Download Festival 2010: Sunday Review: In The Rainy Season
Relatively fresh from Rage and meeting up with the Rocksins crew afterwards, Sunday was (in terms of the band schedule) supposed to be my most leisurely of days, but it didn't exactly turn out that way. Aside from Aerosmith, the band I most wanted to see all day were the mighty Saxon, who were one of the major highlights of 2008 in the Tuborg tent and was looking forward to seeing hopefully a repeat, unlike at Sonisphere where the curse of the Saturn Stage crappy sound hit them in Knebworth last August.
Saxon were the only band on the bill who played the original Monsters of Rock back in 1980 and with this being the 30th anniversary, Saxon had decided to play their classic Wheels of Steel album in its entirety. "It's a good job Wheels of Steel is only 37 minutes" laughed Biff at the end of that part of the performance, leaving time for a couple more songs, including And The Bands Played On, the song written by Saxon about the original Monsters of Rock, which they played in tribute to MoR and at the request of Andy Copping (Download promoter). Saxon were their usual excellent live selves, with a large crowd who got more and more into it with every passing song. "The last couple of years have been very good to us" said Biff right before the end. With their live performances consistently at such a high level, its easy to see why. 7.
After the mighty Saxon, Sundays first trip to the Ronnie James Dio stage was to see Californian rockers Switchfoot, who are enormous in the US but have never made much of an impact here. I greatly enjoyed their debut album and had always wanted to see them, but was thoroughly disappointed. They were a boring live act who do not have a repetoire of songs that allows them to just be on stage and play without any/very little crowd interaction (e.g. Megadeth). Even their big song, Meant To Live, didn't have the same impact as it does on CD. This is actually one review I could agree on with Kerrang, who gave them 2 K!s. Would not see again. 3.
The rest of my group were staying at the Dio stage for Napalm Death and The Damned Things, but I really wanted to see Slash, mainly because of Miles Kennedy (of Alter Bridge) being his touring singer, so I legged it back to the main stage and even managed to find Elwyn sat in his chair enjoying the main stage proceedings.
Slashes set was a highly entertaining performance consisting of a mix of his solo album, GnR material and a small amount of Velvet Revolver. It didn't matter what the songs were though, with every passing song the crowd grew louder, larger and more involved. Myles Kennedy has got one of the most powerful voices in Rock Music and I know Guns N Roses sounds an awful lot better coming out of him than it does out of Axl Rose, especially nowadays. His delivery on Sweet Child O Mine was just amazing, while he also put Scott Weiland to shame by owning a rendition of Velvet Revolvers most famous track Slither, while Slash shredded and soloed flawlessly to his side.
Slash and Myles Kennedy: Quality Double Act
To up the fun even further Lemmy from Motorhead put in an appearance to sing the song that he recorded with Slash for Slashes album, before things were finished off with a full field of people clapping along to Paradise City. This for me was the pleasant surprise of the entire festival, Slash and Myles have great chemistry together on stage, and I can only hope this tour is repeated. 8.
I went for a bit of a wander after Slash before getting myself back to the Dio stage in time for The Dillinger Escape Plan. I returned to my group to discover that Matt had actually missed Napalm Death for reasons he would not thank me for going into and was not best pleased about it. Then The Rains Came. As Dillinger began their energetic set, the heavens opened. And how they opened. As good as Dillinger were, I think unless you were down the front, they were fighting with the rain for a lot of peoples attention, such was the force of it. At one point the rain almost halted, prompting one of the Dillinger guys to remark "Where's the rain gone? Thats shit!" - I guess he must have been enjoying the conditions. The Dillinger Escape Plan are a band that on CD I have never been able to get into (aside from the epic Setting Fire To Sleeping Giants) but seeing them live for the first time they put on a very good show and I think I will have to give them another try. 7.
Some of our group departed before the end of Dillinger to seek solace from the rain in the Pepsi Max stage and watch Whitechapel. Myself and Steve decided to follow suit at the end of Dillinger, however by the time we got there the tent was full to the edges, to the point where if you wanted to try and push your way in, you must first pass what amounted to a gigantic waterfall pissing off the side of the tent roof. We both eventually navigated this, figuring we were already soaked, but the conditions in the tent were not fun (as I am sure anyone else who was in there could tell you).
Something else to bear in mind: I think Deathcore (Or whatever you wish to call it), with one or two exceptions, is the worst area of metal there is and I would rather listen to almost anything else. After less than 10 minutes of the Whitechapel wall of noise, faced with the choice of staying in the dry and listening or getting absolutely soaked silly, both me and Steve opted to go back into the torrential rain. That tells you what I think about Whitechapel. 2. I am sure people will disagree with me on this one but they are a band who will never win me over.
