Arrow Rock Festival, Nijmegen, Holland 2008

Arrow Rock Festival, Nijmegen, Holland

Saturday morning, June 14th, our little red Mini Cooper was packed, gassed, and ready to burn down the stretches of the German Autobahn, destination: Nijmegen, Holland. Three months earlier, I had purchased tickets to the Arrow Rock Festival held annually in Holland. It is a huge rock event attended by thousands of people from all over the world. I’ve been waiting all year for this show, my second one since attending last summer. This year, the headliners is KISS. Also on the bill are Motorhead, Whitesnake, Kansas, REO Speedwagon, Journey, Def Leppard, and Twisted Sister. What an incredible line-up!!! I’m totally jazzed for the show!
After driving 5 ½ hours, we decide to stay in the beautiful town of Arnhem, one train stop from Nijmegen. Michelle finds us a beautiful bed ‘n breakfast to stay at….a gorgeous wooden yacht moored up on the Rhine River. We get there around 5pm and see that the boat has been taken out for a cruise down the river. We park the car and walk a short 800 meters to the downtown area of Arnhem. It’s a small cozy town filled with restaurants, cafés, pubs, taverns, and coffeeshops. We wander in the drizzling rain, exploring the side streets and window shopping. We return around midnight to check in and meet the friendly, quirky Dutch couple who own the boat. They are gracious hosts who prepare a nice breakfast for us in the morning in the ship’s galley. We share the galley with an older couple from Spain.
After filling our bellies, we walk a short distance to the metro station and get our roundtrip tickets to Nijmegen. There are a few other long-haired rockers on the train heading in the same direction. When we get to our station, we off-load and merge into a sea of black leather and denim: Chicks in tight jeans and black boots. Guys in AC/DC and Metallica t-shirts. Lots of balding, long-haired guys in their forties. I fit right in with this motley crew. I feel like I’m being called home. I’m on a rock pilgrimage to Metal Mecca. As an added bonus, we find out the festival has provided busses to take us to the concert grounds and will be bussing people back and forth all night. This is great news as we had found out earlier that the city busses were on strike.
We walk about one kilometer with the swarms of rockers and lineup outside the entrance. It takes about 90minutes to get through the gate. Security is not allowing any outside beverages or umbrellas. There are thousands of confiscated umbrellas littering the ground and under the security table. They do a quick search of our backpack and we’re in. Now it’s time for a cold Heineken…except, uh oh, everybody else is thinking the exact same thing. The beer areas are swamped with people; Giant Dutch rock fans have surrounded the beer stands. We wait another 45 minutes, bumping and nudging our way to the front. Finally, I’m able to squeeze my arm through and grab the counter. I’m in! I order four of the biggest beers they serve and make my way with Michelle in tow back through the crowd where we can breathe again. Mind you, this is an outdoor festival, so there are tens of thousands of people. The food areas aren’t as bad, but a long wait as well. As I’m ordering curry chicken noodles for both us, the clouds decide to empty their baggage and give us a good showering. The noodles get good and soggy fairly quickly, which isn’t bad since they’re pretty undercooked. Throughout the day and into the evening, it’s either raining and cold or sunny and warm. Sweatshirts are on, sweatshirts are off. Back and forth we go, putting them and taking them off.
There are at least a dozen tents selling all kinds of rock memorabilia, cd’s, t-shirts, caps, hats, belts, and the like. Lots of older t-shirts with Black Sabbath, Bon Scott, or Blue Oyster Cult emblazoned on the front. People are buying the stuff up.
I love to people watch, and this was some great people watching. There are guys ‘n chicks here who dress exactly as they did in 1985 and earlier. The KISS ARMY was alive and in full battle gear for the show; Levi jackets loaded with buttons and patches proclaiming their allegiance to the loudest band in the world. I even saw one long hair in red spandex pants and Converse high tops. There were a few fans that have been living the rock ‘n roll lifestyle since the early eighties, and it showed. I thought, hmm, I don’t look half bad, all things considered. Chicks in tight leather pants and stilettos, dudes in leather biker jackets, tattoos, and piercings; denim and leather, rock on together!
Food stands are located in two different areas of the festival grounds. No one will starve as long as they have tokens in their pockets. Hamburgers, sausages, pizza, noodles, roasted chicken, and kebabs are a few of the food selections.
