GIGGING IN 2009 - AUGUST

AUGUST

1st – 2nd SONISPHERE FESTIVAL, Knebworth Park
1st – LINKIN PARK/Blakfish/Skindred/Sylosis/Airborne/Anthrax/Coheed & Cambria/Exit Ten/Fin/Glamour Of The Kill/Oceansize/Twin Atlantic/Thunder
2nd – METALLICA/Avenged Sevenfold/Architects/Buckcherry/Cancer Bats/Machine Head/The Defiled/Feeder/Killing Joke/Lamb Of God/Little London/Mastodon/Paradise Lost/Saxon
14th–16th BLOODSTOCK OPEN AIR, Catton Hall
14th – Blitzkreig/Million Dollar Reload/Gods Of Hellfire/Insomnium/Die Apokalyptischen Reiter/Municipal Waste/Katatonia/Saxon/Maleface/Pythia/Green River Project/Godsized/Bison Hammer/Ventflow
15th – CRADLE OF FILTH/BLIND GUARDIAN/Uncle Rotter/Battlelore/Wolf/The Haunted/Switchblade Scream/OMT/Candlemass/Enslaved/Solsikk/Celesty/Apocalyptica
16th – EUROPE/Beholder/Sabaton/Girlschool/Equilibrium/Anathema/Turisas/Moonspell/Amon Amarth/Tribe/Eden’s Curse
18th – PROTEST THE HERO/Hospital Of Death/Veils – MOHO, Manchester
22nd – BLAKFISH/Mutiny On The Bounty/Holy State – Brudenell, Leeds

I’d been considering ‘doing’ the new SONISPHERE FESTIVAL for some time but with BLOODSTOCK just around the corner and the tickets a shade on the expensive side (similar price to Download- £135- but only two days instead of three), I decided it would be ‘A Festival Too Far! I entered a couple of competitions to win tickets but as I normally would come third in a duel, I put it to the back of my mind… until I came home from work and found SIX tickets in my inbox a few days before the event!!
Having heard all kinds of horror stories about parking at Knebworth for previous events, we took up the option of parking in Stevenage and using the free shuttle buses – if anyone is going to Sonisphere in 2010, I’d highly recommend this – not only do you get dropped off right at the event entrance (Some cars were parked over a mile away!), you also get off the site so much quicker.
Day one highlights – Arrived just in time to catch BLAKFISH play a great set in the tented 3rd stage, then it was over to the second stage to catch another superb show from SKINDRED - even though the weather was deteriorating rapidly, Benji got the crowd dancing in the rain. As the first and second stages were running opposite each other, you could just move between the two stages and see all the action, so it was a quick dash up the hill to the main stage to catch ANTHRAX – I’d never been much of a fan, but they played a pretty good set. It was absolutely chucking it down when AIRBORNE hit the second stage- but the Aussies powered on regardless. A good set, but when singer/guitarist Joel O’Keeffe decided that it would be a good idea the climb the stage scaffolding right to the top, then rip out a solo, then dangle from a flimsy looking pole with one hand, the health and safety manager must have had kittens! Back in the third stage tent, the ever impressive SYLOSIS were mid set by the time I got in. Now was the first dilemma of the festival back up the hill to the main stage for COHEED & CAMBRIA or over to the Jager stage to catch our perennial favourites EXIT TEN. Much as we love the boys from Reading, it had to be Claudio & Co. After 20 minutes of waiting, someone came on stage and announced that Coheed had been delayed on a cross channel ferry, and were going to be late so Japanese band FACT were getting bumped up from the third stage to take their spot… now why they couldn’t have announced this earlier, I don’t know but a quick trot down the hill meant we at least caught the second half of EXIT TEN, though we could have seen it all..grrrrr. When Coheed finally arrived, they went on the third stage while Heaven & Hell were on the main stage-the tent was packed to capacity though and what a great 45 minute set they played-the general consensus was that the more ‘intimate’ surroundings of the tent meant their set was even better than it would have been on the main stage. Staying in the tent, it was great to see my favourite band in the world, OCEANSIZE, go down so well- they rarely get asked to do these sort of things, but on this evidence, I can see that changing. First night headliners LINKIN PARK were a bit.. well… dull really. Sounded good but the performance was very stop-start and when Chester Bennington rolled out his side project band for a few songs mid-set, you could feel what energy was left in the crowd disappear. That wasn’t the end though- down in the tent THUNDER were about to play their final ever show- there were so many people trying to get in that security had to close off all the entrances. Fortunately AFTER we’d got inside! As you can imagine, this was an emotional show for the band – probably not quite as good as their Download show, but certainly one of those ‘I Was There.. ‘ moments for the 2000 people fortunate enough to see it.
Day Two highlights – With much better weather due, BUCKCHERRY and SAXON opened the two main stages, the former being full of enery, the latter sadly seeming rather tame and subdued compared to the band I remembered them to be- mind you, Biff did announce that they only just made the show as they’d been on stage in Germany at 3 a.m. that morning so I suppose that could account for their lack of energy. KILLING JOKE seemed a little out of place, PARADISE LOST and LAMB OF GOD were very impressive, but I really developed an instant dislike for MACHINE HEAD, especially their frontman Rob Flynn who must have spent half the show talking. Sad really as so many people had told me how good they were live. Over on the second stage, FEEDER were a pleasant respite from the heavy start to the day- even the band realised they were ‘A Bit Different’ but the crowd lapped it up. I’d only really got into MASTODON on their latest ‘Crack The Skye’ release so this would be me first live experience and despite an awful sound mix, I really enjoyed it. Time to check some of the action on the third and fourth stages – caught small bits of both CANCER BATS and HEAVEN’S BASEMENT sets-both sounded great, but the best performances of the day-on any stage- came from THE DEFILED on the Jager stage then ARCHTECTS in the third stage tent.
Back to the main stages and AVENGED SEVENFOLD struggled through their second stage headline set, battling crowd apathy and awful sound…two things that headliners METALLICA weren’t troubled by!!
So, all in all, a really good festival- not without it’s problems . The whole thing being on the side of a steep hill didn’t help my old legs, and as the main stage was on top on the hill, it meant you couldn’t see a thing if you were more than 30 yards back. Hope they re-think the layout for 2010.

