other band members are like the Boy George and Culture Club of rock music, although musically much more inspired by the likes of David Bowie. Their best songs were saved for last today. I especially liked their renditions of "Special K" and "Taste in men" and ofcourse they finished with their biggest hit to date "Pure morning". I rate their performance with a 7.2.

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After that we got something to drink and eat (French fries and a Dutch snack called a 'frikandel') and I left the grounds to pick up Monja, who couldn't come with us earlier due to other obligations (she is the leader of a children's choir and they had to perform in the church of our hometown), she met me halfway off the terrain and this all happened so fast, that we could join the others on their way back to the North Stage, where the Deftones were performing. Their music wasn't really our thing (which I knew in advance, a bit too loud and unstructured for my taste and I am the 'hardest rocker' of our group), so we left early for the 3FM-tent. In regard to the Deftones, the reviews I've read later weren't very kind towards their show at Pinkpop, but my friend Barry(saurus) called them the highlight of his Pinkpop-Saturday. Bare in mind he is a fan and he was totally going crazy in the pit in front of the stage, but isn't that what it's all about. The 3FM-tent, named after a national radio station who sponsors it, is set up on the right side of the main stage. The main stage was actually closed this Saturday opposed to last year when it was opened for Live's performance on the first Pinkpop-day. The artist we wanted to see perform in the tent was Skin , the former singer of Skunk Anansie. Although the 3FM-tent is the smallest of the 3 stages of Pinkpop, it is also the most intimate and the one with the most enthusiast fans and this latest thing was very evident during Skin's performance. She got a lot of love and respect from the crowd inside this tent from the very beginning of her set and this in spite of the fact that noone really knew any of her new songs, because her first solo-album wasn't released yet (it is now btw). The third song was therefore the first one I recognized, it was a slow version of the Skunk Anansie-hit "Weak". To be quite honest I thought this version sucked big time, it was totally monotonous and to me "Weak" was/is one of my favourite Skunk-songs, so this version was a travesty to me, but Skin made it up immediately with the next song, a beautiful ballad called "Don't let me down", followed up by the one solo-song we did know, her single "Trashed". Alex stated what I was thinking: there was a very noteable difference between listening to Skin here and the Deftones, that we just heard. Meanwhile the crowd was still being and getting more and more (over)enthusiast, which urged Skin to say something like this "You know this is my first time live as a solo-artist in Holland and I know you don't know any of these mother-fucking songs, but I couldn't have asked for a better audience, thank you for your patience". And it was true the fans kept cheering for her throughout the set, not that it was all musically so uplifting, I mentioned "Weak" and the second ballad "You've made your bed" I didn't like that much either, but the audience didn't seem to care and they were as Skin herself put it "absolutely fucking amazing". She rewarded them at the end with a couple of old Skunk-songs, ofcourse "Hedonism" (which gave me goosebumps for the second time, the first ballad was the first time), but also "Charlie Big Potato", that song really rocks. After that her time was up, but the people wouldn't let her and the band go, they had to come back for a double encore, which is very unusual at a festival like Pinkpop. She closed it of with 2 more Skunk Anansie-songs and these songs were, if possible, greeted with even more enthusiasm by the crowd. In retrospect as I stated it wasn't musically that remarkable although I thought that Skin sang better and more pure as on the other 2 or 3 occasions that I heard her perform live, but the mix of this performer and the audience and the reactions interchanged between them both, did make it a remarkable experience with the Skunk-songs as the absolute highlights and therefore I rate Skin's show and all things surrounding it with a 7.5.

