[Concert] Singalong for 12.000 people

- Iron Maiden "Somewhere back in time tour" live in Horsens, Denmark, july 27th 2008

I saw Iron Maiden live for the first time in november 2006, but I've been listening to their music for more than 20 years now, I think. In fact, Iron Maiden was one of the first metal bands I was ever introduced to. So obviously the concert in november 2006 was highly anticipated. And I thought it was really good. It wasn't what I had expected, because they chose to play the entire new album, "A matter of life and death", which is brilliant - but not quite what I was expecting for my first Maiden concert. I (and most of the other 7999 people) surely wanted a bit more nostalgia...

- which brings us to yesterday. The scene was a freight yard in Horsens (a neighbouring town to where I live), the sun was shining from a clear blue sky, the beers were cold and numerous, and the place was packed with about 12.000 Iron Maiden fans - young and old. Somewhat ideal settings I'd say. And with the tour title "Somewhere back in time", you just knew you'd get nostalgia for every penny.

But first, like the Maiden concert in nov. 2006, we had to endure a (thankfully) short set from Maiden bass player, Steve Harris' daugher, Lauren Harris. Now I'm sure old man Harris is proud, and he should be - it must be nice when your daughter defies an otherwise male dominated genre and still manage to get somewhere. But for me, the music was a bit too naive... like some of the bands that played in youth clubs when I started playing metal myself. They played well, and it looked as if the crowd in the "pit" enjoyed it. But she just didn't reach the back - or my musical gland.

Far better was the second supporting act, Avenged Sevenfold, who served a mix of thrash, power metal, heavy metal tossed together with a bit of NU-metal vocals. Brilliant musicians too. Especially the power riff in the track "Almost Easy" (I think it was called) caught my ears and attention. They did really good, paid homage to Pantera and Dimebag Darrel, as well as their respect to Iron Maiden and crew, for taking them along on this part of the tour. Bit of humour tossed in there as well, and they did a great job of lifting the atmosphere before the main act.

At about 9.20pm, the last rays of sun graced the top of the stage, and slowly started to loosen it's grip on the freight yard in Horsens, where everyone was psyched as Churchill's Speach kicked of the show, followed by Aces High. From then on, the place was boiling for the almost 2 hours Maiden entertained us. And you really must hand it to them. They're not just musicians. They're not just a band. They're entertainers, showmen - and absolutely brilliant ones at that. Although a "small" stage, they filled it out really well, and the show was packed with Iron Maiden relics, backdrops and props - as well as main man, Bruce Dickinson, changing outfits now and then, to tie everything together in tracks like "The Trooper", "Rime of the ancient mariner" and more. See that's just it with Iron Maiden. They're not just prancing around on stage being rockstars - they're telling stories. Stories of ancient times, mystery, bravery and heroism. Just like true heavy metal should be. And they played fantastic. If I have to put a finger on something (because it all just can't be peaches and gravy), I'd say that Dickinson's voice did cut out now and then - it might have been technical issues, it might be because he was running across the stage like a madman, trying to maintain some degree of microphone control at the same time - I don't know. But he was heard clearly whereever it mattered the most, so I am really nitpicking here. Of course he could also just put it even more in the hands of the audience, who on several occasions proved they were true Maiden fans, by singing backup whenever Dickinson requested it - or when it is customary to do so - like the intro to "Fear of the Dark", which sounded just about when the sun finally dove under the horizon...

16 tracks (which in my book is close to 2 albums) was what we got served in Horsens on that perfect summer evening. And they were each served with an elegance and conviction that Metallica could learn something from. Although I like Metallica's old music more than Iron Maiden, they just don't deliver it live as well as Maiden do. So Lars, Hetfield, Kirk, and Robert - go catch Iron Maiden on tour - pick up a trick or two...


