Download 2014
Jun. 19th, 2014 03:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobear2014 is the year for me to go to festivals again, it seems! Download in June and Shrewsbury Folk Festival in August.
Friday:
Powerman 5000 - meh
Skindred - very cool
Black Label Society - meh
Within Temptation - really enjoyed this, which surprised me as I generally find their stuff quite samey
Rob Zombie - the outfits were better than the music, but it was a good show
Bad Religion - dressed like they'd just come from a fairly casual office, and no stage presence whatsoever
Offspring - chose to play one of their albums I didn't know, but really good once they got onto songs I was familiar with!
Saturday:
Lawnmower Death - very silly, I particularly liked the Weeble song
While She Sleeps - nice to look at, but the kind of music I term 'frequency torture', where it vibrates your rib cage
Bowling For Soup - not their finest hour, particular since their sound mix was so bad I couldn't make out most of the lyrics
Lonely the Brave - caught the second half of this and it was really good
Arcan Roots - points for enthusiasm but could do with tightening up a bit, as they were very messy
Wildhearts - best sound quality to date, and a good solid set
Then came Fall Out Boy, a band I discovered on Spotify a couple of years ago and have listened to a fair bit since - and they were really, really good. I found the composition of the band a bit strange, though. The drummer wore shorts, tattoos and nothing else, both the guitarists had tattoo sleeves down both arms - and then there was the guy who did all the singing, who was dressed in a grey short sleeved shirt and a pork pie hat, had no visible tattoos at all and looked like he'd stepped off a college campus. He has a great voice, but he doesn't seem to fit in with the rest of the band, and he didn't engage the crowd at all - the bass guitarist did all the talking between songs. Great show, but a bit odd.
And then there was Linkin Park, who were all kinds of awesome. They played the whole of Hybrid Theory straight through, then a load of other great songs, including three from their new album, which came out this week and I love just as much as all the others. There was definitely a disconnect between the live experience and listening to their recorded albums, though. I put Meteora on in the car on the way home on Sunday and tried to visualise the guys I'd seen the night before singing the songs, and I couldn't, because the tone of the singing was really different. It was really intense in the live show, but is obviously much more processed on the recorded stuff - and also a lot angrier. Mike and Chester seemed like real sweethearts on stage, so I just couldn't associate them with the rage of some of the Meteora songs. It was an amazing show, though - loved every second of it.
Sunday:
Winger - classic old school rock
Skillet - another band I discovered via Spotify and have become quite a fan of - it was great to see them live, and they gave a really good performance
Other things to note:
I like it when guitarists in bands sing along to their own songs, even when they don't have a mike. It suggests they really enjoy the music.
Buying Magnum ice creams for people is fun, but not as much as other people buying them for me!
Getting drunk before noon is really not my style - but it was a fun drinking game all the same...
It's a bit dangerous for me to spend two days surrounded by lots and lots of very impressive ink on display - I managed to resist the temptation to get a tattoo myself, but I do now have pink streaks in my hair!
Awesome weekend all round!
(Bear will be posting photos shortly...)
Friday:
Powerman 5000 - meh
Skindred - very cool
Black Label Society - meh
Within Temptation - really enjoyed this, which surprised me as I generally find their stuff quite samey
Rob Zombie - the outfits were better than the music, but it was a good show
Bad Religion - dressed like they'd just come from a fairly casual office, and no stage presence whatsoever
Offspring - chose to play one of their albums I didn't know, but really good once they got onto songs I was familiar with!
Saturday:
Lawnmower Death - very silly, I particularly liked the Weeble song
While She Sleeps - nice to look at, but the kind of music I term 'frequency torture', where it vibrates your rib cage
Bowling For Soup - not their finest hour, particular since their sound mix was so bad I couldn't make out most of the lyrics
Lonely the Brave - caught the second half of this and it was really good
Arcan Roots - points for enthusiasm but could do with tightening up a bit, as they were very messy
Wildhearts - best sound quality to date, and a good solid set
Then came Fall Out Boy, a band I discovered on Spotify a couple of years ago and have listened to a fair bit since - and they were really, really good. I found the composition of the band a bit strange, though. The drummer wore shorts, tattoos and nothing else, both the guitarists had tattoo sleeves down both arms - and then there was the guy who did all the singing, who was dressed in a grey short sleeved shirt and a pork pie hat, had no visible tattoos at all and looked like he'd stepped off a college campus. He has a great voice, but he doesn't seem to fit in with the rest of the band, and he didn't engage the crowd at all - the bass guitarist did all the talking between songs. Great show, but a bit odd.
And then there was Linkin Park, who were all kinds of awesome. They played the whole of Hybrid Theory straight through, then a load of other great songs, including three from their new album, which came out this week and I love just as much as all the others. There was definitely a disconnect between the live experience and listening to their recorded albums, though. I put Meteora on in the car on the way home on Sunday and tried to visualise the guys I'd seen the night before singing the songs, and I couldn't, because the tone of the singing was really different. It was really intense in the live show, but is obviously much more processed on the recorded stuff - and also a lot angrier. Mike and Chester seemed like real sweethearts on stage, so I just couldn't associate them with the rage of some of the Meteora songs. It was an amazing show, though - loved every second of it.
Sunday:
Winger - classic old school rock
Skillet - another band I discovered via Spotify and have become quite a fan of - it was great to see them live, and they gave a really good performance
Other things to note:
I like it when guitarists in bands sing along to their own songs, even when they don't have a mike. It suggests they really enjoy the music.
Buying Magnum ice creams for people is fun, but not as much as other people buying them for me!
Getting drunk before noon is really not my style - but it was a fun drinking game all the same...
It's a bit dangerous for me to spend two days surrounded by lots and lots of very impressive ink on display - I managed to resist the temptation to get a tattoo myself, but I do now have pink streaks in my hair!
Awesome weekend all round!
(Bear will be posting photos shortly...)
