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The Red And The Black Burnin' For You Buck's Boogie Cities On Flame Then Came The Last Days Of May Godzilla (Don't Fear) The Reaper
See You In Black
Review by SueW:
HellFest was an amazing experience!
The website said that it was 19 stages with up to 100,000 people attending on each of the three days. Most of the people seemed to have camped (and not necessarily have washed!) so the town was just like a massive car park with cars left all over the place including on roundabouts and even in a field. One car parked too enthusiastically near a ditch so 10 guys were pushing it out of the ditch as I walked past! It took me over 30 minutes to walk from my car to the festival entrance.
 The area itself was quite dusty (unlike UK festivals which are known to be muddy). There were lots of tents with other stages within them so there was a blast of music as you walked past. There were also merchandise stalls but the two main stages were in the middle with most of the crowd going from one stage to another to see the bands play as they alternated between the stages. I do wonder why Blue Oyster Cult played there as all the other bands were very, very, very heavy metal. The first band which assaulted my ears played songs which all had a very heavy beat and he kept inciting the crowd to ‘make some noise’ and punch their fists in the air. While that band were playing a few people were surfing on top of the crowd so I did wonder what I had let myself in for at that point! Once the band from Main Stage 01 left the stage, I moved to the barrier while another bad played on Main Stage 02. I managed to get in the second row but slightly further over than I normally do. Thankfully during Blue Oyster Cult’s set there was no pushing at the front and, in fact, the worst part was trying to get out at the end as a swarm of Motley Crue fans were all desperate for my spot! The festival ran to time so BOC played from about 6.35pm until 7.25pm. They then came back and played an encore which I don’t think Kasim was expecting as he had already waved goodbye to the crowd and left the stage so he arrived back on stage later than everybody else!
 Before BOC played they all wandered on stage for their sound check which was interesting to see, especially as occasionally we could hear some of their notes when the other band was talking. Kasim looked the part of a rocker today as he was wearing blue jeans, a black leather jacket and sunglasses! However, at the start of his sound check, he struggled taking off his pass over his earpieces!
 BOC received quite a good reception as the crowd obviously enjoyed all the guitar solos and even knew the words to Godzilla and Burnin’ For You. There was one large screen but unfortunately they didn’t show too many close-ups of Kasim that I saw. This may have been because Kasim rarely went to the front of the stage as he mainly stayed back or even stood just in front of the drums which I thought was a pity. There was one part though when he and Richie went to the front together which was great. Richie really moves all over the stage but, in part, that’s probably because his guitar is wireless whereas Kasim’s has a lead so he is more limited. During Godzilla, when Eric said about hearing some ‘monster bass’ Kasim’s short bass solo at that part received massive cheers! I was surprised that they didn’t play a ‘heavier’ set as Hellfest catered more for heavy metal bands than bands with long guitar solos but BOC were still quite well received before the festival reverted to heavy music.
 And that ended my first tour of seeing Kasim with BOC! I was in Europe for 10 nights, stayed in 10 different hotels, drove over 4,000 miles (some without a GPS as it stopped working!),saw 6 gigs in 8 days in 3 countries, crossed 14 country borders and managed to fit in 3 city sightseeing tours. Not my most restful holiday ever but great fun! Roll on the next Kasim Sulton solo gig!
Videos:
The venue (taken from the KasimInfo.com Blog that day):
The gig tonight is at the Hellfest Festival at the Val de Moine Sport Complex in Clisson, France.
Last night Blue Oyster Cult played a gig in Bochum, Germany so to get to Clisson, France they will have had a 10 hour drive. (Obviously this tour was descigned by somebody not doing the driving!)
 The Hellfest Festival is a 3 day festival which has been running for several years and the organizors say that they expect 10,000 people there!
There are five stages at the festival and Blue Oyster Cult are playing on the Main Stage at 6.35pm (12.35pm in NYC). They are followed by Motley Crue at 8.45pm and Ozzy Osbourne at 11.10pm.
Kasim Sulton with Blue Oyster Cult Gigs 2012
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