Sonisphere 2011 – pt2

Saturday – Biffy Clyro & The Sausage-Fest!

Sounds like some weird gay antics were had, but it’s not like that. Biffy merely headlined and we ate lots of sausages!

Ben, Jodz & a shitload of sausages

Jodz had brought with him about 50 sausages for a morning barbecue, which were the breakfast pick me up that was most definitely needed after a night on the ale. Complimented by my morning brew and apple, the greasy sausages on leftover baps with warm cheese slices were spot on! As the next batch of sausages were cooking, we headed into the arena to catch the first band of the day that were on the radar… Sylosis! Well, they were just as good as expected and we even managed to get a full set out of them this time! Hurrah! Tight, shredding guitar work and a good sound. Front man Josh Middleton seems to have come out of his shell a lot more and works the crowd well, something they were lacking for a while after departure of previous frontman Jamie Graham. All in all, a damn fine show!

Richard Cheese

Next up was the legendary Richard Cheese and his backing group Lounge Against the Machine. We’d all been loving the Cheesemeisters covers of some of our favourite (and not so favourite) metal and hip hop tunes. The man did not disappoint. A master of the stage, he really knew how to get the crowd going and was such a funny guy to watch and such a talented singer to listen to! Sporting some classic leopard print lounge attire, He did a load of the tunes we wanted to hear, Disturbed’s Down With the Sickness, Limp Bizkit’s Nookie, Slipknot’s People = Shit, Snoop Dogg’s Gin & Juice, Nirvana’s Rape Me, Metallica’s Enter Sandman and more. He crammed a load of good fun tunes to sing along to in his set and was such a laugh to see. He said he’d be back over in London in 2012, so we’ll have to go see that!

Next up were Architects. Not really into these guys, but Ben said he’d not really paid any attention to them before so wanted to have a look. We loitered at the back and sat down to give ‘em a listen. Largely unimpressed, we got some food and went to do the same thing for Gallows ‘cause Jim likes them and apparently the singer was due to quit.

After Gallows, it was time for my second viewing of Cavalera Conspiracy this week, and the second time in 2 days I’d hear Refuse/Resist (fully this time though). They were good. Well, the band were. Max just doesn’t look arsed! The sound was a bit pants, which didn’t help as it was a struggle to hear Tha Rizzo playing. They did however do a load of good Sepultura/CC tunes and got the crowd moving! …and yessssss! They played Nailbomb’s Cockroaches. A classic tune. Max had his kids on stage to play it, so it was a very family oriented experience.

Time for a break now and some cheap beer. So we headed back to the tents just in time, as not for the first time this weekend… the heavens opened!.

A few cans later and we wandered back in to catch a bit of Sum 41. It was rammed. We could hardly move to get a good spot for ‘em so we just stopped mid-crowed and enjoyed it from wherever we were. The played ‘In Too Deep’ and ‘Fat Lip’ back-to-back at the end, so we were done. They tried to cram in another tune but were clearly over time, so they had the sound cut! Ha-ha! I laugh, but it was pointless. If they were gonna cut the sound and let ‘em finish playing the song anyway, they might as well have left the song on!!!

Regardless, it started raining again, so we legged it back to tents for some more cans. …and we didn’t wanna watch All Time Low!

Rain = Shit

We sat round the tents in ponchos and bin-bags, determined to not let the rain spoil the weekend. I’d even sparked up the kettle for a pot noodle. At one point, it absolutely hammered it down, but I sat it out, as did Ross, and it didn’t stop the kettle boiling either!! Lo and behold, just as it boiled, the rain stopped, so I could enjoy my lunch without it filling with rainwater!

