Hell Has A Beginning

By: Federico Escobar

 

“See you in Hell!”

As tradition calls for it, the dark clouds hung heavily over all of Copenhagen days before, as a reminder to people who rushed to Pumpehuset on Monday or/and Tuesday in June to get their beloved wristbands, to meet up for beer, local bands, friends, cheers and to avoid too much pressure when arriving at the Gate to Copenhell.
Who really wants to stand in line, when hell awaits?!

As tradition has it, the beer is flowing among the crowd of people, who are mostly Danish, cheering for the band of the day, Gabestok (DK) while screaming for the days to come! Copenhell!
 

People are happy, it doesn’t rain and that is already a victory! We are still talking about World Cup in Russia 2018, which hasn’t past by all metalheads. Me as one of them.
The line was short, so it didn’t take long for me to get my wristband and with one stroke, I was there, or at least ready and with that, looking up. The Gods of the North placed themselves in front line.
The wind was strong, the talk was great and the beer was going down the hatch!

I woke up, somewhere in the afternoon the next day thinking “oooh shit, fuck, what happened” unable to piece the last hours of the morning together.
Last thing I remembered was a voice shouting to me before I was off to a bar. “See you in Hell”
I waved my horns in the air thinking... yeah, see you in hell... Copenhell!
 

Warm-up in Hell
Many things went through my head as I exited the door, entered the train, waited for the bus, exit the bus and took the long walk to the entrance of Copenhell. "Why the fuck did I had to get frecking drunk last night!"
In a few minutes from now, the old girl band L7, is taking the stage as the second band of the special warm up line-up and I couldn’t miss it for a thing in the world. Not even brutal satanic hangovers that tried to pull me back to my sofa!

The wind was still strong, clouds heavy, but no rain and it was warm. A moist heat and I was totally overdressed. For now.
The people were there, not many but it wasn’t many ticket sold for this day.

I could see they had really tried to make the lines better this year, but getting a bit closer, only a little better?

Since they had skipped putting up a fence all the way. Why then bother?

 

As I entered, just behind some friends of mine, I knew I was back where I belonged. In my beloved hell.
Looking around, not many people, I noticed that my expectations weren’t that high. I admit, the hangover trying to turn me home, really didn’t help, but something wasn’t right. I was too dry? No rain? Too early? Too late?
What was it, my mind was wondering, as my eyes glimpsed here and there. 

The place looked like itself, the entrance, the walk to the main area. Talking with friends around the festival, others, hopes and which bands to see.
I still was home and yet I felt different this year.

 

The Warm-up in hell, was a little extra day, with one little stage, with incredible bad sound, Biergarten tightly packed, some food tents and with most of the area still under construction, closed for the public.
Hell was small today, but I loved it. Pretty soon I ran into people I knew and then more and more. 30 min to L7 and it felt small and cosy. Yes the wind made it not only a bit cold, but due to no rain, the famous festival dust was about to rise now and again but the question was; what will happen the next couple of days?
 

But what made this day special was that it was limited to a small group of hardcore CopenHell fans and I felt I knew them all. Family, friends, foes and people that knew me/my name and I had no idea who they were. That little thing happens more often than I like to admit.

A little expensive soft drink was bought and I needed that, painfully thrown down my throat and I wasn’t nearly ready for my first band.

For me, to see a band I have been listing to since 1991/92 on MTV Alternative Nation, was crazy. I knew the songs, some, not all, I knew the voices, lyrics, but how were those old funny ladies on the stage punking out?
It was fun. No doubt, but L7.
Unfortunately there were two mayor problems.

1. was the wind, so strong that the sound started to wave. That has a tendency to happen with outdoor concerts with strong winds.

2. the sound in general was incredible bad. Even if a punk rock bands sound doesn’t need to be perfect (unless it’s Bad Religion) this was just too much. I noticed it first at the end as I left front row and wanted to see if I could find people again.

