reading festival (sun 24/08/08)

Good and eventful bank holiday weekend; the highlight Reading Festival on the Sunday. It was all good, despite a few annoyance’s out of our control with parking and exchanging the tickets for the charming brown wristband, me and gf were eagerly anticipating our second consecutive Reading Festival together (though my umpteenth time). The bands I was looking out for on Sunday morning were Alexisonfire, Avenged Sevenfold and Tenacious D (to see what sort of performance they’d put-up), Slipknot would have been cool to show gf what you’re in for when they take the stage, though they pulled out earlier in the week due to their drummer breaking his foot or something. Conor Oberst would have been cool but since I saw him and Bright Eyes at Oxford Brookes last year it wasn’t as urgent as it could’ve been. As we were making our way through the bottle neck which grants access to the festival a steward shouts out that Avenged Sevenfold have pulled out due to the singer straining his voal chords – gutted.

We still legged it straight to the main stage to catch Bring Me The Horizon (9/10), the best example of metalcore that Britain has to offer. They were a last minute addition to the line-up to try and make up for those disappointed with the Slipknot exclusions. Very impressed with their set, which also included some of the most promising examples of new material from any band I heard that day (gf certainly would disagree). Next up were Alexisonfire (7.5/10), really enjoyed them, new stuff blended and sound as great as thier modern classics, knew how to work with the crowd. Off to the NME/Radio 1 stage for Cajun Dance Party (7/10) and Lightspeed Champion (7/10), both excelled expectations, still some work to be done, with much future potential on show from the former. Saw a bit of Plain White T’s (5/10) between CDP and LC, not bad, nothing special, their hit went down well. Caught the end of the Dropkick Murphy’s (8/10) set regret not seeing more, so much energy from the band, a lot of crowd pleasing tunes that everyone seemed to embody. Saw a few songs from Feeder (6/10). Classic Feeder, nothing more, nothing less than expected really. Then off the Pendulum. The NME/Radio 1 stage was packed… tried getting into the tent, then once there had to escape, was just too much. By the time we got in and out Feeder had finished. Pendulum (N/A) sounded like a real treat, will have to catch them at their own gig. Tenacious D (7/10) were cool, though found myself waiting for their jokes in between (during) songs rather than enjoying the music, shame as I really enjoyed their first album when it came out. Off to see the Last Shadow Puppets (8/10) next, great performance that include a mini orchestra. Really top performance, although thought it might have been a bit premature in their careers to have the strings and co. behind them, pulling out the stops when their second headliners on the NME/Radio 1 stage, what are they going to do when they headline a festival? Now the headliners Metallica (8.5/10). As grand and demanding performance as you can expect from one of America’s finest. Did many of the hits and some, encore seemed a little of an anti-climax, highlight the haunting classic ‘One’.

Next year back to camping at Reading? Maybe.

NB. Will post some pretty pictures here when I get around to it.

reading festival

Well that was a good day. Attended Reading Festival on Sunday, just Sunday not the full weekend (due to funds and not an overly great line up). I had to make it for the Sunday as the headline act was the Smashing Pumkins, and they were smashing, though not the best band of the day. That award went to the Gallows. They were really up for it and pulled out all the stops, which included; the lead singer, Frank Carter, bringing his mum onstage. Then preforming a song with his younger brother. Frank getting ‘Reading 2007′ tattoed on his arm by a member of New Found Glory. And finsihed the set off bey stage diving into the crowd, climbing halfway up one of the pillars which support the Radio 1 Lock-Up tent and jumoing off back into the crowd again. Great set!!

Overall I saw quite a few bands, Gym Class Heroes – suprisingly good, bonded well with the crowd (7/10), Hellogoodbye – not too bad, about as good as was expecting, their single sounded better than I expected, great party music (6.5/10), Billy Talent – would have been awesome higher up the bill on a smaller stage, though still managed to look at home on the main stage, just (7.5/10), Funeral For A Friend – did nothing great, though did nothing bad (6/10), Cold War Kids – performed song of the day with ‘Saint John’, rest of the set failed to keep up to the start although still very professional (8/10), From Autumn To Ashes – a let down, didn’t seem that bothered, probably down to the small turn-out at the tent (4/10), Jamie T – big suprise, very lively, best crowd reaction of the day (7.5/10), Gallows – see above (9/10) and The Smashing Pumpkins – Very well done, only sore point not enough classic tracks (8/10).

All in all great gig, thought I had seen my last Reading festival, I’m glad I hadn’t.

8/10