We came back into the arena for Weezer. The rain had gone and it was relatively ok weather-wise from here onwards (for Saturday anyway). We were walking in as they played Undone (The Sweater Song) which a few of us were singing along to as we strolled in. Weezer are a great live band, though I fear Rivers Cuomo may have lost the plot over the years! They did some classic tunes like Buddy Holly, My Name is Jonas, Beverly Hills, Hash Pipe and my fave (which Rivers didn’t sing, Scott Shriner did) Dope Nose! Oh, and again they played Teenage Dirtbag and a crappy Radiohead cover. WHY????

Drinking & watching Weezer

As you can imagine, by now we’d been drinking a fair bit and were on the way do being smashed. So we hit the bar… again! We’d gotten to the point where paying £4 for a beer was no longer an issue, so we strolled to the bar and got a few in while we waited for a decent band to come on. We’d tried watching Gojira, but again the full tent rule stopped us from getting in for a decent view. Ah well, another beer and wait for Biffy.

They were really good. I like Biffy Clyro and they are a deserved festival headliner. Just not a Sonisphere headliner. Ok so Saturday was a mix of things, but on the whole it’s a metal festival. Summat like Leeds/Reading they’d be a top headliner. Regardless, they were on top form. We watched from the back as they went through all the favourite tunes: Who’s Got a Match, Folding Stars, The Captain, Many of Horror et al. We had a good laugh while they were on, chatting and singing along, then they finished and we all started to walk off. Until it clicked in my very drunken brain that they hadn’t played Mountains yet. So I halted the crowd and we waited it out. They played it. I was a happy drunk. Then off to tents for more drunken idiocy!

£12 worth of Tuborg

On his way back, Ben had found a gravel pit that was supposed to be for making barbecues on. He’d stood in it and deeply offended the girl camping next to it, so we walked back up there to see what was going on! We did the only thing we could do at a gravel pit. We stood there singing Wu-Tang Clan’s ‘Gravel Pit’. This caused a mosh pit in said gravel pit that offended the locals even more! One of them shouted “I’m sick of people throwing stones at my tent”. Stupidly, I picked up the tiniest piece of grit and threw it. I say threw, it was the weakest ‘throw’ ever. The tiny piece of grit, hardly visible in the dark, never got past my shoe. Talk about over react! The girl in question launched an all out assault, trying to grab me by the throat and screaming at me, as everyone, including myself, laughed at the incident! She calmed down, I apologised and the world was cool. But, jeez! Mental!

Back to the tents for a few more tins, then into tent where I fell asleep.

Sunday – Slipknot & Hometime
I woke up feeling a tad uncomfortable the next morning… and a tad rough! I was face down on the floor of my tent with my face in my rucksack. I distinctly remember going to sleep in my sleeping bag, on my air bed with my face in a pillow! I think the earth must have shifted slightly under my sleeping carcass.

Brew n breakfast later and it was nearly time to head back to the arena for another day of tunes and a day of shitty weather.

Firstly though, it was the last day, and we were planning on darting as soon as Slipknot finished, so it was time to pack everything away. So a few walks back and forth to the car and we’d packed away. I managed to nurse one can of cider on the hour long walk (that’s how rough I was feeling!).

As we were doing this, the fuckwits that were camped next to us decided to kick off about something and got two of our posse kicked out! Nightmare! Apparently, their tent had been wrecked and we were to blame! I don’t think so! We watched you put it up, incorrectly, then break it, then move it, then try and fix it, then leave the top off so the rain came in! So no, you broke it!! Liars!

We headed in to see Arch Enemy, who sounded pretty good. It was the last day and we were hungover somewhat and knackered, so we could only manage a seated position for most of the day! After they’d finished we wandered over to Apollo stage and took a seat for House of Pain. I only know two House of Pain songs, and I was only getting outta my seat for one of them! Our enjoyment of the party tune that is ‘Jump Around’ was marred by an immense fuckup on Sonisphere’s part. The ‘No clashes between Apollo and Saturn stages’ rule was out the window, and as we were jumping around, we heard Parkway Drive kicking in on the main stage. Bloody Hell!!!!!