After this performance we walked back to the North Stage, where Moby had already started his gig. I'm not a huge fan of his music or electronic music in general, but I must admit it didn't sound bad at all tonight. His show also included great light-effects, like the star-background and many others. I haven't been able to get hold of a setlist for Moby, I recognized some of the songs like "Why does my heart feel so bad?", "Go", "We are all made of stars" (hence the background) and "Jam for the ladies". Funny was also when Moby played a couple of intro's of classic rock songs on his guitar, everytime the crowd would react like 'duh, is he going to play that?', then he just stopped and played another intro and than he stated: "Wouldn't it be fun if all songs would last only 15 seconds?". Well, I don't think so, but anyways, he also 'lost' a DJ battle to his regular DJ and he made a statement which I agree with whole-heartedly, this one: "As an American I want to apologize for having such an idiot for president. I feel it is my duty to tell all over the world how embarrassed we are with such a president". As I already stated this is not my favourite kind of music, I admire Moby more for his outspoken political views than for his musical talent, but I did enjoy his act this evening and I would rate it with a 6.5. Other bands that performed that day were local band Liftid (who won their place on Pinkpop at Nu of Nooit (Now or Never), a local contest of bands) and a guy called Tom McRae, but these guys were unknown to us and we had no real interest in them either, so we didn't go and see their shows.

Sunday 8 June 2003

Well this day will be remembered in our minds as the wet day. It already started when we got out of the car and headed towards the grounds. For the first time this day the floodgates of the sky opened up and as we entered the Megaland-terrain, as the home of Pinkpop is called, we were already soaked. We wanted to go and see the Dutch band Silkstone, but as they would start performing in the 3FM-tent, the only real dry place on the grounds, at 13.50 hours only minutes after we entered, you can imagine how packed it was in there. We listened to them for a little while from outside the tent, but as the rain kept falling we weren't paying to much attention, although their 3rd song was the very appropriate the "Rain has come". We decided to look for some kind of shelter elsewhere, which proved to be a fruitless effort, because the CD-shop was filled out and at the bars only the workers could gain access to overcapped areas. We drank a beer in the slowly subsiding rain, still listening to Silkstone (from a distance now) and even saw some lightning flashes (not too close, luckily enough). After that the dark clouds slowly passed over and the rain gradually came to an end. So what to do now? The music of Silkstone did not raise our interest anymore and therefore I cannot give to much comment on their performance. I usually modestly like their poprock-style, but the critics afterwards rated their show as moderate and less than spectacular, I myself will refrain from rating them. Our biggest problem at this time were our wet clothes. All of us, except Astrid wore shorts rain-hangovers that had mostly protected our bodies from the wetness, but all of our shoes and socks were soaked. Astrid's pants were soaked too and her raincoat wasn't as protective as our hangovers either, so she decided to drive home and change her outfit for a dryer one. The rest of us decided to endure the wet feet and head for the North Stage. A band called Flogging Molly was scheduled to perform there. I had absolutely no idea who they were (it sounded like a Belgian band to me :) ) or what kind of music they would be playing, but we were in for a nice surprise. Flogging Molly was actually an Irish band, who mixed the typical sound of Irish folkmusic with rock, in a way that reminded me a lot of a band, that I heard last year on Pinkpop-Sunday, the Dropkick Murphys. Well maybe Flogging Molly wasn't quite as loud as they were, but otherwise their music is very similar. My girlfriend Monja liked both Dropkick Murphys last year as this band now very much and has 'ordered' me to find some of their music on the web for her and I did in the meantime. It was also good music to dry up to, a little bit of jumping/dancing around helps a lot and also the sun came out during their performance, as their sunburnt redhead singer stated "it takes an Irishman to drive away the rain". As I didn't know the band or their music I cannot really comment on the songs in detail, a part of Tom Jones's "Delilah" was a nice amusing intermezzo. I did however get hold of the setlist they played at Pinkpop and will publish it below for the people who know more about them. I also enjoyed the playing of the female violinist and the trumpettist as I did in fact the entire performance, so I rate it with a 7.0.

