Yesterday, NCS Co-Author IntoTheDarkness posted a piece on the brutality of German extreme metal bands. In an episode of synchronicity, this morning I saw three news updates about festivals scheduled for 2010 — one in the U.S. and two in Germany. And the comparison speaks volumes. On the one hand, we have the 2010 Vans Warped Tour spreading across the US next summer like a brain-sucking plague. On that tour, you’ll have the opportunity to see such stupifyingly awful bands as Attack! Attack!, Breathe Carolina, and Eyes Set to Kill. There are a few saving graces on the tour — Parkway Drive, Suicide Silence, and Whitechapel. But suffering through the rest of the 67-band lineup for the opportunity to see those dudes would be worse than a garden-hose colonoscopy without anesthesia.
On the other hand, next year in Germany we’ll have the latest installments of (a) the Summer Breeze festival scheduled for August 19-21 in Dinkelsbühl; and (b) the Wacken Open Air festival scheduled for August 5-7 in (where else) Wacken, Germany. At Summer Breeze, you could see the likes of Asphyx, Barren Earth, Behemoth, Dark Tranquillity, Despised Icon, Dying Fetus, Hypocrisy, Necrophagist, Obituary, Sepultura, Swallow the Sun, The Crown, and Maroon. And Wacken Open Air will feature bands such as Amorphis, Arch Enemy, Caliban, Immortal, Iron Maiden, and Slayer.
What’s really mind-blowing about the contrast is that those German festivals, each spread over just a few days in a single location, will draw tens of thousands (e.g., 70,000 tickets were sold for the 2009 edition of Wacken Open Air more than 200 days in advance). To get that kind of attendance in the U.S. for metal, you apparently need to have a line-up of largely craptastic bands and a schedule of about 40 dates in 40 cities.
To be fair, the German festivals draw crowds from all over Europe, and the U.S. does have some legitimately extreme festivals that are drawing headbangers in increasing numbers (the Maryland Deathfest, now in its 8th year, comes to mind most prominently). But still, so far, it’s no contest.
For full lists of the bands scheduled to date for these 3 tours, continue reading after the jump.
2010 SUMMER BREEZE LINE-UP SO FAR:
1349
AHAB
ANATHEMA
ASPHYX
BARREN EARTH
BEHEMOTH
CALLISTO
CUMULO NIMBUS
DARK FUNERAL
DARK TRANQUILLITY
DESPISED ICON
DIE APOKALYPTISCHEN REITER
DYING FETUS
EISBRECHER
EISREGEN
FIDDLER’S GREEN
FREI.WILD
FEUERSCHWANZ
HAIL OF BULLETS
HYPOCRISY
ILL NINO
INSOMNIUM
KORPIKLAANI
KYLESA
LEAVES’ EYES
LETZTE INSTANZ
LONG DISTANCE CALLING
MAROON
MONO INC.
MY DYING BRIDE
NECROPHAGIST
OBITUARY
ORIGIN
ORPHANED LAND
POISONBLACK
REBELLION
SEPULTURA
SOLSTAFIR
SUBWAY TO SALLY
SWALLOW THE SUN
THE CROWN
THE DEVIL’S BLOOD
TRACEDAWN
WAR FROM A HARLOTS MOUTH
WE BUTTER THE BREAD WITH BUTTER
WACKEN OPEN AIR FESTIVAL LINE-UP SO FAR:
1349
ALICE COOPER
AMORPHIS
ARCH ENEMY
CALIBAN
CANNIBAL CORPSE
CORVUS CORAX
DESPISED ICON
DIE APOKALYPTISCHEN REITER
EDGUY
ENDSTILLE
GHOST BRIGADE
GRAVE DIGGER
IMMORTAL
IRON MAIDEN
MÖTLEY CRÜE
ORDEN OGAN
PRIMAL FEAR
SLAYER
STRATOVARIUS
THE DEVIL’S BLOOD
U.D.O.
W.A.S.P.
2010 VANS WARPED TOUR:
Ace Enders
After Midnight Project
AM Taxi
Anarbor
Alesana
Andrew WK
Artist Vs. Poet
Attack Attack!