Parkway Drive

We legged it over as Jump Around finished and watched Parkway ripping it up! Frontman Winston McCall had gone all out on the first song and sounded knackered for the rest of the set! They were ace though! A cracking set of songs and good stage presence made them one of the bands of the festival. That and the dinghy race they set up across the crowd was a novel idea! There were a few people with boards that were crowdsurfing too! In another unusual band move, one of their guitarists had broken his leg and so was moving himself about in a wheelchair! Fair do’s to him, he covered a fair bit of the stage while hammering out some technical guitar mastery!

At this point, there was a 2 minute silence held for Paul Gray of Slipknot. Probably the quietest festival moment I’ve ever been party to.

In Flames were up next. I’m not really into ‘em so we sat and listened. They sounded quite good, but I only recognized one track – Take This Life – which was cool. Mastodon were next and we were both tired and bored during their set. So bored, that Ben went for a kip in the next field and we just sat and monged out. Before they finished though, a few of us made a move to check out Airbourne.

Airbourne - This can only end in disaster.

I only know one AC/DC, I mean Airbourne, song, so it was pretty new to me. They were alright though. Definitely something I can get into. Well, I like DC, I must by default like Airbourne! Enjoyed what I’d heard and it’s always fun to see a band going above and beyond just playing at a festival. Their singer/guitarist Joel O’Keeffe decided to achieve a new high in festival playing and climbed the scaffold to the top of the stage and played some riffs from there! I know he did this at Download last year, but this time he was actually standing on the top! Class. On his way down, intentionally or not, he looked like there was a moment where he was gonna fall! If he had, youtube would be getting a new viral phenomenon! He didn’t though. They finished the set and we meandered across to see Motorhead.

Mark found some energy and managed to get out of his tent for the first time since Friday and met us during Motorhead’s set. I’ve never seen them before. Like never ever. Must’ve played at 5-6 festivals I’ve been at over the years, but I’ve never seem them, so this was summat I had to finally check out. They were good. It was like they were playing in a pub with a few of their mates in the crown. No heirs and graces, no rock star attitudes, just three old school rockers playing loud rock music for the hell of it!

After Motorhead we scooched across for whoever was on second stage. Turned out it was Opeth and none of us like Opeth, so we checked the guide. Fortunately, Cancer Bats were on in a mo, so we headed to the Bohemia tent to watch them! We got there pretty quick, so we actually managed to get in the tent! Didn’t watch all their set as we wanted to scooch back over for Limp Bizkit. Cancer Bats were good though. They had a pretty decent sound and a good response. The singer Liam Cormier is a really good character to have fronting a band. Full of energy and really gets you into the spirit of the music! Anyway, they played ‘Sabotage’ and we did one….

Limp Bizkit - Durst, Borland & Lethal

Twas time for the Bizkit! I love Limp Bizkit. They’re just fun to listen to. The came onstage and got right into it. OK, my one gripe is that they seem to play far too much off ‘Chocolate Starfish’. I get that it was probably their biggest record and scored them a number one single, but come on!!!! We got, Hot Dog, My Generation, Rollin, Take a Look Around, Boiler, and from the other four albums (new one included) we got Faith, Break Stuff, Douchebag…. That is all! No Gold Cobra in sight, and I’d been singing it all weekend!!!

They were class though. Last few times I’ve seen them, they’ve not seemed particularly into it. On this day though, they seemed in top form, with Durst looking unusually up for a full day of rocking! Can someone please get them to headline a festival, or even get a decent headlining tour so we can see more songs of other albums!!!! Please? “Whaddya wanna hear?” Said Durst… “PLAY F**KING POLLUTION!”

The rain was still coming down and ruining everything, but we soldiered on to watch Bill Bailey. We were all borderline ‘sod this, let’s go’ but persevered. Now, generally I’m in two minds over Bill Bailey. I’ve seen him on panel shows and he’s ace. I saw some of one of his DVD’s where he was playing tunes and having a laugh and it was good. But I have seen one of his DVD’s and I just didn’t get it and it put me off watching him. His Sonisphere videos did make me laugh though, so maybe watching him would brighten my mood on this dreary day!