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During Flogging Molly's gig we met a couple of friends from our hometown including some FOTsers (what the fuck are FOTsers you might ask, well more info about them can be found here: Roda JC Fans On-Tour) and we decided to hang out with them for awhile and bask in the sun. I myself sat down in the still a bit wet grass and took of my wet shoes and socks and I drywringed my socks, which still contained quite a bit of water and I draped the badly discoloured socks (originally white, now mostly black like my shoe-colour) over my naked legs, so they could dry even more in the sun. Nonetheless after about 15 to 20 minutes I had to put the (not dry) footwear back on, because we had made an appointment with the returning Astrid at the soundtower of the North Stage. After we had met her, we went back to our friends and from there we watched the next act: Lifehouse. It was their second time at Pinkpop, two years ago they had been a last minute substitute and due to programming schedules I hadn't seen their performance than. Since that time I had bought their first album and downloaded their second. The latter hasn't been as succesfull as the first and I can understand why. Not that "Stanley Climbfall" is a bad album, it's just not as good as "No name face" and without any outstanding song like "Hanging by a moment" on it. The band gave a good performance, but like that second album it was not memorable. Another critic described them as being the substitute for Live at this year's Pinkpop, while rating them with a 1.0, but I disagree with that. As I stated their show was OK, but I don't think they're in the same league as Live (yet) and although frontman Jason Wade is more of a pretty boy and therefore likely to be more appealing to younger female fans, he doesn't have the stage presence and/or charisma that Live's leader Ed Kowalczyk has. The audience reacted pretty tame on them and the majority only showed little signs of recognition during "Sick cycle carroussel" and ofcourse the closer "Hanging by a moment". Wade also made a statement that I've often heard before at Pinkpop about how Americans can't seem to make a good festival work and especially the handclapping that Europeans do during the show, seems not to be done in the States. "Take me away" was announced as the new single and the only other remarkable moment was when drummer Rick Woolstenhulme (the other 2 not yet mentioned bandmembers are his brother Sean on guitar and bassplayer Sergio Andrade) had to be bandaged, because he cut his hands while drumming and was bleeding a lot. All in all I rate the performance of Lifehouse with a 6.3 and to me it remains to be seen if these guys can become a permanent force in the music business.

During this performance another light drizzle had started to fall from the skies, but nothing very serious this time. After their show we walked around a bit and next to the tent we bought some pizza slices and a chicken burger for Monja (who can't stand cheese), but while we were sitting there eating we could also hear an band called The Eighties Matchbox B-line Disaster play from inside the tent. The only thing I knew about them was that organiser Jan Smeets had announced them as the big surprise of the festival. Well that maybe true, but not a positive surprise, we all weren't even intentionally listening to their stuff, but what a load of shit. I only heard pitchy shreaky cries on a background of noise, like that of some guys who for the first time laid their hands on an electric instrument. Later I heard that they have a reputation as the next big thing out of England, well if this is the future of music, please cut off my ears. Well enough on that topic, as we walked away from that, it was time for the biggest downpour of the entire day. Again we first tried to find some cover, but there was none, so we just went back to the North Stage where The Dandy Warhols were due. This is one of the few bands I couldn't get a setlist of, but the ongoing downfall of the rain kept us from really concentrating on the music, although hearing them play their biggest hit "Bohemian like you" (it became a hit in Holland, because it was used in a tv-add for the phone company that also shirtsponsors Manchester United) during this rainstorm (which blew right into your face when you were facing the stage) was kind of a surreal experience. During their act the rain finally began to subside a bit and eventually it would stop. I did recognize other singles by them like "We used to be friends" and "If you were the last junkie on earth", but now we were really distracted by other things. Due to the rain the grass had transformed into big puddles of mudd in some places and a lot of (original) Woodstock-scenes were taking place, like sliding through the mudd and a couple that did some sumo-wrestling above a puddle until one of them was soaking in it. Some people are weird, but it was all a lot of fun to watch. All these laughable scenes around us, kept me/us from concentrating on The Dandy Warhols. Therefore I should maybe not rate them, but since I did hear the entire set I will anyway. The music was in general not fascinating enough to keep us from being distracted, but much like Lifehouse it was OK anyway and as I stated before I will never forget listening to "Bohemian like you" in the pouring rain, so I will rate their show with a 6.5.

