(Chicago-based NCS supporter and occasional scribe Leperkahn found himself in Paris just in time to catch part of the first Fall of Summer Open Air festival and provided us this report.)

As previously stated, my arse was lucky enough to be in Paris at the time set for the inaugural Fall of Summer Open Air. This new festival took place in Torcy, which is only a few kilometers outside of Paris, and accessible by a short 15-20 minute train ride from one of the downtown stations. Though I can’t speak from experience, this strikes me as a somewhat unique feature among most European festivals, which often require you to go much further away from such a large metropolitan area as Paris (or London or Berlin, for example). This also made my detour to the festival a plausible idea once I learned that schedules matched up – a 2-3 hour train or drive wouldn’t have been feasible given my schedule with school.

Anyway, enough about my boring details. Long story short, getting from my dorm to the campsite and festival was surprisingly easy, and provided one entirely unexpected surprise.

After I arrived at the Torcy train station, I had to take a bus to get a little closer to the site. Also on the same bus over was none other than Attila Csihar, of legendary black metal band Mayhem. In a moment that should probably have revoked my metal cred eternally, I didn’t recognize him at all, and only learned who he was after someone asked how his band was doing (which I learned was Mayhem) and then again when yet another person positively identified him as Attila. Regardless, he was a pretty nice guy (and a fast walker – I probably made the trek to the other side of the lake twice as fast by trying to keep up with him). Continue reading »