Gentle Storm, Hard Rock Cafe, 19.02.15

I'm so happy, I finally got to see Arjen last night. It's the first time I actually feel a lump in my stomach when an artist comes out on stage, I'm always excited to see my favourite bands, but when Arjen got up on stage, it was an indescribable feeling and I realised how immense is my respect for this man. Anneke stole the show with her amazing, amazing voice and her sweetness, but I cannot forget that it's Arjen that created the incredible music.

Sabaton, Arenele Romane, 27.01.15

We didn't get a chance to see the opening band, Roadkill Soda because of a mix between work, bad traffic and people running late, and had we known what was about to happen, we would've tried harder to get there in time. That's what you get for not respecting the opening bands!

Bucovina, Fabrica, 13.12.14

I can't believe I've been listening to Bucovina for 8 years and it took me so long to get to one of their concerts! I guess that's the problem with local bands, that I always save the money and time for foreign bands that come here once or twice and figure the Romanian bands are always going to be here and I'll have plenty of chances to see them anytime I want. When I realised this logic isn't getting me anywhere and I've been a fan for so many years and STILL hadn't seen them live, I decided this really needs to change. So yey, now I can add them to my list of concerts!

Maximum Rock Festival, Turbohalle, 24-25.10.14

In the middle of a period where organisers/bands aren’t exactly lining up for concerts, let alone festivals, Maximum Rock was a breath of fresh air. First of all, I wasn’t extremely familiar with most of the bands, but I had quite a few revelations (more about that later). Second of all, it was by far the best organised festival I ever went to. Of course the way the location is separated helped and also the number of people in the audience was considerably smaller then what the location could’ve held, but it was a great example of how a festival should look like. Except for the long wardrobe line at the end of the second day, I didn’t have to wait in line for anything – there were enough toilets, enough food&drink stands... everything flowed smoothly. I loved the idea of the drum stage, where you could pass the time during the breaks and I also love that the hall has a separate section where you can smoke and sit down for a bit. Compared to Helloween and Gamma Ray at the Roman Arenas, where the organisers forbade smoking but didn’t offer a proper solution (and thousands of people had to go in and out through a door the size of my bedroom door for a smoke and eventually gave up and smoked inside), this type of room separation “convinced” people not smoke in the concert hall in a natural way, without any need to impose or forbid anything. The only thing I can somewhat complain about was the sound, it severely handicapped a few of the bands, but I think it was mostly due to the acoustic of the hall and I can’t really blame that on the organisers, considering there isn’t a single indoor concert hall with truly good acoustic in Bucharest (at least not one suited for this type of music, I don’t think the Athenaeum was quite the right place to listen to Unleashed).

Deep Purple, Polivalenta Hall, 20.02.14

I wasn't expecting too much from this concert, considering I was going to see a positively ancient band with a lead singer who's almost 70. But then again, it was a positively ancient band, on the back of which was built all the music I nowadays adore, so I wasn't going to miss this for the world. And I don't regret it a single bit, as it was a beautiful night.

Rock the city, Romexpo, 29.07.13

I have to start once more complaining about the organisation. It was a complete "fuck you" to the fans and you could tell that every bad decision happened because of greed and desire to make the most money from it. I'm not even going to go into how expensive everything is, because I've already gotten used to it, but I have to say that if I had had tickets to Normal circle, I would've been seriously pissed. The Normal circle was so freaking far behind that I have no idea how these people saw anything. Even the giant screens were tiny to them! Also the food courts were terrible. We stayed in line for 45 minutes to get a hot dog when there were only ten people in front of us. The line simply wouldn't move. We started interacting with the other people in the line and making jokes to pass the time (and people say metalheads are aggressive... pfft), but eventually Rammstein started and we gave up.

Roger Waters, Constitution Square, 28.08.13

Oh my God, I can die happy now, I saw The Wall and it was BRILLIANT!!!! I had always loved Pink Floyd, I had always loved the album, but I never listened and understood it as I did the other night. So much anger, so much frustration, so much sadness, so much hate for everything that is wrong in the world, all magically put into music, words and images in such an overwhelming way. Overwhelming is probably the best word to describe this experience.

Sabaton and Eluveitie, Turbohalle, 19.03.13

Eluveitie

I had waited for years to see Eluveitie live and so it figures that they came to Bucharest without Anna... Don’t get me wrong, I had a lot of fun and they were really good and energetic and full of good vibes as always, but I'm a bit disappointed they didn't even try to replace her. Chrigel did all of her parts and it was a bit monotonous without her, her vocals added a lot of colour to the band and they should’ve tried to have another girl sing her parts.

Helloween and Gamma Ray, Arenele Romane, 16.03.13

It's hard to keep up with Gamma Ray and Helloween and charm an audience that is waiting for your concert to pass quickly so that they get to the goodies of the show, but Shadowside seemed to have had issues with keeping the audience alert no matter the circumstances, they were most boring. I always try to keep my eye rolling to a minimum during opening acts because I want to be supportive of a band that's just getting started and probably has tons of butterflies in the stomach, but this time I just couldn't. They were that bad... And when they decided to butcher Ace of spades in an effort to gain the public's good will, it was even worse.