The set was as follows :
Churchill's Speach (intro)
Aces High
Two Minutes To Midnight
Revelations
The Trooper
Wasted Years
(666) Number Of The Beast
Can I Play With Madness
Rime Of The Ancient Mariner
Powerslave
Heaven Can Wait
Run To The Hills
Fear Of The Dark
Iron Maiden

Ekstras:
Moonchild
The Clarivoyant
Hallowed Be Thy Name

- and what a perfect way to end the show. Hallowed... is an all time favourite. Brilliant!


- The Trooper


- (probably) Wasted Years


- Rime of the ancient Mariner (FAB!)
*apologies for the crappy mobile phone pics...

Rating :

"We're Iron Maideeeeeeeen"...

- need I say more? It's gonna ROCK!! ;)

R O C K ! ! ! !

*edit* - and it did (see above)

*OOOUUUUCH* - No touchy.... NO TOUCHY!!

I'm home again. Slightly redder than before I left. No actually I'm incredibly red, burning, and in agonizing pain... So when you see me - no padding on the shoulder, unless you want to be picking up your front teeth from the sidewalk, mhhkay? ;)

Oh yeah - and my phone died on me. Completely. Good thing I have my backup... So I'm also back in that department.

My tent was also a little bit too small for me. I guess when the info says "2 persons", they really mean 2 persons of less height than 170cm or 1 person of no more than 180 cm. It is a good festival tent, I reckon. Comes in a bag, and when you upen the bag, you unleash raw, compressed unfolding powers. It simply goes *POOOOF* and there's a tent. Add 6 tent pegs, and you're done.
- so if you're going on a festival or something, come by and pick up a spare tent. I'm gonna look for a bigger one.

And a guy on the lot next to ours was snorring like a big, fat bear...

But apart from all that, I really enjoyed the 2 days at my parents' camp site - despite their usual bickering ;)

...and I just cleaned the house...

It was great fun though - thanks to all who showed up... FOR RUINING MY HOME!!
- just kidding of course - next time will be my birthday around late august/early september. X marks the spot - put it in the calendar ;)

*edit* And to whoever brought the roof tile to my appartment and left it there for me to find at 5am, drunk and on my way to bed - that's just sick! Roof tiles go on the OUTSIDE - don't make me nervous like that again. I actually had to check the roof for missing tiles, when I went down with the garbage today...

SICK, I tells ya! :D

*edit 2* Ok, who ate my 2 incredibly pathetic discount burgers, which I had saved for tonight? That's just mean. I hope your conscience is black as night. You've forced me to go out for food... again... You just don't eat another persons hangover meal. Shame, shame on you...

*edit 3 (only 3 years later)* - so the roof tile has finally been refitted, after 3 years of pigeons inside the roof, and wall to wall pigeon shit outside my window :D

3D::Project - Creative Gigaworks T40

I've had a little private project going during my summer holidays. My PC-speakers - Creative Labs Gigaworks T40. A test in studio light setup with Vray, as well as materials. The modelling itself was done with spline- and box-modelling primarily. Some Vray displacement has been used as well.
A bit of post work, and there it is...


I'll put this model up for sale on TurboSquid and The3dStudio when it's 100% final.

*edit*
More renders and wireframes...

Rear - showing the connection details:


Top - showing the vent:


Wires:






- this has been great fun, good practice, and the result, I think, speaks for itself.

You can buy this model on The3Dstudio

ahhh - holidays at last...

Yup - 17 days of pure freedom. I'm gonna use it to go see Iron Maiden live and open air, see old friends, throw a party, maybe camp for a few days with my parents at their camp site up north, play music, work out a lot, go biking, idle, watch movies, play games... it's gonna be great.

- but first I need to shake this &%!%¤#&% illness in my throat. Honestly... who the heck gets sick with an ilness frequent to the winter period during summer? This is just ridiculous.