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The Dutch Choice All Time Hot 100 (year 2003; version 32) with MP3-links

After that we went for another beer and in the distance we caught a glimpse of Anouk, the first act on the Main (South) Stage of this year's Pinkpop, but we didn't focus on hear. I've seen her live already a couple of times and will be seeing her again at Bospop 2003 on July 12 of this year. So shortly after we went back again to the North Stage for the last band there on this day, Counting Crows. A few years before I had let them slip by me at Pinkpop, consciously, because their music didn't appeal to me that much back then, but now they were one of the acts I was most eager to see. Although I didn't think that Counting Crows and their fragile rock-music were really a festival band, I do enjoy their stuff a lot nowadays. And they proved me wrong on the festival-thing! Adam Duritz (and his gang) have a reputation of either being fantastic on stage or being very obligatory (like recently at Rock Werchter 2003). At this Pinkpop they were absolutely amazing, from the starting "Rain King" to the exquisite end with "Goodnight Elizabeth" the Crows were in their best shape. "Rain King" was obviously another appropiate song for this day. It basically stayed dry during their show, although some very dark clouds passed by during the set. Frontman Adam Duritz was in a great mood and songs like "Mr. Jones" and "American Girls" got the crowd going. "Goodnight L.A." was played solo on piano and the lyrics "And what brings me down now is love, cause I can never get enough of love" really got to me. Duritz faded right into their classic "A Long December" and was joined by the rest of the band again on that. What was funny, was when he suddenly saw himself playing on the big videoscreen behind them, he seemed surprised and couldn't help laughing at that. He would really keep smiling in between singing throughout the entire set. He also made some comments earlier on how he used to hate playing festivals until he had accidentelly made a commitment to play Pinkpop. They did it (this was at least their 3rd appearance here) and ever since he loved doing the European festivals. The next song was their recent hitsingle "Big Yellow Taxi" (without the background vocals of Vanessa Carlton this time), although the piano player didn't think so. He accidentally started playing "Hanginaround", so they had to restart, but before that some of the other bandmembers, jokingly pushed a setlist in the piano man's face :). BYT was sung along to en mass and the emotion that music can be, brought some tears to my eyes. The set went on and after they left the stage they were summoned back for 2 encores "Hanginaround" (indeed a very similar intro) and a beautiful extended version of "Goodnight Elizabeth", which Duritz referred to as our "lullabye for the night". He added some stuff to the last song like parts of "California Dreamin'" and crowd interaction with "it's allright". After the Counting Crows, Massive Attack would be playing on the Main Stage, but we weren't really interested in them and besides after this performance of CC, it would only have been a disappointment. The Counting Crows proved today that you don't have to be a hard hitting guitar band to excell at a festival and they were definitely the highlight of the first 2 days of Pinkpop 2003 and therefore I rate their show with an 8.3. Other bands that we missed on this day were Zuco 103 (intentionally), Peter Pan Speedrock and the only Belgian act Ozark Henry. I have heard some stuff from these last 2 acts, which wasn't bad it all, but alas you don't have time to check out everything at a festival like this. What's left to say about the Sunday. It was a relief when I came home and finally could take the wet shoes and socks off and take a nice warm shower, I was real glad I wasn't staying at the Pinkpop-camping on this night.

Monday 9 June 2003

On this day we arrived on time to watch the Swedish band The Cardigans at 12.45 pm. It was the first band on the Main Stage that we saw, but we didn't move up to the front. We saw most of their act on the big videoscreen in the middle of the grounds and at times the distance and the wind had a disturbing effect on the sound. If I extract all these misadvantages, the performance of The Cardigans still wasn't one that I would rave about. Nina Persson and her band did their thing in an obligatory manner without much spectacle attached. I only knew their singles and as "Erase and rewind" sounded OK, "Lovefool" wasn't that great and "For what it's worth" had the same effect on me as it had when I heard it on the radio, that is little. The only songs I really liked were the Black Sabbath-cover "Changes" and their biggest hit and the closing song of the set "My favourite game". Their rate: 6.0.

