The first campers arrived on Tuesday, and the music started on Thursday – the start at the Frequency went without any major problems and had one or two highlights at the start. Macklemore and Tom Gregory cleaned up, Limp Bizkit stumbled through their own wave of nostalgia and the doctors were quite disappointing. Today we continue with the Imagine Dragons and Mathea, among others.
The thunderstorm cell before the start of the festival passed the core area of the Frequency on Wednesday, so the campsites were dry at the official start of the festival and the atmosphere was just as hot as the temperatures. A good 32 degrees accompanied the fans on Thursday around 2:20 p.m. when the Canadian indie musician Ekkstacy opened the festival. In front of an audience that was still manageable, he sang with a three-piece band and a bulbous Hendricks gin bottle in his hand about some dark themes from his past. With songs like “I Gave You Everything”, “Wish I Was Dead” or “I Walk This Earth By Myself” he fights inner demons in upbeat indie songs with a post-punk touch. The chaos on stage that he so loved didn’t materialize – probably also because of the early temperatures. Tour ends in St. Pölten “At a concert in Poland I banged my head so hard that I hit my knee with my nose and broke it,” said He told the “Krone” in an interview in advance, “people celebrated it and then liked us all the more. We should probably screw up every show because people like it.” A year ago he played in Das Werk in Vienna. “Before my performance, two people had sex in the toilet. I’ve never seen that before either. Let someone else say that Berlin is cooler than Vienna.” Ekkstacy almost ended up there, and he now has his home port in New York. “I was too far away from my family and my parents, that didn’t do me any good.” Directly after the Frequency performance, we went on to London. “The Frequency is the last show of my tour. It’s a shame that we had to be on stage so early.” The opening band on the Green Stage was well chosen. The up-and-coming Brit pop rockers from Only The Poets thrilled a decent crowd of fans with hits like “Jump!”, “Even Hell” or “Waking In The Dark”. They are already well known in Austria, not only did they support Louis Tomlinson, but they also headlined the packed Simm City last April. “The arenas are getting bigger and bigger, we can hardly believe it,” said frontman Tommy Longhurst happily in the “Krone” talk, “of course we have goals and plans, but the way things are going now, it’s great.” From the Frequency show she gets excited. “If we didn’t have to fly on to Belgium, we would have liked the Imagine Dragons, Limp Bizkit or BBNO$ – a great line-up.”Punk rock with Rainhard FendrichPunk rock fans also enjoyed KennyHoopla on the Space Stage. The young American introduced himself to the Austrians last year at Nova Rock, since then he has recorded an entire EP with his father’s mentor and Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker. But he wasn’t that highly motivated given the heat and the very sparse crowd. Started later, ended earlier – plus a three-minute artistic break between the main set and the only encore. Actually a no-go at a festival. In the set he alternated – with a white Black Flag shirt – between his older songs, which were more based on post-punk and new wave, and the pop-punk of the modern age. Then the Canadian BBNO$ really turned things up with a mixture of rap and pop – including “I Am From Austria” by Rainhard Fendrich. Pretty weird. In addition to the great party atmosphere, the musical performance sagged a bit. The first real highlight of the day took place later in the day in the form of Tom Gregory. The Brit from Blackpool is doing better in our part of the world than in his homeland and runs up and down the format radio stations. “Rather Be You”, “Fingertips”, “Forget Somebody” or the new single “Never Look Back” – every single song had its catchy moments and made the fans cheer. Gregory conducted his fans all in black and needed them and himself to sweat. His girlfriend Ana, known from “Germany’s Next Topmodel”, did not leave his side on the stage side. “Under these circumstances I prefer to perform,” he revealed to the “Krone” after the performance, “high temperatures, good mood. Just the way I love it.”Battle Of The TurntablesImmediately after that, a thunderstorm of beats erupted on both big stages for the first time. Difficult decision where to go. Robin Schulz let off steam on the Space Stage and for the first time that day gathered the masses. People reached into the middle of the main area and let the pulsating sounds get them going. On the Green Stage, on the other hand, the techno stars of the hour hammered: Meduza. The Milan trio was lifted into the top heaven almost overnight in 2019 with the song “Piece Of Your Heart” and has achieved cult status with remixes by Ed Sheeran, Dermot Kennedy and John Legend. The turntables, however, made band thirds