 

A different hell, also means a cleaner hell. So what had changed?
First of all, the refund system was a large change and one that wasn’t really given to all. Not just, was every thing more expensive than ever. The point was, everything as refundable. From plastic cups, coffee cups, small shot tubes, beers, even the cardboard beer holders and shit in general. But why?
One was of course to make sure people didn’t just throw things out, they could keep it an get their money back, to make a little extra buck for the homeless people and to have a nicer and cleaner place. But not all went as it should.
 

Since most people wasn’t aware of what they paid for the beer. Stop! Now you think; of course, beer is cheap and nice. No no no no. Stop! This is not just Denmark, this is CopenExpensive!

One beer costs, 7.4€, and in that is 0.7€ refund money. We call it “pant”. if you then pay 45€ for 6 beers, the refund on the cups, the cardboard beer holder is actually invisible. If you then also think. Hey, we need a couple of Jägermeister shots, then it’s for 10 shots 47€ with refund on the tubes.
You know it’s expensive. But you don’t know why it’s just a little bit extra expensive. Because of the refund option.
So, when we found out, the friends of mine and I, we started to collect what we found. Just a little, to see.
Another failure from CopenHell’s side was then the refund. Because, the place only accept 10 pieces at the time. So, imagine some that had 40, 60, 100 cups or items. Had to stand in line 10 times. Really? Oh yeah.
Even funnier, the money is refunded on, your credit card or on your “Copenhell Cashcard” ,which also not all knew. Both that there was a Cash Card or that you didn’t needed that to get your money back. Haha, come on!
 

I win some, I lose some, it’s all the same to me!

So, we went into the line and I went behind. Then this older homeless guy passed me angry, asked if I had a credit card, said yes, and he gave me all his cups he had collected and left.
So a homeless guy gave me around 30€ for free. That became a couple of beers and a taxi home.

Let me repeat this. One of the reasons for Copenhell to have this refund system, was to be able to support homeless people. Except they needed at cash card or a credit card to benefit from this, which they hadn’t.
 

It’s logical Jim.

We did manage to earn a couple of beers, but as things happen. After getting nicely drunk, we started to care less about the system. Why, because they only took 10 items at the time and it was maybe worth it, but for a drunk mind, that just want to listen to music, talk to awesome friends and enjoy the small place, not so much.
Kinda reminded me of the first time I went to Copenhell. Small and cosy. Well played, except the sound.

 

Biergarten was open and it was as always the centre of attention. But it was so frecking loud, most of the time we spend this warm-up day outside. We wanted to be able to talk, but it was getting colder. A lot colder!
 

It was time to get some food from Pigs in Hell, the only dish that wasn’t just fantastic but worth it’s price! Long time cooked schwein, pulled pork, with creamed potatoes and coleslaw. Yummy!

 

The mixture of friends was weirdly funny, my be-hated foe joined even in for a stupid remark and a cheers looking like an alcoholic as usual. Well, she might be. A bit of drama from another couple. A red glowing credit card. Frozen feet. Restless feet. A mouth that demanded beer to relax the brain and feed the hangovers. Yup, I was home, I was in hell!

Time to go Home
It’s never easy to go home and never easy during a party and concert. Luckily I was getting okay drunk, but not enough for me to listen to Red Warsawa, a danish punk rock spoof comedy band, that make fun of, or honoured, pop music “classics” with covering them with their type of lyrics to their music.
It was fun, for a second, but by Odin, it was time for me to head home!

It’s was a great day and for some reason really good it ended with this weird CopenCover, since it was a bit of everything, old, new, weird, annoying, great, small, big in hearts, dusty, windy, expensive as hell and a lot of fun after all!

To settle. I reached my home after several hours, only because I gave up and took a taxi. Transportation in CPH after 00h and 01h, is terrible.
Of course I couldn’t bike, but I hadn’t thought it would be this bad on a Wednesday night to get home.

 

2 days of Pre-Hell was over, now 3 days of Hell awaits me and I am already used up. How may this go or end?!

....to be continued!