There are two stages, one really big one and a smaller one. KISS, Whitesnake, Journey, and Def Leppard play on the large stage while Motorhead, Kansas, REO Speedwagon, and Twisted Sister play on the smaller one. It didn’t matter what the size of the stage was. All the bands kick total ass, some more than others, but all kick ass just the same.
REO Speed wagon was the first band to take the stage. I’m not really into them, but I thought they sounded good. I didn’t get a chance to see them up close other than on a giant screen. I was stuck in a thirsty mob, trying to get beer. Next up was Journey. They sounded spectacular with their new singer from the Philippines. The boys had begun to get popular again, having had one of their songs played on one of the final episodes of The Sopranos, and they were itching to tour. Steve Perry had a falling out with them, so Journey needed a new lead singer. Neal Schon found this new guy while surfing YouTube and flew him out from Manila to tryout. This new guy, Arnel Pineda, is the perfect replacement and sounds AWESOME!
Kansas took the stage next. They sounded great! I sat in the grass and listened to them play Dust in the Wind. To finally hear the band play that song live is pure magic.Def Leppard took the stage next. I was dying to hear them. The last time I had seen them was in 1982 when they were the opening act for Billy Squire. I have been a big fan for years. I really like the new album, Songs from the Sparkle Lounge. We maneuvered our way through the throngs of concert goers to get a good spot to see the lads from Sheffield. They played at least one song from the new album and lots of their older tunes, especially from Pyromania and Hysteria. I have to say that I was not blown away by their performance. The band didn’t seem to communicate…they were just kind of there. No real fire or excitement ever came out of them. Joe didn’t communicate with the audience. Truthfully, I was disappointed in their performance. Joe’s vocals are torn up from years of shrieking. They had to use some vocal digital magic to make him sound decent. I had the impression that they didn’t really want to be there. Phil Collen was the only one who seemed to emanate the rock ‘n roll persona, complete with bare chest, leather pants and battle axe.
Twisted Sister was next, and man oh man, were they fun to watch and listen to. Dee Snider was in killer form, cracking up the audience on several occasions. There was no question they wanted to be there and were excited to rock Holland! The bands nearly missed their allotted time slot because of plane delays and were flown by helicopter from the Amsterdam airport to the festival grounds. It was cool to see the helicopter hover in and drop the Twisted Sisters off. They raced from the helicopter to the stage, having no time for clothing changes, make-up, or as Dee Snider told us, “No time to take a shit!” Dee chastised the Whitesnake fans that were waiting at the other stage for Twisted Sister to finish and Whitesnake to come out.
“It’s an empty fucking stage, you assholes!”, yells Dee, flinging his curly long blonde hair. “The show’s up here! Twisted Sister is up here!” He is charismatic and charming. A true rocker to the core. The crowd pumps their fists and chants to the Sister’s anthems, “I Wanna Rock” and “We’re Not Gonna Take It". Dee works us into a lather, screaming for more. Jay Jay French also has a few things to say, telling the crowd that every band at the festival had been together for at least thirty years! He trashes American Idol, mimicking an Idol saying, “I’d like to thank all my hard core fans for staying with me for the last seven weeks.” He is not a fan of the show and thanked all the Twisted Sister fans for staying with them for the last thirty years! Dee had such a great time, he winds up coming out to do some headbanging with Motorhead on Killed by Death, which brings me to the next band, Motorhead.
Lemmy Kilmister and Motorhead rocked!!! The crowd was fired up and ready to be decimated by decibels and were appropriately rewarded. Ace of Spades got the masses shaking and begging for more. I love them! Lemmy still has the distinctive gravelly vocals and knows how to use them while pounding on his bass.
Whitesnake was true to the music. David Coverdale still has the pipes. Doug and Reb played spectacular guitar solos. Incredible performances. For me to see and hear Whitesnake perform Still of the Night, it’s simply soul penetrating. I teared-up on more than one occasion.

Then it’s time for the final act! You want the best, you’ve got the best! The loudest band in the world! (SEE MY POST, KISS)