With the batteries re-charged after a week or so without any gigs, we set off for the annual pilgrimage to ‘The Home Of Metal’ – Catton Hall in deepest Derbyshire for BLOODSTOCK OPEN AIR (BOA).

Day one Highlights – DIE APOKALYPTISCEN REITER (DAR) were the first band to really stir the crowd- something slightly sinister about a German band with a keyboard player in leather shorts (ONLY leather shorts) and gimp mask and a singer who has more than a passing resemblance of Lenin (That’s the Russian geezer, not the one who was in the Beatles!!). Hadn’t heard anything by them at all, but they played a really good set with plenty of crowd interaction too. MUNICIPAL WASTE tried to get a world record for crowd surfing during one song but came up just short- they were fun to watch but not really my thing. KATATONIA and INSOMNIUM play a style of music that isn’t that suited to a sunny August afternoon, but both got a fine response from the crowd, and both joined DAR on my ‘must see again’ list. Not really a fan of joint headliners CARCASS or ARCH ENEMY, so the last main stage band of the day for us would be SAXON. Biff and his band gave the crowd exactly what they wanted – a barrage of their biggest songs from the back catalogue. This was a really assured performance that was considerably better than their performance at Sonisphere earlier in the month. Over on the unsigned stage, BISONHAMMER and THE GREEN RIVER PROJECT were the only bands to really make any kind of impression- the others seemed to be very samey. On the Sophie Lancaster stage, GODSIZED really rocked and PYTHIA were ok- the main feature of this stage was the god-awful sound, just like last year! With neither of the headliners having much appeal, we called it an early night, grabbed a Chinese and headed back to the hotel- as we arrived there, we saw a huge firework display going off over the festival grounds- seems someone prematurely pressed a button midway through Carcass’s set.. whoops!!!