Breathe Carolina
Breathe Electric
Closure In Moscow
Confide
Dillinger Escape Plan
Emarosa
Emmure
Eyes Set To Kill
Fake Problems
Far From Finished
Fight Fair
Hey Monday
In Fear and Faith
Mayday Parade
NeverShoutNever
Of Mice and Men
Parkway Drive
Pierce The Veil
Rev Peyton’s Big Damn Band
Riverboat Gamblers
Set Your Goals
Suicide Silence
Sum 41
The Cab
The Casualties
The Rocket Summer
The Summer Set
VersaEmerge
We Are The In Crowd
Whitechapel
You Me at Six
Additionally, the following groups will be performing for select dates:
Bring Me The Horizon (6/24-7/30, 8/5-8/15)
Call The Cops (6/24 – 7/18)
Chaseband (7/22 – 7/26)
Chase Long Beach (8/7 – 8/15)
Deal’s Gone Bad (7/26 – 8/2)
Disco Curtis (7/20 – 8/15)
Enter Shikari (6/24 – 7/18)
Every Time I Die (7/2 – 8/15)
Flatfoot 56 (7/11 – 8/2)
Haste The Day (7/20 – 8/15)
Initials (7/29 – 8/8)
I See Stars (6/24 – 7/18)
iwrestledabearonce (7/20 – 8/15)
Last Call Chernobyl (6/27 – 7/10)
Middle Finger Salute (7/11 – 7/26)
Motion City Soundtrack (6/24, 6/27- 7/16)
Polar Bear Club (6/24 – 7/18)
Reel Big Fish (7/13 – 8/15)
Sparks The Rescue (6/24 – 7/18)
Speakeasy Tiger (6/27 – 7/6)
The All-American Rejects (6/24 – 7/18)
The Frantic (6/27-7/8, 7/31)
The Flatliners (7/9 – 7/18)
The Snips (7/9 – 7/10)
The Swellers (6/24 – 7/17)
The Word Alive (7/20 – 8/15)
Tip The Van (7/20 – 7/31)
We The Kings (6/26 – 8/2)
Dates for the tour are as follows:
6/24 San Diego, CA @ Cricket Amphitheatre
6/25 Pomona, CA @ Pomona Fairplex
6/26 Mountain View, CA @ Shoreline Amphitheatre
6/27 Ventura, CA @ Seaside Park
6/29 Phoenix, AZ @ Cricket Pavilion
6/30 Las Cruces, NM @ N.M.S.U. Practice Field
7/1 San Antonio, TX @ AT&T Center
7/2 Houston, TX @ The Showgrounds At Sam Houston Race Park
7/3 Dallas, TX @ Superpages.com Center
7/5 St.Louis, MO @ Verizon Wireless Amphitheater
7/6 Indianapolis, IN @ Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
7/7 Burgettstown, PA @ Post Gazette Pavilion
7/8 Cleveland, OH @ Time Warner Cable Amphitheatre
7/9 Toronto, ON @ Arrow Hall
7/10 Montreal, QC @ Parc Jean Drapeau
7/11 Hartford, CT @ Comcast Theater
7/13 Mansfield, MA @ Comcast Center
7/14 Darien Center, NY @ Darien Lake P.A.C.
7/15 Scranton, PA @ Toyota Pavilion
7/16 Camden, NJ @ Susquehanna Bank Center
7/17 Uniondale, NY @ Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum
7/18 Oceanport, NJ @ Monmouth Park Racetrack
7/20 Columbia, MD @ Merriweather Post Pavilion
7/21 Virginia Beach, VA @ Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
7/22 Charlotte, NC @ Verizon Wireless Amphitheater
7/23 St. Petersburg, FL @ Vinoy Park
7/24 West Palm Beach, FL @ Cruzan Amphitheater
7/25 Orlando, FL @ Central Florida Fairgrounds
7/26 Atlanta, GA @ Lakewood Amphitheater
7/28 Cincinnati, OH @ Riverbend Music Center
7/29 Milwaukee, WI @ Marcus Amphitheater
7/30 Detroit, MI @ Comerica Park
7/31 Tinley Park, IL @ First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre
8/1 Shakopee, MN @ Canterbury Park
8/2 Bonner Springs, KS @ Sandstone Amphitheatre
8/5 Calgary, AB @ Race City Speedway
8/7 Salt Lake City, UT @ Utah State Fairgrounds
8/8 Denver, CO @ Invesco Field
8/11 Los Angeles, CA @ Home Depot Center
8/12 Wheatland, CA @ Sleep Train Amphitheatre
8/13 Nampa, ID @ Idaho Center Amphitheatre
8/14 George, WA @ Gorge Amphitheater
8/15 Hillsboro, OR @ Washington County Fairgrounds