Hey everyone and welcome to the fourth chapter of our Live & Louder World Tour recap!
From our wild ride through Latin America, we’re going right back into festival mode: This year we had the fantastic opportunity to play the amazing Woodstock Festival Poland once more. As many of you might know, we already played an awesome show there last year. So after meeting with the founder and president of Woodstock Poland, Jurek Owsiak, we didn’t think twice when he asked us to come back for more.
But hey, we’re The Dead Daisies, we can’t just go around doing the same thing time and time again. So we came up with a plan that would certainly make this an unforgettable night: Why not fulfil a lifelong dream of ours and play this already insane festival with an entire orchestra?
We really wanted to make this a special night – not only for ourselves and the crowd: We wanted to light a beacon of hope and take a stand for what’s right in a world where living in freedom, harmony and peace sadly is the exception rather than the rule for so many.
Jurek was in it from the start and got in touch with the Filharmonia Gorzowska, an amazing orchestra of 60 exceptionally talented musicians founded in 2011. Lucky for us, they couldn’t have been more excited to be part of the plan!
As you might imagine, combining a rocking 5-piece band and a massive orchestra isn’t exactly a no-brainer, so it took months of preparation, picking a set list of special songs to play, mailing back and forth with the score writers, background singers and pretty much everyone involved until it was finally time to face the music and get on a plane to beautiful Poland again.
The first rehearsal already blew our minds: Hearing our music with an orchestra for the first time was a really moving experience, and we certainly had our tattoos shaking with goosebumps that day. Special thanks to our fantastic conductor Monika Wolińska and our background singers Ania and Ewa, who really helped make the process as fruitful and smooth as possible and added even more depth to our favorite songs!
The second rehearsal went just as great. We also got to meet Jurek again, who was exactly as excited about the concert as we were: “We are very grateful that thanks to artists like you, and amazing initiatives like The Dead Daisies and their songs about freedom, we are able to nurture and develop these everlasting ideals. The spirit of freedom permeates the globe, unstoppable like the wind, and it reminds us that despite the different skin colors or creeds we are all united by the ideals of Love, Friendship, and Music.”
Of course we did a main rehearsal on the big stage, which was really impressive already. We still can’t believe how incredibly professional and kind everyone was, so a big thank you again to everyone involved! As one might expect in light of such an epic event, we also held a press conference ahead of the upcoming show.
The show itself was… actually, we’re still at a loss for words. Moving? Riveting? A once-in-a-lifetime moment? Hell, probably all of the above.
Playing this show not only in such an amazing setting but making a stand for freedom and a case for love, peace, and friendship with our music really made this a truly special night for all of us as well as the crowd (which reached beyond the horizon!). This was without a doubt the biggest show we have played to date. And man, the energy! You guys in the audience, the orchestra, and of course ourselves went positively berserk on that stage – truly a testimony to the power of Rock ’n’ Roll and a life-changing show!
And we could not have pulled this night off, were it not for all the great help from the incredibly talented Łukasz Sztaba, who was in charge of the orchestration and even wrote an amazing intro to our show! Thank you so much!
We also want to give a special shoutout to our good friend Titus from Acid Drinkers for joining us onstage during “Wonderful World.“ Way to make such an epic show even more fun!
By the way, we also want to give a special shoutout to our good friend Titus from Acid Drinkers for joining us onstage during “Wonderful World.“ Way to make such an epic show even more fun!
The amazing vibe that night is still really, really hard to put into words, but maybe some of the footage we shot during the festival can help pick up on the incredible energy that has been permeating Woodstock and our show in particular:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=60&v=iYjFyxN_ZJ0
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Yj6TpXlr5A
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JfXf6owXlU
Lastly, seeing as this was such a special moment for all of us, each of us really wanted to share their unique perspectives:
“I can’t begin to explain the thrill of playing The Woodstock festival in Poland with the Gorzów Philharmonic Orchestra for The Concert For Freedom!!! Firstly, just hearing our music being played with the orchestra was incredibly powerful, but to have played with them in front of a couple of hundred thousand people was fucking unbelievable!!!! The energy being given by both the bands, and the audience in return was truly a “once in a lifetime” experience!!! Cross that off the bucket list!!!! Peace!!”
– John Corabi
“It was an unbelievable experience. The thrill of teaming up with the Gorzów Philharmonic Orchestra for Concert for Freedom and the energy of the audience at Woodstock Poland made the epic journey intense and emotional. It was an honor for us to share our love for rock and roll at such a monumental event celebrating peace and freedom.”
– David Lowy
“The WHOLE EXPERIENCE of playing and sharing the stage with a 60 piece Orchestra at the Gorzów Philharmonic was amazing in itself, now playing in front of 400.000 – 500.000 fans & audience at a Concert For Freedom & Peace can only be described as AN AMAZING EVENING of GREAT MUSIC!! Great vibes!! And MEMORABLE! Thank YOU WOODSTOCK & POLAND!!!! Hope to see you soon!!! VIVA LA MÚSICA!!! VIVA LA ROCK!!”
– Marco Mendoza
“I had a great time playing at the Woodstock Festival! I had no idea how it would be with the Gorzów Philharmonic Orchestra but our Maestro Monika made it very easy and fun. It’s a whole new Experience to add 60 players to a Daisies show!! An amazing moment for Freedom and Peace! I heard a few clips on Youtube and it sounded extremely cool! All in all an experience of a lifetime.”
– Doug Aldrich
“I had a blast playing the Woodstock Poland Festival where we played a Concert For Freedom with the 60 piece orchestra! They were all very kind and talented. I especially enjoyed working with Monika, the conductor, as she has quite an undertaking to keep together between rock band and orchestra! And let me not forget the great audience and fans in Poland! Thanks for the support and rocking with us!”
– Brian Tichy
So Poland, the Gorzów Philharmonic, and especially Jurek: Thank you for the insane opportunity. We are immensely greatful for this life-changing experience and we really hope to be back! Maybe we’ll come up with an even crazier idea next time…
Up until then, we have something super special in store for all you Woodstock-lovers out there: on November 12th, you need to take an hour of your time, get the big screen out, roll in the massive speakers and immerse yourselves in the experience! This will not be something you will want to watch on your phone or your computer! Stay tuned!
So long,
Peace & Love,
The Dead Daisies
