Graspop

Bands I Saw

Rise Against

  The band was really good and had lots of energy. The lead singer seemed to have a really good time. He jumped off the stage to go into the crowd once. When he went to go back on the stage the security made him walk around instead of jumping on the stage. I found that funny.

Here is a link to Rise Against's website http://www.riseagainst.com/.

Stone Broken

  This was a British band that I had never heard of till I went to Graspop. They played early and I was just walking around and sort of stumbled upon them. Since it was early and not many people were there I got to stand right against the rail to see them. They played some good old style raw rock and were pretty good. The drummer did a wicked solo as well. During this concert, I did not wear earplugs, but after it, I decided it would be a good idea to wear some for the rest of the festival. Later in the day, I was able to get their autograph on my Graspop flag.

Here is Stone Broken's website https://www.stonebroken.com/home

Seether

  This is a band I have known for a long time and I really enjoy most of their music. I was expecting more from their performance. It was a good show, but I enjoy listening to their recorded version more than hearing them live which is very rare for me. I think maybe it was because I was standing further away and it was an open-air festival, but I am not an acoustics expert.

Here is Seether's website https://seether.com/

Arch Enemy

  This is a band that I had never heard of before Graspop. A guy told me about them when we were waiting for Stone Broken to start playing. He explained to me that the lead singer is a woman, but sounds like a 50-year-old man who has smoked his entire life. Initially, I did not believe him but it is certainly true. 

Here is their website http://www.archenemy.net/en/ 

And here is a link to the youtube video of one of their songs if you don't believe me on how she sounds singing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk2-bgwA0Ro

Megadeth

  I think most people already know who this band is. I found them very good. One thing I really noticed though is that the lead singer, Dave Mustain, looked very old. I also later went to try and get their autographs but the line up was way too long for me. 

Here is the Megadeth website https://www.megadeth.com/

Volbeat

  This is one of my favourite bands and I was not disappointed by them. I love how a lot of their songs have some influence from the wild west. They even have an album where each song is about a different person from the wild west called Outlaw Gentlemen and Shady Ladies. I learned that the band is Danish which I found interesting. One of their songs even had some Danish lyrics. Overall I found the band to be very entertaining and fun.

Here is there website http://www.volbeat.dk/en/

Marilyn Manson

  Everybody who knows of this performer knows he is creepy. He is like some weird hybrid between a vampire and human. During the show, he asked who in the crowd would kill for him and quite a few were very enthusiastic to do that for him. I was later told that he was very tame compared to other times. 

Here is the website for Marilyn Manson http://www.marilynmanson.com/

Hollywood Vampires

  This is a band that I did not know of before I saw them, but I did know who the band members were. The main members are Alice Cooper, Joe Perry, and Johnny Depp. They mostly played songs from their other bands which was cool. I just really liked who laid back everyone in the band was during this show it felt like they were up there just to have some fun. 

Here is their website https://www.hollywoodvampires.com/welcome

Limp Bizkit

  I had listened to this band before, and I must say they are much better live than I would anticipate from their music. I was also surprised at how nice the lead singer, Fred Durst, is. He constantly complimented people in the mosh pit on how they were taking good care of each other while they were slamming into each other. He also brought a girl in a wheelchair onto the stage after she was crowd surfing. He then told her to just look and watch the crowd as he and the band did another song since it apparently looks amazing from up there.

The website of Limp Bizkit is here http://www.limpbizkit.com/

A Perfect Circle

  This band has many good songs and a few that I have listened to repeatedly such as The Doomed. The concert was also very good, and no-one that I know of got kicked out for using their phone (they've been known to do that). The only issue I had is that they finished 15 minutes before they were supposed to which really disappointed me.

Here is their website https://www.aperfectcircle.com/home/

Judas Preist

  This is the only band ever that I have seen twice now. They were just as good as last time, and last time they were great. This time around I was a little bit closer to the stage but things were a bit hard to see because of all the people. I was also on the side of the stage since I wanted to get a good place to see Ozzy which was going to play after on the opposite stage. 

This is the Judas Preist website http://judaspriest.com/home/

Ozzy Osbourne

  If I met someone who has never heard of Ozzy I feel sorry for them right away. His music is great and his career has stretched for what seems like eons. The performance he put on was magnificent even if he was a bit creepy throughout the show. He also really seemed to enjoy himself even though this must be his one millionth or more time playing. Ozzy's main guitarist, Zakk Wylde, was also great. He played his guitar for a bit with his leg on the railing, which made me wonder whether he is serious about wearing nothing under his kilt because if he is the audience there would be able to see everything. Overall it was a great show and I included some photos below.

Here is Ozzy's website https://www.ozzy.com/

Zakk Wylde being awesome

If you can't tell I was only three people away from the rail.

Other bands I saw were Bullet for my Valentine, Eskimo Cowbell, and I believe a few others but I forget them.

Food and Beverages

  The food offered was varied and contained many good options. There was a food called beer balls which was a meatball that contained a good amount of beer as well. They had some fries that were very thin and it was called 'metal grass'. The metal grass also came with a variety of sauces which was nice. Along with all the neat and interesting foods, there was also some normal ones like hot dogs, braadworst, pizza, pasta, and even ice cream!

  The beer selection was also quite good. I think if you counted all the different beers offered there would be about 20 or so different kinds which is pretty good for a festival. The main one being sold was Jupiler. I tried to try several of the beers, but not too many since I still wanted to remember the concerts 😂😂. 

Accommodation

  I just set up my tent in the overflow campsite that was about a 10-minute walk from the stages. This was actually the first time I got to use my tent.

Conclusion

  It was a very good festival with an amazing lineup of bands. I would definitely recommend going. This was the website for the 2018 festival https://www.graspop.be/en/. If you look at the lineup you can see I missed several great bands on Thursday or Friday.