Sonisphere 2010 Review

I figured it's about time I actually wrote something on here, rather than just posted links and gave away free music.
So, to get the ball rolling i'm going to review the UK leg of Sonisphere Festival which I attended at the end of July.


Thursday 29th July:
where to start?
Well me and two friends set off at 7am to make the 6 hour drive to the historic Knebworth House, sleepy and excited. After literally months of waiting (the first bands were announced and tickets went on sale last december) we were finally making our way there. The journey itself was fun but pretty uneventful (as you'd expect) and one slight de-tour onto the M25 and a stop for essentials (cider) at the Stevenage branch of Asda later we were finally at the site. We'd even managed to make it with an hour to spare, so we went and joined the queue.
At just gone 3pm the gates finally opened, what followed was an hour of standing up carrying heavy gear and moving at about an inch a minute but mercifully we finally made it through the gates and were off to set up camp. We had all bought our tents from the green tent company in advance which meant we could pick them up on site, they were reasonably priced and fully recyclable, so my friends went to find a site to camp while I went and got the tents. After the tents had been put up we relaxed with a cider and waited for a couple more friends to show up.

Damned Canadians

Two Hours later our friends had joined us and we're camped up so we decided to go and check out the arena and get some food. The arena itself was almost identical to last year, except the Saturn stage had had an upgrade and the Bohemia stage had moved. In Bohemia there was a rock/metal karaoke on which was pretty fun, especially one guy who got up and did an amazing rendition of Europe's 'The Final Countdown', complete with screams and growls.


After we had had a wonder round the stages, stall and got some Pizza we headed back to our camp-site for the night. Although before we could get any sleep we would have to bet with a mohicaned Canadian guy that he couldn't down two cans of larger without pausing in exchange for our Canadian flag, regrettably we lost.


Friday 30th July:


After stirring from sleep at about 8.30am due to chants, shouts and yells we decided to get some breakfast and 4 of us would head to Asda to pick up more essentials before that day's arrivals came and made it difficult for us to get back onto the site. Lucky we did, as when we left we heard one of the stages open into life with Rage Against The Machines 'Killing In The Name Of', when we got back about an hour later it was still playing and I was informed they'd had it on repeat the entire time.


We spent the rest of the day up until 5pm playing poker, listening to music and drinking heavily. At 5pm it was time to head to the arena for the first of the bands to start, but not before taking part in a world-record attempt time warp to open the festival.


The first band to play was Delain, prior to the festival I had only heard 3 of their songs, and frankly classed them as a poor mans Nightwish, but they did a great job of opening the festival, playing with energy and enthusiasm, they may have been the first band of the festival, but you got a real sense from them that they were just happy to be there.


Next up were Turisas, again another band I knew little about other than that they were in the same 'battle metal' genre as Blind Guardian, they wear face paint (Though if I hadn't already known this I could soon have figured it out from the crowd) and that they do a cover of Boney M's 'Rasputin'. I wasn't exactly won over by Turisas, they seemed a band that we're playing for the fans, and refused to play more than the opening chord of their most famous (cover) song.


Following Turisas were Europe, yeah the 70's euro-rock band that wrote 'The Final Countdown'. They played a surprisingly good set, proving that they're much more than a one-hit wonder, although in saying that, it was of course, The Final Countdown which got the crowd jumping up and down and singing along the loudest. 

Gary Numan

Next up was Electro/Industrial pioneer Gary Numan, who again refused to be shoeboxed by hit greatest hits, playing new and old material with energy and vigour he was one of the most surprising artists of the weekend. It was when he played ‘Cars’ and ‘Are Friends Electric?’ that it became obvious how much his music has changed over the years, not that that mattered as everyone in the crowd sang along in unison.

Alice Cooper

The day’s final act was Alice Cooper, who brought his ‘Theatre of Death’ with him. My knowledge of Coopers music is basically ‘Poison’ and ‘Schools Out’, this didn’t matter at all. His stage show included a noose, guillotine, a straight jacket and all the awesomeness needed to prevent anyone getting bored, sure some of it may have been a bit cheese but everyone was so entertained they didn’t care.


Saturday 31st July:

Saturdays acts were off to a mediocre start due to Family Force 5, Sonisphere's answer to Download booking Hollywood Undead, regrettably Family Force 5 were bad, there's no way around it. We tried to start off with an open mind but either by the time the song about radiators was played or the lead singer had brought out giant foam hulk hands, we were laughing at how bad they were. Sorry Sonisphere, you got this one wrong, they're for kids. On the bright side we knew the sound was working for the awesomeness to come.

Awesomeness that was regrettably delayed by Lacuna Coil, a band I used to like who now seem happy to play a boring set, the only highlight was the last song 'Our Truth'.