During that last song we slowly went towards the North Stage were Ilse DeLange had started performing for her second Pinkpop-appearance. Ilse is the Dutch version of Shania Twain, she started out as a country artist, but nowadays is more in the pop-rock business. Her debut-album "World of hurt" was chosen as the best Dutch album ever by the listeners of Radio 2, one of the biggest (public) Dutch radiostations. The character of Ilse is nothing like that of the flamboyant Shania Twain. Although she has often been described as 'eye-candy', she always seemed to be very shy and a bit overwhelmed on stage in the beginning, the girl with the funny accent, who suddenly made it big. I've seen her live before at 2 occassions and experienced this myself, so this time around the first thing I noticed was how she has grown over the last couple of years. She learned to deal with some of the awkwardness of being on a big stage in front of a crowd. She seemed much more relaxed and loose this time, but still has the appearance of the nice girl next door. Her vocal talents were always up to par and you would have a hard time finding a better female voice in The Netherlands. The start of her performance today was very promising, but around the 4th song and into the 5th song, I became a bit bored, although Ilse was singing very well. Than song 7 and 8 were performed acoustically, which is ofcourse a daring move, but not a very impressive one in my humble opinion. The end of the show however I liked a lot again, especially the new single "No reason to be shy" and the first single from her previous album with the same title "Livin' on love", during which she was dancing around all over the stage. A part of her show that remains striking is the sound of the hammond organ, ofcourse most bands don't use this instrument, so I always notice that particular sound when Ilse and her band are performing. For the setlist as I remember it, look below, I rate the show of Ilse DeLange and band with a 6.7.

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During Ilse's last song, her biggest hit "I'm not so tough" we walked back to the Main Stage, where it was now time for Krezip. This is a Dutch band with its members in their late teens or early twenties. Their big breakthrough in Holland was a couple of years ago with the song "I would stay" and the clip for that song was filmed during their previous and first Pinkpop-performance. Their members were inspired to form a band, when they visited an even earlier edition of Pinkpop, on which they saw the Belgian band K's Choice perform and they said to themselves "this is what we want to do". Well the idea isn't new, but Krezip (which is an anagram for 'perzik', the Dutch word for peach) proved to have the talent to pull it off. Nowadays they have already reached the major leagues of Dutch rock and today's performance was the confirmation of that. Singer Jacqueline knew it, when she stated something like, "well Pinkpop, main stage, main day, this is it". We didn't go up to the front during their show. In fact we ordered some pizza-slices and drank some beers at the bar, but nonetheless you could see that Krezip gave a very energetic performance and this band too has improved itself over the years. Their latest songs also seem to have a bit more of an edge to them, which makes them more of a rockband. Their songs used to be in between pop, rock and ballad, but now they sounded as a real heavy festivalband, which wanted to rock the crowd. There was still room for that one ballad ofcourse. Jacqueline announded "I would stay" with the words "Pinkpop for you". Remarkable was also when during the performance of their first radiohit "In her sun", De Moordgasten entered the stage to do a (small) part of their rap-hit "Je moet je bek houwe" (translation: you have to shut up). I usually don't like rap, but this song I do like and De Moordgasten are 2 kids in their early teens, so it must have been some sort of experience for them boys up on that stage in front of 40,000 people. The audience's reaction towards Krezip was very positive, best exampled by the massive swaying of the hands during "Gentle". I hope the festival-people will keep on being positive towards them, because after being too much in the limelight, Dutch bands seem to 'get uncool' in the perspective of many people. Too much success and exposure are a drawback in the eyes of these people, artists like Kane and Anouk already have to deal with these sentiments. But back to Krezip, as stated their show was very energetic and rocked from start to end and therefore I rate their performance with a 7.0.