Day two highlights – Didn’t have an awful lot of ‘must see’ bands today. UNCLE ROTTER opened the mainstage- their schlock rock seemed to go down well with the crowd, but not with me- they just seemed totally charmless and even quite irritating…ho-hum, maybe it was just me being an early morning grouch! My mood wasn’t really lifted by BATTLELORE who seemed rather pedestrian. Things did get better though- WOLF’s power rock worked like the musical equivalent of Aspirin on me, ENSLAVED were pretty good too, even if you couldn’t hear the vocalist! THE HAUNTED and CANDLEMASS were the pick of the afternoon though. Yet again, the unsigned tent seemed full of ‘cookie cutter’ bands without a spark of originality between them- shame really as last year was full of bands bending and shaping ‘Metal’ into all different shapes and flavours. I was looking forward to seeing CELESTY‘s first UK show, and they pulled a decent crowd to the Sophie stage. Again, a good set was ruined by the totally inadequate PA- the band deserved better. Back over on the mainstage, APOCALYPTICA did their thing.. it’s a ‘thing’ I’ve never really got, but they went down really well. As with day one, we had ‘Co-Headliners again tonight- first up were power metal legends BLIND GUARDIAN who played a superb set, followed-after a huge delay- by CRADLE OF FILTH. They do absolutely zero for me and I was ready to head out early, but my daughter wanted to see what the fuss was all about….after 20 minutes, she’d had enough, so off we went to find some late night food. On arriving back at the hotel, we met some fellow festival goers- apparently, about 10 minutes after we left, some dick-head started firing huge gobstoppers from a catapult at the band –one hit the guitarist, sending him to the floor and then to the local hospital forcing the rest of the set to be cancelled.

Day three highlights. This was THE day for me, Other than a quick trip down to the Sophie stage in late afternoon to see TRIBE and EDEN’S CURSE-both of whom played well but suffered like all before them with the awful PA, it was going to be main stage all day. SABATON seemed to be the most anticipated band of the whole weekend prior to the festival, and that was bourne out by them pulling the biggest crowd of the weekend for their all too short set- but what a show they put on. They seemed genuinely humbled by the crowd’s reaction and hopefully they’ll be invited back to make up from the crazy amount of time they were given. ANATHEMA were a bit of a mid-afternoon wild card- they come from a Doom Metal background but have left that way in the past now, but despite huge technical difficulties, added to the fact that their drummer couldn’t make it, they turned in the performance of the whole weekend for me. Moonspell followed with an OK show but in the light of what Anathema had served up, it was a case of ‘After The Lord Mayor’s Show’ for them. Thankfully TURISAS got everyone moving again, before AMON AMARTH levelled the place with a blistering hour of Nordic metal- first time I’d ever seen them, but it won’t be the last. If Anathema had been a bit of an unusual booking for Bloodstock, the announcement of EUROPE as final day headliners was positively off the wall. The BOA forums had page after page of people complaining –mostly people who’d only ever heard THAT song!! The expected mass walk out didn’t happen – if anything the main stage was way more packed than it had been for the Saturday headliners. Europe strolled on and for the next hour and a half held the crowd in the palm of their hands with a spellbinding performance… of course, they made us wait for THAT song, but they eventually got around to it- and everyone sang, jumped and yes, even crowd surfed!!

So BOA 2009 was a roaring success- the only slight let down was the poorer standard of the bands on the unsigned stage compared to last year, but that’s a minor quibble…now lets get home and book next years tickets!!

After that it was a pretty quiet rest of the month PROTEST THE HERO were good, but the horrible sound I’d heard on my other two visits to this venue struck again- rendering HOSPITAL OF DEATH’s support slot almost unlistenable. BLAKFISH were on tour again, this time in support of their recently released debut album- a fun performance as ever, though it was Luxembourg support band MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY who stole the show for me