As some of you may know, I recently turned into a Puddle of Mudd fan. So as for every fan, I had the desire to see them play live. Which at first seemed impossible, since they had just been to Europe (Italy and England) earlier this year.
Then I noticed that there was a show scheduled at the Topfest in Piestany, Slovakia.
Now you have to keep in mind that - eventhough it isn't quite as far away and not quite as expensive to travel to as the USA - it is *still* around 1200 km (745 miles) away from where I live. Which means atleast a 12 hour train drive. I was scared at first, but figured out I may as well try. Because how does that Eminem song go,..."You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow -
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime yo".
So off I went in the evening of June 29, 2016 en route to Piestany. The train drive was pretty event-less (aside from the fact that the other woman in the same train compartment was snoring quite loudly), and due to taking the night train also rather cheap, with only having to change trains once until Vienna. From there on out I had to catch a train to Bratislava, and then the final train to Piestany.
I was happy when I finally saw this:
Or was I...?
I mean, I was in a different country now, and worse, a country that I don't know the language of. And while Google Translate might work for written text, it doesn't quite work for spoken words yet, since if you don't know the language you won't understand the words. So what we need is a Google Voice Translate! (Thanks for the idea, Kenny!)
Anyway, I arrived, and shortly thereafter also found the first "shuttle" bus to the Topfest. (The amazing thing about those buses is, they only drive THERE, but not BACK...so if you want to go back to the city, it's either a Taxi for 5€ or walking.
Got my armband and was ready to rock!
I had some time to settle in and find my way around the festival area, which was the Piestany Airport. The 2 big stages were fairly easy to discover, the 3rd, smaller stage I did not even notice until the middle of the second day there.
Thursday's program consisted of Guano Apes and Europe, both of which did a great show!
Worth mentioning about the Guano Apes is, that their singer seemed to use more curse words than Wes ever would. But no one probably noticed it since she said them in German. lol
Europe was great, finishing up their show with their world hit "Final Countdown". What's funny here is, even at 52 Joey Tempest still carries the mic around the stage as if it was his child... maybe it is!
The night was pretty un-eventful, with me spending my time mostly around the charging zone for phones. Since I had to be all charged up and ready for what would come the following day. (On a positive note, in this Airport/Field in the middle of nowhere I had amazing LTE speed on my phone, whereas when returning to Germany a day later, some zones in Bavaria did not even have ANY phone signal at all!)
Either way, the day was finally there now, July 1, 2016. A day that I will remember and keep in my heart forever. The big part of the evening would be Puddle of Mudd playing, time set for 19:50.
The closer it got to the time, the more excited I got. The only thing that kept me sane on that day was the fact that I had been talking to 2 Puddle of Mudd people already. (Not the ones that appeared at the show, but some awesome people named Sean and Kenny, who still care about Wes like a brother and who also worry about him. You rock, guys!)
And believe it or not, at 19:49 it happened! Puddle of Mudd hit the A1 Stage and delivered one of the coolest shows ever since I became a fan! The sound as well as the stage lights were excellent, the people were singing along, dancing, jumping and headbanging to all the songs.
Eventhough Wes was reportedly not doing well, he did an awesome set of songs, that got people moving!
Due to it being a festival with many bands, there was some sort of time limit in place, so after 1 hour and 7 minutes it was already time to say goodbye.
But wait, didn't Dave mention there would be t-shirts? (There were, and I did buy 2, but they were delivered to the Topfest stand kind of late, so that they were available only after the concert).
And I was still on a mission to try and talk to Wes to make him see how much he means to his fans all over the world. Wanted to tell him that he has fans in Kenya, Africa! Wanted to say hi from his old friends. Wanted to see what he says about the sign I made, and about the old t-shirt from 1993.
Sadly I did not get to talk to him as he was not feeling well, but thanks to a moment of nice-ness of Matt, I did get my shirt signed (and I am thankful for that). And Wes also got my letter. But after several minutes, I then got an angry version of Matt coming out saying that I "said pretty nasty words about the band in the letter" and that it was "not cool". I did not say anything nasty about the "band".
The Italian fans that went to that specific concert in Italy that was referred to in the letter were worried for Wes' life...band continued playing without even checking on Wes, and then telling us that we "don't know the situation". Well thank you mighty wizard, of course we don't know the situation if no one is going to tell us. If we do not know both sides of the story, we can only look at the one that we see.
Either way, this concert was an excellent one, the people LOVED it. It's funny how people barely speak any English there, but they did sing along to all Puddle of Mudd songs!
Wes behaved like an angel, and it was so cute to hear him say his "thank you"/"danke schön" after each applause for his songs. Now, "danke schön" is German...and Topfest was in Slovakia. I guess Wes must have known that there was a little German fan out there who cares very much about him!
And Wes, if you are reading this, I hope you arrived home safely, and I hope that you are feeling better. You rock! "Danke schön" for an amazing show! :)
Then I made my way back to the city, while also marvelling at the beauty of some of the local plants in Piestany.
After that eventful night, I headed home. Or well, tried to...
I mean it is not unusual for trains only driving every hour or so, BUT when I wanted to go back, around midnight, there was literally NO train driving from Piestany to Bratislava for another 6 hours. So I went to Bratislava by Taxi, just to find that the train station in Bratislava was CLOSED for 3 hours. Weird. I have never seen a closed train station before in my life. Like what are people going to do at a train station, steal trains and bring them through the entrance door or what? lol
While waiting for the train station to open, I met an older woman who told me a lot about everything, thankfully in English. She even taught me how to read the bus time tables there! And she told me that the older people in Slovakia usually know some German, and the younger ones some English.
After 17 hours, I arrived safely back at home.
Tips for festival goers:
" better stay out of the sun"
Else you will end up fried, like I did. (But I just couldn't pass on that front row chance to see Puddle of Mudd, I'm crazy, I know, lol).
"wild pokemon live in the tall grass"
Whatever bit me there, bit me good. lol
In closing, I would like to say a BIG thanks to Topfest for giving us the chance to see Puddle of Mudd. Thanks for believing in them. Thanks for supplying awesome sound and stage light effects.
I would also like to thank the photographers infront of me at the Puddle of Mudd part, who were all so kind and didn't walk through my picture, and even took pictures of my sign that I made for Puddle of Mudd! You are awesome too! (If any of those that took a pic of my sign reads this, feel free to post it here).
And extra big and special thanks to my 3 favorite Puddle of Mudd members!
Wes for giving a GREAT concert.
Kenny and Sean for being such good, caring people.
You 3 should definitely get back on stage together!
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