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Summertime – Tollwood-Time again. And this is a tradition for many years now here in Munich. It's kind of a festival with countless stalls selling all kind of stuff from around the world, including food and more. And there is this huge tend, called the arena, where only at the summer Tollwood many international and national artists play gigs. The nice thing about those concerts is, that they start pretty early, around 7 p.m. and finish by 10 p.m Whereby the finishing time is probably more up to our town authorities I presume. But well, that's fine by me, because afterwards there is still a bit time to walk around the festival site and have a drink or so. 
For me this concert tonight featuring Subway To Sally and Apocalyptica is the start on this year's summer Tollwood. And to be honest, I'm here in first place for Apocalyptica, as I have never seen them live on stage yet. Subway To Sally  from Germany are well known to me with their mixture of german hardrock and middle age touch. And it's them I shall mainly take pics for some magazine. It's difficult to say, for which of the two bands the fans are mainly here for. Because this is a so called double headliner Show with same stage times.And nobody is support. 

At strike 7 p.m. it starts with a Pyroshow and Subway To Sally.

One thing I wanna take ahead quickly. Usually the local light concditions at tollwood events are excellent, on of the best ones ever. And at all shows I've ever taken pics over all the past years I was really enthusiastic about these conditions. But not tonight, as Subway To Sally prefer the limelight only from the back, and the faces of all bandmembers are put in complete shade. To be honest, it seems to me, as this is full intention to torture us photographers. Because as soon, as the usual 3 songs photocall is over, the visual prespective shoots up at least 5 steps. The result are some truly desperate face inbetween the photographers, who's cameras went on a constant strike during the call.

However, Subway To Sally have all advantages on their side and also the fans, who count aprox. 3.000 here. Most of them are dressed in black with some shades in grey, but that's about it. And the kids show 100% enthusiasm about the band, who take all their aces. Eric Fish fronting the lot, accompanied by Frau Schmitt a.k.a. Silke Volland, who currently walks on a solo path as well. Bodensky a.ka. Michael Boden as always on guitar and Drehleier, Simon (Levko) acoustic guitar, trumscheit and Voc., Ingo Hampf - guitar and mandoline, Sugar Ray a.k.a. Silvio Runge on Bass and Simon Michael on drums. 

Bastard is the slogan and also the title of the current album, which the band still promots. But in that way this band has never done hard here in Germany anyway. It's the same here today and you can't complain about the echo Subway To Sally once again receives here in Munich. How do you name this? Success on the whole line, I would call it.....
 http://subwaytosally.com/


Now let's see, whether the finns of  Apocalyptica top this resonance....

This band is most known for their instruments, which are Cellos, exept one drumkit taking care for the rhythm. First of all, the light conditions are perfect again, like always and usually at Tollwood concerts, and taking pictures is enjoyable again. 
Like I mentioned before, I see this band here for the very first time, and yes it got something to it... this performance on four cellos and one drumkit only without any vocals. And this all performed by five very attractive scandinavian boys, where some girls in the first rows melt like vanilla ice in the sun. 
You can't really define this band, and Apocalyptica themselves prefer to name their music Cello Rock. 
They founded themselves in 1996 at the Sibelius academy in Helsinki, Finland. The final test on the academy was playing Metallica songs on cellos, And yes, it worked out and they immidiately became shootingstars. The bandmembers are: Eicca Toppinen, Paavo Lötjönen. Perttu Kivilaakso (since 1999) all on Cello, and Mikko Sirén (since Dec. 2005) on drums. Their setlist is put together of own compositions and many coverversions of bands like Metallica, Slayer, Faith No More, Rammstein and more. And they really go for it. Another very impressing aspect it, that despite the very excessive headbanging up there on stage, the boys still can manage to play the difficult way, Cellos are usually played. And they do it in a way, as if they wanna climb up the mount Everest in one day. 

So what shall I say...?! It's obvious, the enthusiasm the kids showed at Subway To Sally has jumped across to the Apocalyptica show and even topps the level. Jes... wept, who'd have thought that...?! In fact Apocalyptica seem to be even more popular and get miles more affection and devotion of the fans as our german guys. But maybe it is this special littel different something to take care for the entertainment. And performed the way Apocalyptica do it, this love is no surprise

I personally think about the same, though I must admit, after about one hour or a bit more, this constant fidling gets a bit on my tits... But well, that's only my own feelings.... Over all this event has been a complete success.
And I presume Apocalyptica are still on their way up to much more than this...
Showtime is over and now... let's go out to the Schnaps stall where they are selling the best one of this kind  in the whole world... Cheers.....

 http://www.apocalyptica.de/