Welcome to Hell

After having about 2 weeks off, Copenhell was just the festival we all needed to remind us why we are out here to begin with. We played on Saturday, so Friday was my night to go rock out. I got to see In Flames, Ghost, Alice in Chains, Danzig, and make some new Danish friends. I even ran into Petie (any metal fan in the Philly area knows who I'm talking about), but unfortunately we got separated before too long. I had a great time hanging with Michael of Labrador Records, and was happy to learn the former owner of The Rock, Copenhagen's best metal bar that recently closed, has a new place opening up. Another thing I learned is that I have a Philadelphia accent. That might not seem so strange to hear until I tell you it was a Philadelphia Flyer who told me that. Yep - Oliver Lauridsen, a Denmark native playing for the Flyers, just happened to be at Copenhell and we wound up crossing paths. Too funny! Oliver is a cool guy - it was interesting to hear his perspective of Philly, and I'm excited to have someone to route for on the ice!

I arrived back at the fest on Saturday just in time for a torrential downpour. The sky opened up right before Testament, and the crew scrambled to evacuate the stage. Everyone got lucky tho and the storm passed just in time for them to play a full set. Even better than getting to see Testament play, was getting to see Gene Hoglan and spend the day with the lovely Robin Mazen! Robin does mech and production and is currently working for Testament so I got my girl to rock out with for the day :) I was also stoked to see Down, so it was a pretty damn good day overall. My only disappointment was that I wasn't able to make it in time to see Newsted. I've never met Jason but being an old Metallica fan, and following his career for a while after that, I always thought of him as a rad bassist with a good attitude. He recently came back on my radar and I was looking forward to seeing him play, and secretly thought it would be pretty badass to meet him. Alas, no such luck, but he did leave a big Happy Birthday message to King in our dressing room - only adding to my belief that he is a cool guy.

When it came time for us to play it was really cold out and I thought for sure I would be freezing the whole set. Not only was I pleasantly surprised, but it wound up being the best show of the tour for me. The metal chick in me was psyched to have members of bands I always go see in our audience. Of course, being in Copenhagen, there were a lot of friends and family there so it was awesome to have everyone around to celebrate with after.

One last highlight came at the end of the night. Gene had mentioned to me earlier that even tho he and Andy had both played on Death's Individual Thought Patterns album TWENTY years earlier, they had never met. It was finally time! I introduced the two and it was adorable to see two sweet guys I know, who also happen to be metal legends, so excited :)



It was a treat watching Ghost up close!








The late night rowdy crowd


I <3 Testament!




Down!


Down calling all friends on stage


Hank Sherman in the house!


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