Rain. Still Shit.

It did. He was indeed top class. Walking on stage with a mask of himself on, throwing out a few jokes, some novelty videos and playing some comedy rock tunes and it was all good fun. His Rammstein version of Scarborough Fair was class. He had an amazing reception too, considering it was a comedy performance at a rock/metal festival AND it was pissing down. He said on the day it was the biggest crowd for a comedy performance ever. Have to do some fact checking for that! He ended the set with his horns version of Metallica’s ‘Enter Sandman’, making it the third time in three days I’d heard it! Enjoyable, and something different for a festival!

Rain, rain, rain, rain, rain! Thank god my poncho was good! I had my rucksack on over my stomach cause I couldn’t get it on properly under the poncho and I looked like I was heavily pregnant and soaking wet! Didn’t even have my wellies, but my trainers remained mostly dry due to the large shadow my pregnant belly caused! …and on to Slipknot!

Slipknot

We were literally ready to go now! The ‘Knot came on and after 5 minutes of weird noises and flashy lights, they started. Straight into (sic). Then Eyeless, then Wait & Bleed. Thought they were gonna do the whole first album (which would have been ace) but they didn’t. We left before they finished, but did hear Left Behind, Before I Forget, Liberate and a few others. Could hear Heretic Anthem and Duality on the walk to the car! They were pretty damned good, but the shitty weather and long drive home got the better of us, so we hit the road!

Another festival over. Next year, maybe?

The Road to Sonisphere….

“Perhaps you’d better start at the beginning….”

So I will! A few weeks back I went to see Suicide Silence. I bigged it up a bit on here cause it was such an awesome looking lineup, and the ‘Silence are always a top live band. The lineup was Suicide Silence (awesome), After the Burial (more awesome) and All Shall Perish (not as awesome, but far from shit).

So off we stomped to Manchester Academy 3 (the little one on the top floor, or the Hop & Grape to you old school Manchester giggers). When we got there, we were early, so we did the usual. We went to The Oxford for a pint. Now, given what happened last time we were there, this was a pint that was gone for with some trepidation! (check ‘The Mosh Lives’ Blog for details of death threats!). Fortunately this time, that weird old coffin dodger wasn’t there to spoil a perfectly good pint with his insane rantings. So we drank and headed over.

Much to my dismay, according to the stage times outside the venue, All Shall Perish weren’t on! I double checked my ticket ‘cause I was cock sure they were there. A fact confirmed by said ticket, but denied by said times list. Some band called Bleed From Within were on instead. Recognised the name, but didn’t know from where….

Definitely says 'All Shall Perish' on there!!!

So, we headed in, grabbed customary beers and headed up to watch After the Burial. A stormingly good band of sheer technical genius. I will say that everything seemed to fall right for them this night. The sound was spot on! For such technical, harmonizing guitar playing to work, the sound needed to be spot on too. Crisp, clear dual guitar shreddery was on display, and the usual behind the head riffage. Cocky bastards. Absolute class.

Headed back down for another beer then straight back up for that band that I kinda knew, but had no clue about…. AAAAAH! Now I remember Bleed From Within. As soon as we walked through the doors of the Academy 3, I spotted their guitarist with far too much flowing ginger hair and it hit me. Sonisphere 2010, while the general flock of people were off watching Corey Taylor, I wandered into the Strongbow Bar to see what it was all about and these guys started playing! They were really good too. I remember then thinking that the singer was a bit like SS’s Mitch Lucker in appearance and mannerisms, so shouldn’t have been surprised to see them supporting one day. Anyways, on the night, they were again pretty good. Tight sounding and with some stand out tunes. One to keep an eye on, defo!