Therion, Arenele Romane, 19.10.12

I saw them, I saw them, I saw them! You're going to have to excuse my loghoreea, but I'm really enthusiastic about it, it was great!

I stayed front row center (which for me was probably once in a lifetime, as my friends hate staying in the front, but this time I wanted badly to actually see them and not just hear them and I think I would've killed anyone saying "no" to front row).

Rock the City/Tuborg Greenefest, Romexpo, 30.06.12

As the first day was mostly a filler full of Romanian bands I can always listen to and I couldn't make it through three hours of the Axl Rose show and one hour of whiny Amy Lee for the life of me, let alone pay for it, I decided the second day of Greenfest is the only one that's worth it. I was wrong, nothing of this shitty festival was worth it. The good thing is that they had the inspiration OST fest lacked to put the stage against the sun so that you'll actually have some shade. The bad thing... everything else. In good old Tuborg tradition, it was more of a dust festival rather then a metal festival, with clouds of dust rising up in the sky and with horribly expensive food and drinks (just to give you an idea, we spent about as much on food and drinks as we did on the tickets, it's ridiculous!). I could've ignored these problems, but the worst of all was an issue that truly has the power to ruin a concert and that was the sound. The sound was crap crap crap, I could barely make out most of the music.

OST Fest, Romexpo, 17.06.12

OST Fest was *not* a good festival for me! I was stupidly enthusiastic about seeing WASP for the first time, but except for WASP I didn't get to see much else.

I was pretty much alive for Reborn, a very young Romanian band that didn't sound half bad. Props to them being able to make a pretty good show despite the fact that they were the opening band in a festival with icons like Motorhead, Megadeth and WASP and the weather wasn't exactly their ally (to put it mildly). I'd like to listen to them again in better conditions.

Bon Jovi, Constitution Square, 10.07.11

I saw Bon Jovi the other night and it was soooo much fun, I didn't actually expect it to be so awesome. Everyone was singing and dancing and he sung for 3 hours. The encore alone lasted almost an hour, for crying out loud! And at the end he sang a few songs that weren't on the setlist, so I’m guessing he had a good time. I have never seen a rock artist (meaning more demanding vocals and more running around then other genres require) have a show so long and so intense. *I* was tired and I’m half his age and wasn’t being the attraction of the evening, I have no idea how he put up with it. 

Rock the city, Constitution Square, 03.07.11

I have no idea what to say about Metrock because they barely got up on stage and they came down immediately. They seemed like a nice enough band, but I didn’t get a chance to get into it (it was shorter even then the usual opening acts).

After just seeing Trooper a month ago opening for Scorpions and being slightly disappointed by them, I wasn’t exactly ecstatic about seeing them again. They came, did their job and left. I don’t seem to have any recollection of the event whatsoever, it just... happened.

Scorpions, Zone Arena, 09.06.11

As a lifelong Scorpions fan, I couldn't possibly miss their farewell tour, so together with my parents (who introduced me to this beautiful band), we were there attached to the fence! Unfortunately it wasn't the front row fence, but the sound booth fence that provided me with wonderful support and helped me also watch the performance instead of just hearing it. It was very uncomfortable and my ass still hurts, but it was the only way to actually see something, so it was worth it.

Haggard, Silver Church, 08.05.11

So once more I'm lucky enough to see this amazing band live. I don’t think there’s much I could say about them that I haven’t said already, but I have a pressing need to praise them a bit more. They are sooooo awesome!

Blind Guardian, Arenele Romane, 01.05.11

After years of waiting for them, I finally saw Blind Guardian and it was sooo awesome! The guys really enjoyed themselves and they were so much fun to watch and listen to, it was a great concert. The crowd was amazing, we chanted and sung and clapped and cheered throughout the entire concert and between almost every song we’d start screaming “Guardian, Guardian” and the only way they could get us to stop was to start the next song :)) They didn’t sing And then there was silence as I had hoped, but they sang Wheel of time (which was one of the highlights for me) and I loved how the setlist was filled with songs with lots of choirs you could sing along to. Of course The bard’s song was incredible with the audience singing, it gave me goosebumps. I had waited for so long to be able to sing this song with them!

Epica, Silver Church, 29.03.11

And I saw Epica… Man Simone sucks! I never saw her as an outstanding singer, but last night she couldn’t carry a tune for the life of her! Her operatic voice was half decent, but her chest voice sounded terrible. Hoarse, strained… the long high notes she was trying to sing were probably the worst sound I’ve ever heard coming out of the throat of a lead singer with some pretences.

Tim Ripper, Kulturhaus, 20.02.11

What started out as a birthday gift for my boyfriend turned out to be a fantastic night, better then I could've expected. Even though I adore his voice, I'm not very familiar with Tim Ripper's career outside of Judas Priest and Iced Earth, so I probably wouldn't have gone to the concert if not for the fact that my boyfriend is a huge fan, but I'm really glad I did.

Sonisphere, Romexpo, 25-27.06.10

Sonisphere was HUGE! The number of people, the number of bands, the quality of the bands, the length of the festival... it was by far the biggest festival Romania ever held and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. I'm tired as shit, I can barely keep my eyes open and every inch of my body is sore, but it was well worth it.