Personalized credit card my ass... (part 2)

After much ado about my request for a personlized credit card, I finally got it. No hint about if it had been approved or not (although I suspected it had passed since I did not get a rejection mail) - it only said that IF it had been approved, I would receive my new card soon.
And it arrived yesterday - colour profile wrong (too much contrast), and placement slightly off, so there's a little stripe of white at the bottom. And obviously it is NOT my first choice motif. Still better than the default though, so I am partially satisfied. But that's just not GOOD enough, when I wanted to be ECSTATIC!

- hopefully I've stirred up enough fuzz, for them to have another look at their "rules", or at least be more specific about what you can and can't submit.

Farewell, Thomas Winding

If my childhood was to have had a narrator, the voice would have belonged to Thomas Winding.
The author, director, narrator (and more) died today 71 years old.

I doubt I will ever forget his deep, calm voice - especially because it was pretty much associated with 80% of all tv-entertainment for kids when I was little. It had that sound or depth or harmony, that would make you listen. Like REALLY listen. He could probably be reading knitting diagrams or pastry recipies, and you'd still listen.

It's odd how a voice can have such an impact, but perhaps you're more easily affected by the impressions you meet when you're a child? I don't know. But I will miss that voice.




Rest in peace.

National (aqua)bomb championships

Today me and a bunch of my colleagues went to see the Danish Championship in (aqua)bomb. It was a hoot - except for the fact that it was scorching hot on the stands and I finished the only beer I brought, about 2 minutes after sitting down.
But those guys were beyond mad. I believe that at least one of them had an agonizing look on his face, when he surfaced after a jump. But I guess that's only fair, when you hit the surface with your ass first, from the 10 meter platform where most of the jumps took place from.

Anyways - here's a few (mediocre) pictures from the event. They really don't do the event justice. The volume of the splashes were half the experience.


- impact...


- good splash. Great height.


- impact...


- nice "wings". Looks almost like a swan.


- yes he rode it ALL the way down.


- tripple action...


- yes, curl up like a porcupine - good plan.


- nice overall volume.


SPLASH!!

Great fun overall - and especially the german guests were out of their heads.
Check out some videos and keep track on upcoming events here.

Personalized credit card my ass...

So my credit card is due for a replacement, given that the magnetic stripe has been cut in half 40% through the card, and the chip is developing a personality as well. Not to mention the fact that the card more ore less is shaped like the profile of a banana.
My bank offers the option to get a personalized card - woohoo, I thought - just the thing for a graphics artist like myself.
Obviously there are some understandable restrictions - like if there's people on the image you submit, they have to approve, and you can't use other peoples copyrighted material, and no profanity and obscene stuff. All good. So I start preparing some of my best graphics, submit it and get excited about how cool it will be when I use my new card publicly, that there's a big, green fly with a rotary engine from a plane on it. The next day I get an email saying it has been rejected. So I call the bank, and ask them why, and get the answer that it looked like some kind of professional product shot (/me takes a bow). I then explain that it is done entirely by me, and this is what I do for a living (although rarely flies with engines are involved). They say ok - we'll just send you a form to fill out, where you can state that you're the legal copyright holder of the work. Form arrives, I sign and return it, excitement level rises again. 2 days later, another rejection mail. I call the bank, and now all of a sudden they do not accept anything that has been made on the computer. WTF?!
In the following days, I send various scanned photos that get rejected as well for various (stupid) reasons. My last attempt is a picture of the sunset taken from Hume Highway in Australia 2000, which IS pretty, but I wanted COOL.
So personalized card, MY ASS!! Sure I was at Hume Highway, but so was probably 1000 people, and so is probably a 1000 people every single day. It doesn't get more personalized than a piece of graphics you did yourself, does it? It is obviously less acceptable, just because it wasn't done by an infant with greasy fingers and head-to-toe veggie mash covering and presented to the overly joyfull parent.
Stupid, stupid, stupid...

- and in the meantime I have to listen to "Looks like you need a new card, mister" every other day... O RLY??!?