After this we went back again to the North Stage to see the next band there. That would be Zwan. This band around former Smashing Pumpkins-frontman Billy Corgan was a last minute addition to Pinkpop, in fact they substituted for Sum 41, who had cancelled their performance. I didn't mind, but especially my girlfriend Monja had been looking forward to Sum 41. Have I already mentioned she is into punkrock? Well I didn't think Zwan did a bad job, but the others in our little group weren't very impressed with them. Especially Astrid didn't like their stuff, to put it euphemistically, but than again she wasn't in a very good mood anyway on this day, I guess, she was kinda nervous, because the next day she would be getting the key for her newly purchased house. But Zwan much like the Smashing Pumpkins is a band that sort of needs an acquired taste, when I first heard the Pumpkins I wasn't immediately thrilled either. Nowadays I like Corgan's stuff mostly, but it's not like I would consider SP or Zwan in the Top 20 of my favourite bands, Corgan's voice is too irritating for that. I made notes of the songs and because I don't know them all that well yet, I tried to listen to the lyrics, so I could match them later. That's not easy with Zwan, the song "For your love" for instance I wrote down as either "Flying out" or "Falling down". The band also seemed not really into the gig, the sexy female bassplayer Paz Lenchantin (great legs) was mostly standing with her back towards the audience facing drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. And one of the few times when Corgan addressed the crowd he stated "See you're all enjoying yourself, nice sunny weather, well, I hope to kill your mood with a sad song" ("Of a broken heart") . Well otherwise there is not much to say about their show, well maybe that there was a lot of emphasis on the instrumental parts of the songs. Long in- and outro's, only 9 songs, 2 of which aren't even on their (one) album, where other bands played like at least 12 songs in the same amount of time. I must admit, because the others disliked their stuff and the fact that I wanted to see the entire Evanescence-gig from up close, we left the show earlier. I rate the performance of Zwan with a 6.5.

View of the main stage at Pinkpop 2003

As mentioned the next act on the Main Stage was Evanescence. We, boys, had left the girls behind to bask in the sun and we headed up to the front. Evanescence was also a last minute addition/substitute for Linkin Park, but again I didn't mind. In fact I was very curious how they would sound as I was very impressed with the single "Bring me to life" and the other songs I had found on the internet. It would be the only band on the main stage that we would see and hear from upfront, maybe that has made a difference on how I interpreted the different bands, but I must say I was very impressed by this band. The guitars were very powerfull and reminded me of bands like Metallica or Rammstein. Frontwoman Amy Lee had sometimes a hard time in vocally getting the message across, because she barely made it over the instruments. At least that's what it sounded like standing there, yesterday I downloaded a movie of seven of their songs performed at Pinkpop and on the computer you could hear her a lot better (if anyone wants a copy of the movie, e-mail me and I will advice you how to download it, btw I also have mp3's of varying quality of the entire Counting Crows-performance, same procedure, just e-mail me). But I think that was only a minor drawback, you have to bear in mind that she was all over the stage, running around, talking in between songs, adjusting her hair in a tie in the middle of the set. The comments she made were about how it was their first time in Holland, also "I never saw so much pink hats, you know, you don't have to wear them, but it's OK, I like them" and later in between other songs "What is the deal with the hats". Well the deal with the hats is as follows, since a couple of years ago, Amnesty International has a stand on Pinkpop and they always sell these hats, which have become very popular. They are a good protection against the sun, the money is for a good cause and they are a nice memoribilia of Pinkpop. By the way the name Pinkpop has in its origin nothing to do with the color pink. The festival is always held during the Whitsunday-holiday and the Dutch name for Whitsunday is 'Pinksteren'. Therefore the festival was called Pinkpop, but ofcourse noone of the non-Dutch speaking artists have any clue about that, so they associate the festival with the color pink and nowadays with half the audience in these pink hats, that's no wonder. Another comment from Amy was in regard to the relatively big number of female singers performing at Pinkpop this year: "Thank you for letting women rock here". About four songs along Alex remarked to me that in his opinion Evanescence easily could have been the main act for this day. During "Even in death" the bass-sounds were so aussem, that my legs automatically started trembling, it was like the earth was shaking. They also played the Smashing Pumpkins-cover "Zero" in regard to which Amy stated something about Billy Corgan also performing here and how she hoped he didn't mind or something like that, I didn't really hear that. All in all I really loved their thing today and I was really astonished when I read a review the next day, basically saying it was shit, well I can't help that, but to me Evanescence was the highlight of Pinkpop-monday and I rate them with an 8.1. At this time I'd like to mention the bands performing on this day that I didn't catch, be it on purpose (most of them) or due to circumstances. Most of them played in the 3FM-tent: Dutch soul-act Relax, the Canadian threesome Danko Jones, who got rave reviews, the Norwegian electronic band Röyksopp (not my thing), from England Moloko, I caught one song of Roisin Murphy and her partner on tv, to quote Shania, that don't impress me much. I also didn't go to see the old soul legend Solomon Burke, who performed from his throne on the North Stage. That looked like a nice party, when I saw it later on tv with lots of people on stage including half the public at the end. The openers on the main stage, Dutch reggae-act Beef also couldn't spark our interest and the same goes for the closing act and so-called headliner on the Main Stage French singer Manu Chao.