Shortly after this a much needed dose of fun arrived in the form of Anthrax, after seeing them at Sonisphere last year I did my research so I would actually know some songs this time around, although they're now back with their original vocalist they were just as good as I remember them, opening with 'Caught In A Mosh', was a highlight along with 'Antisocial' and 'Indians', they also played part of Heaven & Hells 'Bible Black' as a tribute to Dio. an effortlessly good live act and one so deserving to be here.

Papa Roach

Next up was Nu-Metal heroes Papa Roach, These were another highlight of my weekend, playing a set of mixed up old material and new almost every song was a sing-a-long, even brand new song 'Kick in the teeth' went down really well. Though, of course they saved the best for last and left the stage to the final notes of 'Last Resort'.

Shame then that Good Charlotte, despite their longer history and being a bigger act couldn't match them. They instead relied mainly on songs from their breakthrough album 'The Young and the Hopeless', making them feel like a cringe-worthy nostalgia act. That said their cover of Blink 182's 'Dammit' was fun, but with Blink around again it served as a metaphor for Good Charlotte themselves, redundant.

Placebo

Placebo came next, this was my third time seeing Placebo, and set-list wise this was easily the best. Opening with the rarely-played 'Nancy Boy' the set included 'Scared of Girls', heavy new track 'Trigger Happy Hand's' and a cover of Nirvana's 'All Apologies' as well as hits 'Every You Every Me', 'The Bitter End' and 'Infra-Red'. It seems that Placebo can adapt their style to suit any environment, whether it be at an indie festival, or sub-headlining a metal festival. My friend who hates them even had to admit she enjoyed their live show.


The final act of the day was of course, Rammstein. WOW!, I still can hardly find words to describe their show, other than "Go and see it!". I've seen plenty of bands over the last few years, but Rammstein blew them all out of the water. And now I know what 21 tonnes of pyrotechnics looks like.

Rammstein

Sunday 1st August:


The final day was opened by Australian prog-rockers Karnivool, Their set was good but I'm not sure how it went over to the shrunken (Henry Rollins was on at the same time) hungover audience.


After Karnivool, over on the Saturn stage were cKy who played a fun set and got the crowd going. a memorable moment came from their guitarist who caught a can of lager that was flying towards him and downed it in one to cheers and applause from the audience.

Back over on the Apollo stage Madina Lake played another good set, Having seen them play an awful set at Leeds Festival last year I wasn't expecting anything much from them, but I was wrong. Given the incident their bassist was in they were a man down, not that you could tell, they played with soul and enthusiasm. I'm not sure how they came across to the rest of the crowd but I know I was mildly impressed.

Skindred

The 4th act of the day came from Reggae-metal act Skindred, sure their songs may get a bit samey after a while, but they were easily one of the best acts of the weekend, frontman Benji was cracking jokes and making fun of the audience, and we loved it.


Next up was the 2nd 'Big 4' Act of the weekend... Slayer. Their stage set up was literally a wall of amps, and God was it loud!. I don't know alot of slayer apart from the obvious  'Raining Blood', 'Angel of Death' and 'South of Heaven', so to me it did start to get a bit repetitive, but 'Raining Blood' was simply awesome, and 'Mandatory Suicide' provided a much wanted Bill Bailey moment.


The next act was more suited to my taste, Alice In Chains. I personally thought they played a rather lacklustre set-list, but this was negated by the power of the vocalist and the acoustic rendition of 'Your Decision' provided a real sing along moment.

Pendulum

Pendulum were probably the act least suited to a metal festival like Sonisphere, but they were booked at the request of Iron Maiden to have some contemporary music on before them. and they killed it, playing all their hits they had the crowd holding on to their every movement, they even brought on the lead singer of In Flames to perform their collaboration song 'Self vs. Self', which really got the metal crowd on their side.


The final act of the weekend, and the one everyone had been waiting for was next, Iron Maiden. We all knew they'd struggle to top Rammstein's performance, and most of us didn't believe it was possible. unfortunately we were right, but nonetheless they played a great (if controversial) set. this was due to their choice not to simply play a greatest hits set, instead the majority of the songs played were recorded in the last ten years. Personally I preferred this, It didn't seem like a nostalgia act. If i'd wanted 80's hits i'd have gone to download and seen AC/DC or Aerosmith, instead we got a band that are at the top of their game and still producing relevant music to a constantly renewing audience. Also as a nice touch they played 'Blood Brothers' and dedicated it to Dio.

Iron Maiden

Anyway, all in all a fantastic weekend!, I didn't know if the Sonisphere crew would be able to top last years festival, they blew me away this year, lets hope they can do it again in 2011.

Shep