Well for everyone going to that little part of our great nation on 9th June I'm sure that was the only intention. This is the big one! The highlight of every true rock fan's year is the Download Festival, and this year was to prove no different. On a blisteringly hot weekend over 100,000 people descended onto the home of rock to witness a weekend of buying over priced merchandise, drinking loads of warm beer, staring aimlessly at boobs on the big screen and to rock out to the hardest music that rock has to offer.
Well to kick in the day what better way to start than with Finnish Battle metal hero's Turisas. The band literally blow the stage away with their brand of folk/rock and anyone who has a hangover this morning surely will wish they had brought some neurofen with them! They are very loud any don't really seem to care that they are on first and they crowd is just filling up. Sort of a cross between 'He-Man' and 'Hagar the Horrible' they spin round on stage covered in fake blood and looking like total arses, but to their credit they get the place bouncing. The set is only about 25 minutes long but in that time they had the crowd well dancing!! The boys took full advantage of the crowd being a bit bleary and belted out some very tuneful tracks including a brilliant version on Boney M's Rasputin. Believe me this had to be seen to be believed. A great fun opening to the day and the crowd that saw the battle metal gods will not forget them in a hurry.
HELLYEAH
Now the party had really got going on came the hard cor rockers Hellyeah. The band is a metal super group made up of members of Mudvayne, Pantera, Nothingface and Damageplan (All of which I'm sure many of you will never of heard of, so links are provided!). They took to the stage with ease and their style of hard rocking and hard drinking showed throughout the 30 minute set. Chad Gray the vocalist has a great swagger on stage on the guy oozes rock from every pore, and this energy translates to the crowd.
Although the band only had a short set, the crowd gave a glowing round of respectful applause to drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott, whose brother Dimebag Darrell, had the second stage named after him this year. Why I hear you ask. In 2004 whilst performing with his brother Dimebag Darrell Abbott was shot and killed on stage, after being shot in the head five times at point blank range. Ironically he was killed on the same day as John Lennon by a disgruntled fan! The crowds reaction to Vinnie's first appearance in the U.K. since his brothers death was a fitting tribute, and I'm sure he appreciated it.
By the time Shadows Fall hit the stage the mosh pit's had well and truly kicked in. The lead singer, Brian Fair, who has the longest dreadlocks I have ever seen, failed to get the crowd going despite his best dread-whipping efforts.
Our first visit of the day into the Dimebag Stage gave us the 'deathcore' band from Sheffield 'Bring Me The Horizon'. This was the bands biggest gig so far, and despite being very young they do appear to have a future. They gave us the biggest mosh pit of the day, which involves loads of the crowd creating a vibrant circle of hardcore rockers going completely mental as the band play on.
Los Angeles alternative rockers 30 Seconds To Mars are next up on the main stage. Lead singer and well know actor Jared Leto takes to the stage with his usual swagger, and wins the crowd over with his obvious style and likability factor. if he wasn't an actor you would say he was as his efforts on stage are a bit like he is performing as a rock star on stage, but as the sun beats down he provides the female fan's with a scream moment as he jumps from the stage to their delight during one of the songs for a prolonged walkabout.Leto is very much in the Jon Bon Jovi style front man and plays to the crowd at every opportunity. They played a great set on the day and are a band worth taking another look at.
BOWLING FOR SOUP
When two giant inflatable sheep are put onto the stage you know the next set is going to be lots of fun, and Bowling For Soup provide one of the most fun sets of the day. Obviously the guys were here to promote their new album, forthcoming tour, being American, getting drunk, well just about anything really! Lead singer Jaret Reddick thinks nothing to stopping halfway through song's to crack jokes with the crowd and to point out the crowd surfer in an inflatable dinghy!They play to the crowd in the sunshine and make the wisecracking jokes almost an art form in itself. It was a great set from the band, who exclaimed their delight to be up on stage and their eagerness to get off and watch the rest of the day with the fans. At last this was a band who seemed to be enjoying every moment of their Download experience almost as much as the fans watching them.
GALLOWS
It was back to the Dimebag stage for this next band, British punk band Gallows. They were truly phenomenal on the day. The band hail from Watford and are heavily touted as the next big thing in punk/rock to come from Britain, and they do try to live up to the expectation's. Frank Carter bears an uncanny stage resembelance to Sid Vicious from the Sex Pistols, and you can tell from the performance the band has huge punk influences. The song's are loud, guitar riff's are hard and heavy, in the true punk style, but the songs do have depth to them, talking about their backgrounds, life and growing up in a 'crap town' you know things we can all relate too.
The bands thirty minute set was over as quick as it started and involved Frank smashing three microphones, five microphone stands, the lead guitarist being hit on the head with an apple, Frank doing a huge stage-dive and subsequent crowd surf, and Frank apparentley ringing his mum from the stage to play her a song. This was the band's first appearence at Download and I'm sure it won't be their last.
