Okay guys, let’s be honest… We all are getting older, don’t we? It was fun at the age of 20 to visit different festivals all across the country on each following weekend, sleeping in a tent that smells of beer, vomit, sweat and, if you were lucky, of sex, or very unlucky, even other body fluids. We were all cooked in our tents or maybe flushed away by the heaviest rain storm of the year, possibly even on the same weekend, or even on each of the weekends.
Me – I’m getting older and I like to sleep in a regular bed, take a shower in the morning or/and the evening and don’t like to be worried that somebody puked in front or even into my entrance. Okay, to be honest, that still can happen, even in a good hotel, but then you just call somebody else to do the dirty work. But this here should not be some kind of hotel review… If you are interested, I can give you some advice for a few cities where they have hotels that know how to handle a bunch of metal-heads… 😉
What I like to talk about is the option of watching great concerts at home, especially in the summer-time, during the festival season when there are live-streams on YouTube, as well as later recordings of the content that was streamed, or you can find some concerts on the media libraries of some TV-Stations. We will have a look at that too.
First of all I want to talk about the WDR Rockpalast. WDR is a national broadcast institution based in Cologne in North Rhine Westphalia. There are several radiostations as well as a TV-channel and an online-service like a media library, with their TV productions such as movies, documentaries and magazines. However, there is also a show called WDR Rockpalast which started in the 70s already. Some of the content can be watched on their YouTube-Channel (WDR Rockpalast), but more current content can be found on their own page in the WDR Rockpalast Media Library. Yeah, it’s in German, but I think you can handle it. You can search for events like festivals, or for your bands. There are some interviews and backstage stuff as well. There are tons of concerts from festival-shows to be found, often whole shows, sometimes at least clips with 2 or 3 songs. There are tons of bands from many different genres – Rock, Metal, Punk, Alternative, Hardcore or even Blues and some Jazz. Go ahead and give it a try, I’m pretty sure you will find something you like.
You still need more? No problem! There is another broadcast station called ARTE based in Strasbourg in France. French stations have been working together with German stations since the early 90s to create a European station for cultural topics. And luckily – live music is one of these topics. On ARTE Concert you can find a media library as well with different concerts, festivals and other stuff from different genres, even opera and classical music. I prefer the Metal corner, where you can find current content from the Hellfest 2019 with bands like Cradle Of Filth, Emperor or Lamb Of God as well as some content from earlier years, just as an example. There is a YouTube-Channel as well where you can find a lot content: ARTE CONCERT On YouTube. Just one hint for the Arte MediaLibrary, if you change the language to English, most of the content is gone… Keep it on German or French. I have no idea why.
Sometimes it’s worth to check the artist YouTube-Channels as well. One of my favourites during the last week was an acoustic live show of Corey Taylor – yeah the one from Slipknot and Stone Sour – which inspired me to write this article. It’s a nearly 2-hours-show just with one or two guys on stage with an acoustic guitar each, playing some of their own music and some covers of their favourite songs. The quality is outstanding, and you won’t believe that Corey Taylor sings the Spongebob Squarepants theme until you see it on your own: Corey Taylor Live in London
As you can see, there is no need to go outside into the sun, get drunk together with thousands of people, and party your asses off… Just kidding, we all know it’s better. Sometimes you need it dirty, rotten, filthy, stinking. If you know any other great YouTube-Channel or MediaLibrary with great content and lots of liveshows, please let us know in the comments!!!
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