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| The PitGoddess loves Kitties and wormrot, @Kitty Castle Sforza |
I arrived at Marco’s completely exhausted, of course. But I did manage to take the train from the airport and I had inadvertently told him the EXACT time I’d be arriving at the train station. And I did, they run ON TIME. It was nice to be back in warmer weather, even if it was Florida-hot (and humid). Milan was fun- one afternoon we did all the tourist-y shit, like hop trains and look at the Duomo and Parco Sempione and the Castle! Fun fact: the castle is full of wild kitties, a cat-tsle if you will. Some of them are even kind of tame. The thing I found odd was the fact that people are three seconds away from full on sex everywhere we went. Now, a castle might be more romantic that a statue of a Norwegian official, but still, ew. Someone willing to open a seedy pay by the hour motel in the heart of Milan would make some serious cash. Of course, we passed a WWII memorial. (Europe is a WWII memorial.) We basically did the gambit of tourist-y Milan things in a few hours. I even got a free bracelet (which Marco kind of…took from one of the street vendor people.) and Marco and I match.
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| Marco and me in el Parco |
Another evening I went to Marco’s band practice. His band, Brainwash, has been around since 1992, and is a really awesome Eastern Euro-influenced grind band. Despite the fact that they don’t do a lot of American promotion or tours here (damn it guys!) they are worth a listen. They’re also incredibly nice, funny and super tight. And, they bring beer! Always a good sign. Another night we walked around the city and I met some of Marco’s friends.
Now for the fun. Hellfest. A whole day to get ready- making food and stuff to take. We met up for the bus at 10 pm, and it was expected to be a 16 hour (SIXTEEN HOUR!) ride. Where no one spoke English but Marco. Marco is a very good friend of mine, but there are not many people in the world I’d like to chat to for 16 hours straight. Marco is basically Jon’s opposite- Jon is quiet and reserved and Marco is very loud and affectionate. If Jon is a can of pop, Marco is the moment the top is popped after the can has been rolling around in the car for a few months. In any case, I slept a lot. It was kind of lonely, actually. All the movies were dubbed and subtitled in Italian too. One person spoke with me briefly. I found out later that quite a few people were at least conversational in English but didn’t want to speak to “that American girl.” I’m really nice, I swear! Oh well.
We arrived at Hellfest and there were a lot of problems with Marco’s and my tickets. I won’t go in to detail because it’s 1. Dull and 2. Shitty, but luckily the first night we met some awesome people, Luc and Clemais (I am SO sorry, if you ever read this, I cannot spell your name) who shared their beer and food with us. I am eternally grateful to them because they really saved us from a night of me being devastated about our problematic ticket situation and lack of ability to contact anyone. The morning, the start of fest, brought more ticket problems, that I won’t go into. But I cannot thank Possessed (especially Dan), Malevolent Creation, Suicide Silence and Punchy for helping get shit situated. There is no way that without all of their help the whole Hellfest highlight of my trip would have crashed and burned. So, eternally <3.
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| Me, fighting the cool statues in the VIP lounge |
Hellfest was AWESOME! The set up for bands playing is so cool- green rooms, press, a sammich buffet, free (non-alcoholic) drinks, occasional free Jaeger shots, Jack Daniels, massages, really cool furniture, a VIP lounge with a wifi bus and hammocks and crazy sculptures. It was great. Ever since I was a teenager and friends had told me mythical lore about the wonder that is a fest, I have wanted to do the backstage fest thing and I cannot thank Possessed enough for letting me tag around! (If you missed it, Dangrind, my significant other wonderful half is one of Possessed’s new guitarists.)
One of the first things I did was attend the Possessed signing session. How surreal, and how fun. It was especially great to watch Jeff interact with the fans. Jeff Becerra is really one of the nicest, most humble people in the whole metal industry, really truly. He loves to talk to fans and friends. When he says he has 5000 friends on facebook, believe it, because he absolutely loves everyone and considered them a friend. Also, since 4/5 of the band is of Hispanic descent, it was also fun to see the support from the Latino community. :3 I cannot state this enough- I LOVE the fest atmosphere. I LOVE Euro fests. It’s something that has to be experienced- I can’t put the whole atmosphere into words. The camaraderie is amazing and people are really friendly and just want to have fun.
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| Possessed Signing Session |
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| The Pitgoddess and the mighty Frost of 1349 Did I mention, it rained and was cold as hell the whole Fest! |
Of course, one of the highlights of the weekend was roadie-ing for Possessed. Marco acted as the drum tech and I helped set up the stage and whatnot. Watching Possessed’s set was awesome and the band is really tight for only their second show. (Check out my favorite video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W5ig98OANo) Again, it was an absolute honor and privilege to be apart of something so great and to watch the fans going nuts and to stand backstage with people of metal lore and watch the band absolutely kill it. Or walking around with some of the guys and having people stop them for autographs or photos. As someone who has never and will never be famous in any capacity, I found all this very humbling and fun.
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| Dangrind, Igor Cavalera and The PitGoddess! |
Some of the other highlights were 1349, Exhumed, Cavalera Conspriacy, Kreator, Municipal Waste, JUDAS PRIEST (on their farewell tour and still incredible. The pyro shit was really fucking cool and intricate), Bolthrower, Hail of Bullets, Morbid Angel, Last Days of Humanity (who are some of the nicest people ever!), DRI (complete with 15 or so people having a mini- pit off stage, to the dismay of the stage crews) and probably one of the best live shows I’ve seen- KYUSS. One of the few bands I watched also exclusively from the front of the stage, Kyuss just slayed, the set list was great and John Garcia’s voice is spot on. Sure there’s no Homme, but the guy who is taking his place was super talented. As someone who thought I’d missed out on Kyuss forever, I really relished in the opportunity to sing Green Machine with 5000 or so of my close friends, packed into a teeny tent. And of course, the shopping- two HUGE tents full of booths- not to mention tons of food, including an ice cream and candy bar! Another was drinking wine (class-yyy) in the VIP lounge, near a roaring fire, with three of the Last Days guys and listening to Ozzy play in the background. What could be a better end?
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| PitGoddess, DanGrind + 3/4 Last Days Crew |
Monday morning, I said a tearful goodbye to my Possessed family (again, THANK YOU!), our driver Hugo, and the beautiful French countryside- the view from our hotel room was a castle!- as Marco and I ran to the bus. Sixteen hours back? Fuck. Luckily, sleepiness took in. The ride home was uneventful and so was the interim at Marco’s dad’s office. Unless sleeping on a bookmaking table is exciting. I did discover, however, that apparently Milan has an…underbelly. Ok, ok, the streets were full of prostitutes, male and female. I had no idea, ok?! I’m just an American girl, our prostitutes usually look less like normal people in jeans and tank tops and more like…hookers.
On my long ass flight back to Atlanta, The guy next to me turned out to be a lawyer for Ferrari who was going to Texas to visit his brother- it’s a nice reminder that there CAN be interesting people anywhere. The man behind me spoke of his solo 5000 mile, 15? Country motorcycle ride across Europe. Now, there’s an
idea for next time.
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| This is the view from the mainstage. Fucking INSANE right? One of the best weekends of my life, hands down <3 |
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