Sonisphere Knebworth 2011 Saturday Review - When The Rains Came
After the sheer magnificence of the assault on the ears provided by the big four until late the previous evening, one might expect that the occupants of Sonisphere Knebworth may not be particularly early to rise on the Saturday morning. Indeed, with a few exceptions, I personally viewed Saturday as something of a rest day before the wall-to-wall onslaught of great bands on the Sunday.
One of the aforementioned exceptions though, were my longtime favourites Sylosis, who having graced the Bohemia tent for the last two years were upgraded to open the Apollo stage at 11am on this Saturday morning. Navigating into the arena was a much easier affair than on big four Friday, and the numbers were initially a bit sparse looking as we sauntered down the front to wait for the Reading quartet. Come 11 O'Clock and things had changed somewhat, to be blunt, there was a f***ing massive crowd looking on in hope and expectation of potentially seeing "the next big thing", almost identical to the way 50,000ish people turned up to see Trivium at 11am on the Saturday morning of Download 2005. Trivium did not disappoint then and neither did Sylosis six years later. Opening with the now traditional Empyreal, they were initial beset by a few sound problems with Josh's vocals going missing along with his guitar for brief periods, though this was quickly rectified.
Josh and Bailey from Sylosis: Early morning circle pits
By second song (and old favourite) Reflections Through Fire the pits and bounces were spreading well across Knebworth and Josh, Bailey, Rob and Carl were commanding everyone's full attention. Another new song from The Edge of The Earth Eclipsed got one of its first live outings sounding impressive, though not quite as much as Altered States of Consciousness which is now a firm live Sylosis favourite. "I want two circle pits, one on each side of the barrier, each going a different way, hypnotise me" were Josh's instructions to an ever swelling, impressed crowd just before Sylosis signed off with their traditional closer, the awesome Teras. In under half an hour, Sylosis presented themselves to the uninitiated masses in very impressive fashion, while those of us who have been singing their praises for the last few years were fully vindicated by an impressive performance in their biggest opportunity to date. They won't be playing in the morning at events like this for much longer. 7.5
The full Sylosis setlist was:
- Empyreal
- Reflections Through Fire
- Eclipsed
- Altered States of Consciousness
- Teras
After Sylosis, partly due to not being too bothered and partly due to the interchangable weather, we weren't in the area much for the next few hours. Before heading back to the campsite, we did take in a bit of Richard Cheese, who I think is amusing but the novelty can wear thin, particularly when you've heard him quite a bit on record. He did draw a huge crowd, so good luck to him and his band Lounge Against The Machine, though seeing someone on stage at Sonisphere in a tuxedo at 11.40am was a little surreal, only at a festival! Though we didn't watch the whole performance, I'd give him 5.5 out of 10.
Anyone staying in the family camping such as we were was granted access to the playground and facilities of Fort Knebworth, and we ended up having such a good time in there and losing track of time we ended up missing Cavalera Conspiracy, though we could hear them pretty well and they sounded mightily impressive. We eventually returned to the arena to catch the second half of Kids In Glass Houses, who are a band I'm semi familar with, but on this occasion I didn't recognise very much of the material on show. Frontman xxx took an impressive crowdsurf around the masses in front of the Saturn Stage and took several minutes to return from it, an act that somewhat made up for the rediculous coat he was wearing. They were good fun but they were much better when I saw them support Lostprophets approximately 18 months ago, 5.5 out of 10.
Kids In Glass Houses being attacked by torrential rain
Right at the end of KIGH, the heavens decided to open in truly spectacular fashion which meant for over half of Bad Religion we were sheltering wherever we could, and when the rains eased off a bit it was time for a visit to the chicken wrap stand (if you've never been, make sure you go next Download or Sonisphere, they are amazing!) and we happily listened to the rest of Bad Religion whilst having lunch, who sounded very good despite none of us being familar with their stuff. Based on what I heard I am going to investigate and would recommend anyone with my (lack of) knowledge to do the same. 6.5
Arguably one of the biggest draws of the day (and somewhat oddly not playing the main Apollo stage), Sum 41 were treated like returning heroes. Derek Whibley and co may be not quite as fresh faced as they were during their All Killer No Filler heyday, but the band are still very impressive live and We're All To Blame and The Hell Song were great early highlights. Derek engaged in much banter with the crowd, though he seemed unable to go more than 5 or 6 words without using that most eloquent of terms, "motherfuckers". "You motherfuckers are crazy!", "All you motherfuckers really came to party today didn'tcha?" - you get the idea. We were also treated to some Metallica worship (not a surprise as the band are well known Metallica fans have been covering Master of Puppets live at various times since Reading 2003, if not before) and some very enjoyable cover snippets of the aforementioned Puppets and Enter Sandman.
