This Summer We'll Mostly Be Selling Shit To The Kids

Festival season has officially begun. I am back on the bus.















All the glamour of a day in the sun, mostly spent waiting on some form of line in some form of filth.

















Behind the scenes. What the backstage is really all about.


















Really.

















I've run into a bunch of old friends on this one. I've known our truck driver for years. The Sounds are first on our stage. They are always good fun, even at the crack of noon.
















Everyone's favorite keyboard player
















Everyone's favorite Strokes affiliate
















I've known Adam Green since hed was about 16. He's got a Hasselhoff sort of thing going on in Germany, meaning he can talk to his car and people won't give him shit for it.
















The crowd was great. I've never seen so many people in mutual appreciation of someone doing a bunny hop across a stage.
















Wolfmother was pretty great.

















The crowd in the little tent was pretty crazy. That's one of the better things about the festivals, it's not too hard to pull a really rowdy crowd in the middle of a blazing hot summer day.




















Death Cab brought the pain. I did "lights" for a mostly daylight show. So it goes.















The Strokes were incredible. This was the first show that I'd seen since leaving them last December. Holy hell did they rip it up.
















There were 40,000 people there last night. It was pretty mad.
















I walked away from that show jetlagged but wide awake..it was one of the best shows that I'd seen them play. A fair majority of the bands playing these things are really awful. Fair enough, they appeal to a broader spectrum of European festival go-er, but there is some rank stuff out there. This is the medication. I don't recall ever hearing 'Ize of the World' before, but it was the winner last night.
















At the moment the police have ordered a stoppage of bands for most of the afternoon. In the world cup madness Germany (who has been doing remarkably well) is playing Sweden. The game is being projected on the jumbo-tron things on each stage. We are in Northern Germany, and many of the bands playing the festival are Swedish (The Sounds, The Shout Out Louds, The Hives), so I'm banking on someone losing an eye before the day is out. This is the scene in the backstage area currently. The Germans are up 2-0.