glow all by Simone Gianni alone. “The other two are performing in Mallorca, I was flown in by helicopter,” he told us in an interview. One project, two fees. Not a bad deal. The Red Bull Stage in the VAZ St. Pölten was also traditionally played and in the afternoon showed impressively what the Austrian scene has to offer. Sadi, Ness and Rian delivered great performances one after the other, until Dilla from Berlin showed an enthusiastic audience how to bring the mood into the hut these days: Her eclectic mix of techno, pop, rap and funk quotes was incredibly refreshing, light-footed and pleasantly different. The VAZ also had surprisingly pleasant temperatures and gave some a bit of shade, even if the 30-degree mark was not exceeded and the first day of the festival was still pleasant. Nostalgia Revue A very rare feeling of nostalgia was conveyed by the unbreakable Nu Metal Forge Limp Bizkit on the Space Stage. It doesn’t matter how often Fred Durst and Co. pay their respects to our festivals, the spaces fill up to the very back. The front man, who will be 53 on Sunday, went on stage with Nike sneakers, swimming trunks, an oversized ice hockey shirt, a cap put on backwards and an opulent gold chain and conveyed the feeling of a Santa Claus on crack. He kept asking whether people wanted to party like they did in 1999, and those not yet born that year said yes and started small mosh pits. In addition to millennial treasures like “Rollin'” or “My Generation”, Durst spent a lot of time playing the fairytale uncle and flirting with colleagues DJ Lethal and Wes Borland. From the flopped 2021 comeback album, Bizkit only delivered the self-ironic “Dad Vibes”. otherwise they completely trusted their classics from days long past, which have not only aged moderately well in terms of content. Borland, befitting his status in ghost train make-up, tried his best as always, but the tried and tested quality offensive didn’t match Durst’s spindly voice and his chubby demeanor. Durst himself babbled on about “boobs” and “UFOs”, smelled marijuana in a country “where it’s illegal”, propagated cocaine consumption and tied the Nine Inch Nails into his set. In the end, the question arose: Was that brilliant self-mockery or another dismantling of a band that has long since fallen out of the cracks? Probably both and that’s also a small sensation. A safe bank The two biggest acts of the opening day have already been seen this year. Rap top star Macklemore was in the sold-out Wiener Stadthalle in April and thrilled there with a colorful and fiery show. He didn’t have his usual sidekick Eric Nally with him at Frequency, but even without him he convinced with a lot of playfulness and a display of Frequency love. His fourth FRQ appearance in nine years (also an achievement) didn’t differ much from the last trysts, but if the quality is always in the upper segment, you don’t need any major innovations. Macklemore and Lewis classics like “Thrift Shop” or “Dance Off” have been working like a charm for a long time and “Can’t Hold Us” sang the throats hundreds of meters away. Definitely a highlight of the evening. After a short conversion and DJ bridging phase, it was time for the first big headliner of the festival – the doctors. Just under two months after Nova Rock, they are now back at the second largest festival. Creative booking looks different, but the popularity proves them right. Although the audience among doctors thinned out significantly. Similar to Nova Rock, the band struggled with technical problems early on and stumbled through the first few songs. As the concert progressed, Bela B, Farin Urlaub and Rod Gonzalez found their way a little better, but there was no sign of the fire of the old days. Bad quips, a forced atmosphere on stage and too much cabaret instead of music. Like when a group of old men wants to amuse the youth of today with jokes from yesterday. Surprises may still be good (e.g. choosing the “Schundersong” for the opening and not the programmatic “Westerland”), but in a good two hours of playing time the band only rarely managed to inspire the audience. More and more hiked towards the campsite, even in the front area the music cabaret fire of the doctors seemed to be simmering on the back burner. Apart from a few hits, the “best band in the world” delivered, strictly speaking, for the second time in a row a set that didn’t necessarily live up to the demands that one should make of oneself with this reputation. A maximum mediocre appearance. On the Green Stage, DJ Brennen Heart was firing on all cylinders. The hardstyle king is a welcome guest in Austria. “You just know how it’s done,” he explained late at night in the “Krone” talk, “Austria knows how to get a party going.” Today it’s already going on cheerfully – once again with a full house. Among others, Imagine Dragons, Central Cee or the Electric Callboys will create a good atmosphere.
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