Sum 41: No pain, plenty of pleasure
The end of the set was pure pop punk gold; Over My Head, Fat Lip and a glorious rendition of In Too Deep before Dereck announced to the crowd that they'd had time called on them, but Sum 41 weren't finished before launching into Still Waiting. Unfortunately, they only got halfway through before they had the plug pulled on their sound. Regardless, the band kept on playing, with drummer xxx especially giving it everything he had and the crowd doing vocals with an almighty singalong, before they left triumphant and defiant in the face of authority (or the Sonisphere schedulers anyway). Even without the act of defiance, they were far better than I was expecting and I think reignited a lot of people's enthusiasm for this once enormous band. 7.5
Sum 41's full setlist was:
- Reason To Believe
- The Hell Song
- Skumfuk
- We're All To Blame
- Walking Disaster
- Screaming Bloody Murder
- Over My Head (Better Off Dead)
- Master of Puppets / Enter Sandman (Metallica cover)
- Fat Lip
- In Too Deep
- Still Waiting
Shortly after Mr Whibley and co departed, mother nature got up to her old tricks again and as a result, my plans to finally see TesseracT went straight up a certain creek with no rowing instrument as the Red Bull Tent was absolutely heaving and had an enormous queue outside by the time we got there. I just hope the band's genuine fans were able to see them and they didn't play to a bunch of people trying to keep dry, as they're a hugely promising band and would have deserved better. I thoroughly recommend to anyone reading to go check them out with Chimp Spanner in September across the country.
With plans derailed and crap weather set in, we collectively made what was probably a fatal mistake. We missed Weezer (I can hear a few "D'ohs" even as I'm typing that). Even from the camp site they sounded brilliant, with their Teenage Dirtbag cover and Hash Pipe particularly impressive even when sat approximately 25 minutes walk away from the main stage. An enormous fail on our part, one to be rectified next time they're in the country.
What we were not going to miss however was Gojira. Mindful that a lot of people were probably using Bohemia as a place to avoid the rain, we left with plenty of time and eventually managed to get in there after much queuing. It was absolutely heaving in there, but sheltering from the rain had nothing to do with it, this was a tent full of people who wanted to see the French maestro's do their thing. Someone even brought along a blow up whale, which was to cause much hilarity during the course of the 45 minute set.
Gojira: The heaviest matter of Sonisphere Saturday
Whilst we (and myself and Steve in particular) had been looking forward to seeing Gojira, nothing quite prepared us, or indeed anyone in Bohemia, for quite simply how good the next 45 minutes were to be. The combination of the tent, the fiercly loyal fanbase and a magnificent performance by the band from start to finish set this apart as one of the best performances at this or any other Sonisphere since the festivals started three years ago. The band looked thoroughly shell shocked at the levels of adoration aimed at them and could only thank the crowd repeatedly, alternating between smiles and looks of sheer disbelief. My personal highlight was the thunderous rendition of The Heaviest Matter Of The Universe, though the whole thing was brilliant. A fantastic triumph for the band and a treat for anyone who saw it, for me only Metallica were better all weekend. 9.
Gojira's full setlist was:
- Ocean Planet
- Flying Whales
- Backbone
- Love
- The Heaviest Matter of the Universe
- Vacuity
- A Sight to Behold
Anyone trying to follow that would have struggled, so it was probably a good thing that it was the UK's own veteran merchants of doom and goth-tinged metal Paradise Lost. They were their usual reliably good selves, but it just felt a little flat after Gojira, particularly as they chose to play some of their slower numbers early on, though I Remain got a good reaction out of the crowd. We decided to leave about 2/3 of the way through, not because they weren't good, but because we were pretty damn tired.
Paradise Lost: Tough follow up job
As we were heading back into camp we heard the opening keys of my favourite Paradise Lost song Say Just Words which was a minor annoyance, but only a minor one because despite the rain we had seen some great things on this Sonisphere Saturday. Based on what we saw I'd give Paradise Lost a 6.5, it might have been higher if I hadn't seen Gojira.
For anyone who has enjoyed the last two Sonisphere reports, the report on Sunday will follow as soon as I can get it written and posted, thanks for reading!
Add a comment
