Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth

Opeth was brilliant as always at the Getaway Rock Festival. Unfortunately, Mikael spoke all in Swedish (of course, since the festival took place in Gävle, Sweden–less than a couple hours north of Stockholm), which meant that while everyone else was laughing at his between-song comments, I couldn’t understand a word. Apparently he is as funny in Swedish as he is in English.

Opeth at the Getaway Rock Festival 2011

The setlist was:
The Grand Conjuration
Face of Melinda
The Lotus Eater
In My Time Of Need
Master’s Apprentices
The Drapery Falls
Hex Omega

I thought it was a bit short considering they were headlining. Also, Hex Omega seemed like a strange choice to end the evening (morning actually as it was almost 2 a.m. when they finished). It would have been great had they come back out for Deliverance and/or Demon of the Fall, both of which would have ended things more nicely. I’m also sad to see that they no longer play Baying of the Hounds. I don’t think I have heard it the last three times I’ve seen them now.

Of course, I could never say they played too long or even just enough. Two or three hours of Opeth would be fantastic.

Martin Mendez (bass) and Martin Axenrot (drums)

Fredrik Åkesson of Opeth

Joakim Svalberg (new keyboardist)

The new keyboardist sounded fine. I always enjoyed Per Wiberg’s headbanging.

This far north, the night never gets fully dark in early July. The sun sort of sets (just before midnight), some orange moves along the horizon (for an hour or so), and then the sun begins to rise before 2 a.m. This last photo was taken at 1:30 a.m., and it only got lighter from this moment on. I could actually see the sun by the time I got back to my hotel just after 2 a.m.

Opeth plays through the sunrise

Posted on July 19th, 2011 under Other. Tags: getaway rock festival, metal, opeth, sunrise, sweden. Comments Off on Opeth at Getaway Rock Festival

Gasklockorna in Gävle, Sweden - home of the Getaway Rock Festival

I just returned to Copenhagen after four days in Sweden. I spent most of the time in a place north of Stockholm called Gävle where the Getaway Rock Festival 2011 took place. Today is just a preview, as I have loads of photos (about 3,000) and video (half a dozen or so) from the event (most of which I haven’t even looked at yet).

Rob Cavestany and Mark Osegueda of Death Angel at Getaway Rock Festival 2011

I was supposed to have a photo pass for just Death Angel and Opeth, but they gave me a press pass with access to the front of the stage for all of the bands. I didn’t protest. Nor did I abuse the priviledge. I used it only for the ten or so bands (of 70 performing) I wanted to see.

Enslaved at Getaway Rock Festival 2011

I think I’ll break things down by band and feature a band a day, starting tomorrow, for a week or two.

Wolf Hoffmann of Accept

Gävle is a nice place. I’ll have some photos of it as well at some point.

Abbath Doom Occulta of Immortal

Posted on July 11th, 2011 under Other. Tags: accept, death angel, enslaved, getaway rock festival, immortal, metal, sweden. Comments: 1

Today’s clouds are from the Botanisk Have again.

The above steeple is part of the International Church of Copenhagen. We didn’t go inside, but a fellow faculty member went to church there once. I think it is the only place in Denmark with services in English. I asked him how it was since religion is mostly dead in Scandinavia. He said there were only about 20 people at the service. The place holds hundreds.

When we were in the Vor Frue Kirke their service was about to start. The place seemed big enough to hold several hundred people–maybe even 500–but there were no more than about 30. They all looked pretty unhappy and pretty old. The average age was well over 50.

Of the tiny percentage of the population that attends church in Denmark, some are still atheists who attend for social reasons. Even a Danish priest, Thorkild Grosboll, came out as a non-believer and his congregation supported him.

Many, if not nearly all, of the churches in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark only continue to exist because of state support. Some have been converted into museums, restaurants, and other facilities. We saw one in Gothenburg, Sweden that had been turned into a fish market.

I wonder how long it will take the rest of the world to follow Scandinavia’s lead. In my own town, in the U.S.A. even, churches have shut their doors permanently because of a lack of interest.