At was at this stage we decided to make a tactical withdrawal to the campsite to retrieve the wet weather gear. If anyone thought things were swampy upon arrival on Wednesday that was nothing compared to the village at around 5.30-6ish on Sunday night. After changing, we headed back, only for me to realise on the walk back, I hadn't actually brought my poncho, it was my halloween costume from last October. I think the only word to describe that moment was BUGGER. As daft as I looked it did keep me dry, apart from the gap at the front.
We got back into the arena just in time to catch the end of Steel Panther which was disappointing as we had wanted to see them, but we decided getting sorted for Aerosmith came first. There was some kind of delay at some point around now as I know all the stages ended up running late, main stage in particular. Delays meant a great chance to get some food and we found a spot to keep dry briefly before going back into the rains to watch Airbourne, who had been rather good in similar conditions at Sonisphere last year.
Airbourne: Suited to the wet
I hadnt got round to listening to their latest album No Guts No Glory by the time of Download but there was still plenty of songs recognisable including my personal favourite Diamond In The Rough. Just like Sonisphere, guitarist xxx decided to scale the side of the stage and just like Sonisphere he did it in the pissing rain. He stopped near the top to solo away for awhile, before climbing to the very top of the Ronnie James Dio stage to continue. And then they got cut off (see 5FDP from Saturday). The health and safety people were booed mercilessly as he climbed back down, but I'm sure Dio would have approved of something like that going down on his stage. We did not stay for the end of their set as we attempted to round up some of our friends, but Airbourne were thoroughly enjoyable and always put on a good show. 6.5
After wandering and finding approximately no-one, we managed to find Elwyn camped under his large umbrella, so we found a couple of discarded chairs, brushed them off as best could be and joined him for the remainder of The Stone Temple Pilots. I have never listened to any songs or albums by The STP, but it literally sounded all exactly the same to me and to my friends as well. At one point Scott Weiland made reference to the next song having a lot of controversy surrounding it at the time, well to us it sounded just like every other song. The fact they had not finished by the time Aerosmith were due to be on stage was also less than impressive from our point of view. In future I would avoid them like the plague. 3.
When I saw Aerosmith in Hyde Park in the summer of 2007, it pissed it down for 5 hours and then the rains stopped literally as the opening strains to Love in An Elevator blasted out of the Hyde Park Speakers. Three years later and history would repeat itself at Donnington, right down to the opening song. The crowds had mostly flocked back from the campsite in time for the arrival of Bostons favourite rockers and any doubts over whether Steven Tyler was going to be up to task after his recent stay in rehab were quickly put down as he was on fine form.
Old favourites such as Mama Kin and Cryin hit the setlist earlier causing big singalongs but in the middle of the set they deviated into some of their long blues numbers, which I think a lot of people did not appreciate but we all thought was rather cool and something different. Things returned to more familar territory towards the end of the main part of the set with I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing (complete with Steve Tyler's daughter Liv being shown on the big screen playing the video that went with the song from Armageddon) and just like in Hyde Park the main part of the set was finished off with Draw The Line, which for me has one of the best main rock n roll riffs ever.
The encore was pure singalong time once again kicking off with the crowd pleasing Dream On (fresh from its appearance on Glee which has hopefully introduced Aerosmith to another generation) with Tyler's voice sounding great even on the high notes. Everyone then got their dancing shoes on even in the ankle deep mud for Walk This Way, which would have been a great way to end things, but they then finished off with Toys in the Attic, which was recognised by absolutely no-one around us including myself until I got back to the campsite (epic fail for an Aerosmith fan).
Though the weather had dampened the day somewhat, Aerosmith were a great way to finish off the festival, much like Def Leppard 12 months before them. I think the idea of classic rock Sunday is something a lot of people have enjoyed about Download and I'd be keen for it to continue (hopefully with Bon Jovi or Rush in 2011!). As for Aerosmith, a lot of people thought there could be a car crash moment, but there was nothing of the sort. They were on fine form, and if this was their last trip to the UK, they certainly went out with a bang, a fine way to close the festival. 8.
Aerosmith's setlist was:
- Love in an Elevator
- Back in the Saddle
- Mama Kin
- Eat The Rich
- Livin' on the Edge
- What It Takes
- Train Kept A-Rollin
- Cryin
- Lord Of The Thighs
- Stop Messin' Around (Fleetwood Mac cover)
- I Don't Want To Miss a Thing
- Sweet Emotion
- Baby, Please Don't Go
- Draw the Line
- ======================
- Dream On
- Walk This Way
- Toys in the Attic
So that was it for another Download, aside from a muddy trip to the fairground and the inevitable stay up late, pack and get a few hours sleep before the early set off. For me Megadeth and Rage Against The Machine stole the show, closely followed by AC/DC, then Aerosmith, and Slash and Myles being a very pleasant surprise and rounding out my top 5. It was yet another fantastic trip to the home of metal in the UK, and as always, I will be back next year (I am sure with a lot of you reading in toe).
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