MACHINE HEAD 
Clearly these guys were never going to be the quietest bands of the day, and fearing that we may be crushed to death by the hoards of Machine Head fans gathered to see them on the main stage, we took our place on the hill to witness the thrash metal kings from California. As you can see from the picture the hill gets quite busy and it is a great and safe way to watch bands like Machine Head who get the crowd to be a little well brutal at times, not the place for two eleven year olds!
To be honest the band had the 60,000 sun-soaked rock fanatics bouncing through the entire 50 minute set, and to be fair I think they gave everyone what the wanted, rock in the sun and as the lead singer Robb Flynn stated, it was 'Un-f*%king believable'
Now as all of you who know me will know, there was no way on god's green earth I was going to miss a band called Lez Zeppelin! This was to be our first visit to the third, and smallest stage, the Tuborg Stage. It was either going to be great or truley awful, but they were brilliant. The four piece from New York are a Led Zeppelin tribute band,believe it or not, that are absolutely fantastic live, and apart from the drummer, all very attractive as well!. The lead vocalist Sarah McLellan, who takes the Robert Plant roll as front-woman is one of the best vocalists I have ever heard. She belt's out the Led Zeppelin classics with ease, and has a real Plant like aura on stage, which gets the crowd singing along, forgetting at times this is just a tribute band!For me this was one of the highlights of the day. Not just because they were without doubt the hottest looking act of the day, but with all the new music about today it was great to see that classic rock music still goes down a storm, and holds up today as well as ever. The small tent was extremley hot and sweaty by the end of the thirty minute set. I'm sure that Jack and Tom were glad to see the back of them, but paul and myself both felt they gave a brilliant performance, and if for no other reason than to hear Sarah's brilliant vocals I urge you to take the time out to listen to more of them, especially when their first L.P. is released later this year.
BIFFY CLYRO
It was back around to the Dimebag stage to see Scottish rockers Biffy Clyro. The band are the rock rivals to fellow Scot's The Fratellis, and the crowd show their comical rivalry with chants of 'Mon the Biffy' Coming on stage to a huge welcome from the Donington faithful, the band gave a blistering set from start to finish, playin tracks from their new album Puzzle. This was the bands first time at Download, and they siezed the opportunity with both hand's and rocked the tent to the rafters.This has been a hugely succesful year for the lad's, and with a Summer of festival gig's lined up including Glastonbury and T in the Park, I'm sure they will be the next big thing in music over 2007 as long as they keep performing like this.
MARILYN MANSON
The Anti-Christ superstar appears on stage to one of the biggest welcomes of the day. He might be an outspoken radicalist, but as an entertainer, the old goth pull's out all the stop's and leaves the crowd salivating at his every move. As the ever contriversial singer comes on stage with a microphone shaped like a giany kitchen knife, you know he is going to pull no punches on stage. Flanked by hundreds of candles with added dripping blood effect, his bursts through his set full of his classic tracks and a mixture of songs from his new album Eat Me, Drink Me.I was totally blown away by Manson today. I half expected him to be below all the hype, but this guy is a born entertainer of the grandest scale. His set oozes quality from start to finish. His fan's are some of the most loyal of any artist, many donning leather goth suits all day in the baking hot sun just to see their hero. He belted out all his best stuff such as mOBSCENE, Beautiful People and Rock Is Dead, but the most crowd pleasing tracks came from his well known covers of Tainted Love and Sweet Dreams, which went down a storm.
So the time drew on to the last act of the day. After we survived the oncoming assault from all the goth's escaping from the front we waited patiently for the headline act to appear on stage. While we waited there were many forms of entertainment to pass the minutes away. Firstly, you have to become adept at the bottle throwing which went on as the stage was transformed into Linkin Parks stage. Secondly, the big screen cameramen do the customary shooting in on girls sitting on shoulders, and then getting their 'threpney bits' out for all to see, to the delight of all the males in the crowd. But the best part of the day was the now infamous bottle fight which took place on the hill and lasted for nearly two hours! It was great fun to watch from a distance, and did pass the ever growing time between Manson and Linkin Park.LINKIN PARK
At last the waiting was over, and was it worth it. Well of course it was. Linkin Park are a superb live act, and after all the bands before them today, they pulled off a fantastic finale to the day. From start to finsh Chester and Mike have the crowd in their hands the entire set. The mosh pits came back for the heavier tracks such as One Step Closer and Point Of Authority. The crowd sang along with the ballads like Numb and the brilliant new track Leave Out All The Rest, and the new stuff such as Given Up, Bleed It Out and What I've Done sent the crowd into a frenzy.This was the best possible end to the day, and without a doubt the best performace by anyone today. If these had been the only band we had seen today it would of been worth every penny. The Download festival has been a huge success for over twenty years now, mainly due to the fans that turn out in their hundreds of thousands to see the most diverse and hottest rock bands on the planet get together for a brilliant day of rocking themselves silly. Sadly we made our way from the event all having had a fantastic day. Its just a shame we will have to wait twelve months to do it all again next year. Roll on Download 2008.
No comments:
Post a Comment