TWOdaysAweek FESTIVAL ::

TWOdaysAweek FESTIVAL 2005
wiesen / wiesen, austria
31st august - 2nd september 2005

there really isn't that much i can say about this festival, having missed the first 2 days of it. yeah, the name is misleading. it's actually 3 days. but since it started out as a 2-day-festival and over the years it evolved into a 2-day-plus festival, they (wisely) decided to keep the name and just don't take the 'TWOdays' bit too seriously.

the best bit about this year's TWOdaysAweek (or 2daw) was that is proved without a doubt wiesen, as a festival venue, is here to stay. wiesen has a longstanding tradition of concerts and festivals at their site and it was only recently - due to some shifts in booking and the arrival of new super-sized event-companies - that they ran into trouble. their future wasn't too sure and 2005 was their make or break year. depending on this year's success they were either going to drop out of the festival racket or continue. wiesen is a pretty small venue, about 8000 people max. so they can't compete against bigger festivals like FREQUENCY (40.000 daily) or NOVA ROCK (also appr. 40.000 people daily). the only way they can make up for their lack of size is quality. fortunately quality proved to be good enough this year and wiesen will be with us for the years to come.

talking about quality. the first day of the festival offered a great deal of quality. NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS, THE WALKABOUTS and ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN. but i can't tell you anything about their shows. because i wasn't there. and i wasn't there on the second day either. i missed NOFX, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, KETTCAR, JULIETTE & THE LICKS and ME FIRST & THE GIMME GIMMES. but i was there on the third day. reason: i had to take care of FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND. we had some interviews to do. i arrived on the venue just in time to say hi to the band and then go and watch the BLOOD BROTHERS perform. love than band. FFAF were up right after them (as a matter of fact, they were also sharing dressing rooms). also, great show. wouldn't expect welsh people to rock like that. my work started shortly before the ALL AMERICAN REJECTS went on stage. we got the odd interviews sorted out, meanwhile COHEED AND CAMBRIA (which i really would've like to see, but unfortunately couldn't) had started their show.
on a side note: while i was standing backstage and watching over the interviews i noticed this woman. she wasn't particularly beautiful or anything. sure, pretty, but average. but what really caught my eye were her clothes and her hair. she was dressed in a white, billowing, semi-transparent, long dress with white scarfs and cloth draped around her neck and arms. and her hair was blond and thin, flowing behind her when she rushed through the backstage area. it was a very strange sight to behold, like something cut and pasted from a j.r.r. tolkien novel and a cheesy fairy-tale. turned out she was the girlfriend of COHEED AND CAMBRIA's singer. perfect fit to the music, i'd say.
i saw a bit of the performance of MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE, watched CLAWFINGER for nostalgia's sake and had my very first BAD RELIGION concert. (it was good.)
we were gone before KORN had even gotten ready for stage.
looking forward to next year's 2DAW festival. always good to be there.