Then Suicide Silence came on and did their thing. Immensely heavy sounding and raw to the point of pain. They blazed through stuff from The Cleansing and No Time To Bleed and even added a new track to the mix. Can’t remember a name or anything, but one of the lads said he’d heard it and it was nothing like their other stuff. Well, to me it sounded quite Suicide Silence in parts and was quite catchy. If catchy is a word you can use to describe deathcore type bands.

About a week later I was raring to go as it was Sonisphere week, and I’d booked the whole week off. To start the week, we’d had a few jars on the Saturday night round a mates house and some cheeky bets on the Haye/Klitschko Boxing match (I won £20 for my accurate guess of a Klitschko win on points), then Monday rolled around and it was Cavalera Conspiracy, Sylosis and Revoker in my li’l hometown of Wrexham.

Sylosis - Shredding from Reading

We all met up in a pub around the corner and proceeded to get leathered on pints of Fosters and Jager shots. Little wonder that I can hardly remember a thing about this gig! Well, I remember thinking it was awesome at the time!

We stayed in the pub around the corner for Revoker. Just not a fan of ‘em. But Sylosis on the other hand, we like. Unfortunately, they only got to play four songs, finishing with Teras as usual, so despite them being ace we were a little disappointed… …so we drank more.

Tha Rizzo - On a Tapping Frenzy

Max and Iggor took to the stage, along with Mark Rizzo (who shall henceforth be referred to as ‘Tha Rizzo’) on Guitar and Johnny Chow on Bass. So I’m expecting to hear a lot of Cavalera Conspiracy stuff and some classic Seps tunes. Which I got. Inflikted, Sanctuary, Warlord, Killing Inside, Refuse/Resist, Territory, Roots Bloody Roots, and so on. However, I was chuffed to bits when they pulled a Nailbomb track out of the bag! Yes, they played Wasting Away. Not heard that in aaaages!!! Ok, my fave Nailbomb track was Cockroaches and I’d have preferred that, but they kept that as a special little surprise for Sonisphere! Oh Yes!

As much as I enjoyed Cavalera Conspiracy, I felt that Tha Rizzo does all the work. Max just doesn’t look that arsed about playing these days. It’s like his heart’s not in it and he’s given up, while Tha Rizzo carries the whole show on his very nimble and talented fingers. Guitar wise, obviously. Iggor was still hammering shit outta the drums like his life depends on it!

So yeah, if a Sepultura reunion does happen sometime in the not too distant future, I hope Max gets his passion back and looks like he’s enjoying it more!!

Cavalera Conspiracy

After it finished, it was time for Ben to do his usual lap of badgering everyone in the room until he got a drumstick. The target of this nights annoying-to-death, was Ritchie Cavalera. Eventually, he was broken by persistence and got Ben a stick. More bugging managed to get said stick signed by Iggor Cavalera. Jammy git!

Next stop: Knebworth.

A Fond Farewell to the Gigs of 2010…

Howdy! Apologies that I’ve been away for a while, but it’s been a busy Xmas & New Year – you know the score! Anyways, I’m back now, so how’s about a quick catch up on what I’ve been up to since we last met… (Happy now, Adam?)

Ok, end of November and beginning of December saw a bunch more gigs for me and various members of the crew to attend. Me and the Wife popped along to catch 36 Crazyfists (a fave of mine …and hers) and DevilDriver on their joint UK headlining tour. That was a pretty good show, despite some serious sound problems cocking up 36CF’s set. They had a bit of a moment at the end of the set and stormed off-stage, but they came back out and played “Slit Wrist Theory” to finish though, so it was all good. The sound for that was even worse though. Shame. Great band.

DevilDriver were on top form too. Slaying their way through what seemed like a mammoth set! The blazed through some faves like ‘Pray for Villains’, ‘Clouds Over California’ and ‘I Could Care Less’ and sounded awesome. I’m not the biggest fan of the ‘Driver though and got a li’l bored towards the end, having heard all the songs I’d wanted to hear, so we made an early dart for a chip naan. Win.