Once again we went towards another stage, while the band was still playing on the stage we were at now. That's the problem with massive festivals like Pinkpop, bands start playing at one stage, while another band hasn't finished yet on another stage. If you want to see both bands, you have choices to make. And on this day it happened time and time again. On the North Stage it was now time for Audioslave. This band consists of singer Chris Cornell (ex-Soundgarden) and the 3 instrumentalists of the former Rage Against The Machine. This latter band rocked Pinkpop in the years 1993, 1994 and 1996, in fact this is were the successtory of that band began. And you could see that both the band and the crowd were eager to see the return of the majority of the members of RATM at Pinkpop. Well the opening song was a fucking surprise, they came on and played "Seven nation army" by The White Stripes. Apparently they heard the song on the radio and liked it so much that they decided to start with it today. It is a great song and the hoarse voice of Cornell even gave it an extra dimension. When I heard that members of Rage had released an album with a new singer and a reknowned one like Chris Cornell I immediately decided to buy that album. I have always liked the music (as well as the political statements) of RATM, but I wasn't too fond of the rap-like vocals of Zack de la Rocha. After I saw the video of the first single "Cochise" I had to have the album and so I did purchase it. I like it, but I kinda expected even more and it does take some adjusting to. This is also what I experienced around me at Pinkpop. The guitar-style of Tom Morello is different and that man can get the weirdest tones out of his strings, but not everyone likes that, some just want straight rock-song guitar-style and that's not Tom Morello. The man just likes to experiment around and I'm glad he does, not all music should sound the same and different in this case is a good thing, at least to me (and many other fans of his). Add to that the very distinctive voice of Cornell and you will find an audience split into people who hate it and who love it. I belong more to the latter part. Bert also liked the band, Alex wasn't to fond of Cornell's voice and liked the old RATM better, Monja and especially Astrid(!) did not like them. What's more to tell about their performance, well I was totally into the music, funny thing happened when a guy asked if he could climb on my neck during "Gasoline". You should know I'm almost 2 meters tall and it isn't the first time I've been asked this, but mostly by girls, so at first I refused, but when he insisted, I thought, what the fuck and picked him up during that song. Cornell also gave a comment about how the pink hats gave him a "warm and fuzzy" feeling and how they were glad to be back (I don't really know whether Soundgarden ever played Pinkpop, but I guess they must have according to this remark, unless he was speaking on behalf of the others) and he promised that they would make lots of good records and be back for more Pinkpop-shows. The best part of a great gig was the end. "I am the highway" started with an acoustic solo-performance of Cornell, and the last 2 songs "Show me how to live" and "Cochise" were (together with the opener) the highlight of the show. All in all I rate the performance of Audioslave with a 7.8.