Posted on August 5th, 2008 under Denmark. Tags: clouds, copenhagen, living in copenhagen, nature, pictures, sweden. Comments Off on More Copenhagen cloud photos (and some commentary on religion in Scandinavia)

Gothenburg has Scandinavia’s largest mall. The thing is absolutely huge. But malls aren’t fun to take pictures of so I didn’t. The shopping spills out of the mall and into countless, cute, cobblestone streets. Unless you are earning a living in Swedish Kronors or Norwegian Krones I can’t imagine really wanting to shop here as those of us with U.S. dollars can’t get much bang for our buck.

Gothenburg reminded me a bit of San Francisco, and the above picture may give you one indication of why.

In front of the opera house flew the four Scandinavian flags. Maybe someday, when the U.S. dollar is worth something I will get to take another trip to see Norway and Finland. Right now things in those two countries are even more expensive than Denmark and Sweden.

Gothenburg has a canal that rings the city center. We took an hour long canal tour which was very nice. We plan to do the same in Copenhagen this coming Sunday.

Gothenburg was filled with very cool statues and parks. The batteries in my camera died early in the day so I don’t have many pictures of them though.

This was the only picture I got off from our canal tour before my camera’s batteries needed recharging. After the tour we walked around the Haga area which was very pretty before scrambling back to the train station to head back to Copenhagen.

The train took us back through beautiful countryside with occasional views of the ocean. Towns included Kungsbacka, Varberg, Halmstad, Helsingborg, and Malmo. We may head back over the border at some point to visit Malmo from more than the seat of a train.

Posted on July 4th, 2008 under Denmark. Tags: goteborg, gothenburg, Malmo, pictures, sweden. Comments Off on Last day in Sweden

Gothenburg was a really nice place on many levels. As noted in a prior entry, we stayed at the Hotel Barken Viking, an actual boat in the harbor. We later learned on a canal tour of the city that the Viking can no longer physically leave the harbor because bridges have subsequently been built which are lower than its height.

The above photo is of my kids in the lobby of the hotel. You can find more pictures of the ship on their blog.

If I look really thin and sickly in the above picture it is because I was. Although I had a great time anyway, I’d love to do this trip again now that I’m no longer sick, jetlagged, and tired but unable to sleep. I had not slept for over 30 hours when this shot was taken. And the last time I had slept was for only a few hours.

You can’t really trust the reviews in guidebooks or on sites like tripadvisor as the Viking was totally restored and remodeled in May of 2008. We were told that it used to be somewhat hostel like, with small rooms, shared bathrooms, etc. The rooms are now larger than they used to be. They are also nicer and each has a really nice bathroom (made completely out of wood). The prices are also higher now and a free pass to the amusement park is not included in most rooms.

Breakfast is included though (and is very good!). The scrambled eggs at breakfast were, by far, the best I’ve ever had. I didn’t realize scrambled eggs could have flavor like that. I wish I knew the secret ingredients.

The staff at the Hotel Barken Viking were all very nice and helpful. They all speak perfect English (as does everyone in Sweden it seems). The Danes speak good English as well, but the Swedes are even better.

In other non-English speaking foreign countries when you ask someone if they can speak English you either get a blank stare, a “no,” or an answer of “a little.” In Denmark the answer is usually “yes.” In Sweden it is usually “of course.” And they aren’t kidding.

To say hello in Sweden you say, “Hey.” You shouldn’t stop there though (unless you speak Swedish), or the reply will be a load of Swedish. I found that saying, “Hey, do you speak English?” was the best greeting as it started in Swedish, but didn’t result in a response in Swedish.

Morning came after a nice 10-hour sleep on the Viking. The above is a view from the porthole in our room. The room smelled so good. I don’t know if the nice smell was due to the new remodel or if it will always smell like that, but all hotels should be so pleasant to the nose.

I actually have quite a few more pictures from Gothenburg so our less-than-two-day trip to Sweden is going to turn into a five-day blog with tomorrow’s final installment.

Posted on July 3rd, 2008 under Denmark. Tags: goteborg, gothenburg, hotell barken viking (hotel barque viking), pictures, sweden. Comments Off on Gothenburg, Sweden (Göteborg)