At some point at the end of November, We went to see As I Lay Dying, Suicide Silence and Heaven Shall Burn too. Now that was a good show. All bands were really good, but Heaven Shall Burn really stood out for me that night. I didn’t know much by them, but the whole show was cool. Music was ace and the footage they had going in the background really made a decent looking stage show. Sylosis played too and they were awesome, but jeez, they got boring to watch live!!

Suicide Silence were their usual impressive selves. Singer Mitch Lucker does some crazy looking moshing and foot stomping!! And As I Lay Dying were on top form! We were hoping for a cheeky Austrian Death Machine track from Tim Lambesis though. “Get to the choppaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

Check out Mitch’s crazy moshing at the start of this Suicide Silence vid, and also keep an eye out for THE MOST INSANE CROWD EVER!!

Early December saw me on another 3 night gigathon in sunny (well, this time it was snowy) Manchester, which I wont go into masses of detail on. An overview should suffice! It started in Style by watching Biffy Clyro at Manchester Central (That’s the G-Mex to some of you). Biffy are another one of those bands I only got into a bit late in the game, but I love ‘em now though! Was a brilliant show. Really enjoyed it, and it was my first time ever in the G-Mex in 15+ years of gigging.

Night 2 was a bit of e let down and a complete waste of money! As a surprise, I booked tickets for one of Jo’s fave bands ’30 Seconds To Mars’. I’m not really a fan, but she likes them, so I thought it’d be nice – I’m good like that!  So, we made a day of it. Went shopping in the Xmas markets, had dinner and drinks and had a hotel booked so no driving required and watched a shite band!! Well, 2 shite bands. Enter Shikari were supporting. Didn’t like that at all! Anyway, 30STM were less than impressive. Musically, the played well, but someone needs to tell Jared Letdown to actually sing his own bloody songs!! I understand the need to get the crowd to sing some bits, but Christ, he hardly did anything! Sand a few words then left the rest to the roomful of kids! Wasn’t just me that though they were a bit sub-par, Jo wasn’t exactly over the moon either! A disappointing end to an otherwise pretty good day!

That night also marked my second visit to the G-Mex! Nowt for 15 years, then twice in 2 days! It’s a cool venue. It’s like a festival in an aircraft hangar. Festival prices too. Robbing bastards!

Home on Sunday, then back to Manchester for belated birthday celebrations with Jim to see the mighty ‘Municipal Waste’. The Waste were on top form, playing loads of quality party thrash tunes and really getting the crowd moving! Jim couldn’t control his urges and went for a surf during ‘Sadistic Magician’ and we all had a sing-along for ‘Born To Party’. “Municipal Waste is gonna FUCK YOU UP!” Indeed.

Twas a real party atmosphere. Really good gig, ace crowd and no-holds-barred crowd surfing and stage diving. There was even a dude dressed as Tarzan taking massive dives from the PA stacks. Classic. A fine way to celebrate your 33rd birthday!

The last gig of the year may have been one of the best. Hatebreed. We were a bit miffed to find it was in the Club Academy (that’s the small downstairs bit of the Manchester SU), but if facts were correct, we knew it’d be a stormer. We weren’t wrong! Hatebreed tore the place a new ‘un, playing songs from all albums (in reverse order) and then bringing out the big popular numbers to finish. From ‘Destroy Everything’ to ‘Live For This’ and on to ‘Burn The Lies’, it was absolute class. It took ‘til the opening riff of ‘Doomsayer’ to shake me into gear, and before he’d said “Your doom awaits you!” I’d charged headlong into a very hot, very sweaty pit. Gotta be the best I’ve seen Hatebreed. Defo the best set they could have played!

And that’s the lot for 2010’s gigs. Check back soon and I’ll add some bits about what I’ve got ‘on the decks’ and gigs and stuff for the coming months!