This time we/I had decided to watch the entire performance, so when we came back to the main field Queens of the Stone Age had already started. I had been jumping/dancing around during Audioslave's show, so we decided to grab some drinks and not to move way up to the front. The girls even decided to go and look for some shade as well as a bite to eat. I have to add that this day opposed to yesterday was a sunny day. And at this hour we all started to realize how sunburnt we had become in spite of using suncream at several occassions. I was the worst victim, but the full extent of my 'injuries' wouldn't become apparent untill I was under the shower later this evening. Queens of the Stone Age were the last band of the day, which was really on the top of my wish-to-see list and although we didn't go to the front, you could hear these guys rockin' the scene. The crowd was going wild in front of the stage (we could see that on the big videoscreen, center field), even a bit too much at times, because guitarist Josh Homme of QotSA addressed some rowdy guy in the mosh pit and said "Hey you, asshole with the tattoo, this is no place to fight, I'll fuck you in the ass". Meanwhile we had found a nice place on the lawn and we were basking in the sun, well not really, my skin had really started aching by now, and listening to the Queens rock. I must admit that I did go back to the bar during their concert to grab some more beers and I even entered the adjacent record store and bought a discount version of the Rage Against The Machine-CD "The battle of Los Angeles". But even during that time I could hear the Queens of the Stone Age giving a fine performance. The only thing that I didn't like about it was the fact that they didn't play for the full hour and 15 minutes that they were scheduled for. Well at first they were only scheduled for an hour, but as Linkin Park had cancelled they had moved up in ranking, which meant an additional 15 minutes of playing time according to the new schedule on the Pinkpop-website, but alas they didn't use these 15 minutes and stuck to an hour including the 2 encores. Otherwise there was nothing wrong with their show so I rate their performance with a 7.7.

After Queens of the Stone Age we went to meet the women, who at that time we're ready to go home. Alex and I protested, because it was only 20.00 hours and although the acts that were still to perform weren't our favourites, it would be foolish in our opinion to leave already. Eventually the women gave in (yes, I marked it on my calendar as a remarkable event) and we moved to the North Stage were Junkie XL was doing his thing on stage. Junkie XL is basically just one person, Tom Holkenborg, who is basically a producer/re-mixer. I guess you could say he is a stage-artist like Moby. He is just the center of a show around his remixed songs. Nowadays he is most famous for the remix of Elvis Presley's "Little less conversation", he was the first person allowed to remix an Elvis-song, be it under the abbreviation JXL, because the Junkie-part was a bit too controversial. Well the show was very colorfull, with fireworks and all, and also with guest performances of Saffron, the former singer of Republica and soul-legend Solomon Burke, but I must confess I didn't see those guest performances. We watched for three or four songs including "Little less conversation" and decided that musically it just wasn't that interesting. I mean it is a live festival, I want guitars, drums, real music, not this electronically produced stuff, I come to see artists perform, not dj's. Although the girls still pushed us to go home, we compromised with them. We would go to the 3FM -tent near the exit and check out a bit of the Danish band Saybia and then we would leave. I knew a couple of their songs from the radio and their music (especially the vocals) always reminded me a lot of the 80's-hitsuppliers A-Ha from Norway. Well the atmosphere in the tent was great like it always is at the smallest stage of Pinkpop and the music of Saybia sounded quite good, in fact I convinced the women to stay for one more cigarette after I had heard them perform their radio-hit "The second you sleep". The band appeared to be very happy with the venue and the audience. One of them stated that it was the largest crowd they'd played before outside of Danmark and they could feel the love. My pal, Barry later told me that Saybia was his highlight of Pinkpop 2003, well I didn't see enough of them to confirm that, but I would rate what I saw with a 6.3, by the way Junkie XL I rate with a 6.1, mostly because of the visual aspect.

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Conclusions regarding Pinkpop 2003:

The overall feeling that I have towards Pinkpop 2003 is one of appreciation. The lack of big names in the line-up and other last-minute/one-time festivals was the reason that Pinkpop wasn't sold out for the first time in several years, but I must admit that as a visitor this is only a bonus, because this way it's much more relaxed and less crowded. Also the artists that did perform were mostly good, with the exception that proves the rule ( The Cardigans), and sometimes great. The best acts in my humble opinion, you could have already figured it out through the ratings, were Skin, Queens of the Stone Age, Audioslave and especially Evanescence and Counting Crows. I personally liked Pinkpop 2003 better than the previous 2 versions and I rate it with a 7.3.

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