When a group of us were booking our American holiday in September last year, the main consideration with the choice of dates was to keep open the possibility of attending as many music festivals as possible in 2011. However, as soon as we booked our holiday for June/July this year, Sonisphere Festival promptly announced that they were changing their dates, meaning that we would be unable to attend the full weekend.
We were lucky enough to be able to attend the Sunday, albeit only a matter of hours after we had returned home the previous day, which was some small relief.
Having attended the weekend of the 2010 fesitval, I was keen to arrive early in order to catch the maximum number of bands as experience has told me that often one can unearth little gems of performers this way. Unfortunately, on this day this was not really the case as will be shown below.
First up were Volbeat. Unfortunately, these Danish rockers inexplicably started their set early meaning that although we could hear them on our walk to the car park, we missed the majority of their set. Not the best start to the day.
Next up were a band that most of us were very much looking forward to, Black Tide. Due to the high regard in which we held their debut, and thus far only released, album and their performance at Reading Festival a few years ago, anticipation was high for the Floridian quartet. Launching into an ill advised cover of Metallica’s ‘Hit the Lights’ was perhaps not the best start, the Californian goliaths having started their set in the same way when headlining the Friday. After this, the group bumbled their way through some disappointing offerings from their new album, previously unheard by the crowd it seemed. Frustratingly, they left classic ‘The Warriors of Time’ until last, having previously only played one song from their debut album. This performance left me nonplussed and, to be honest, disappointed. Perhaps the phenomenal promise that the group of 16 year olds that tore down the tent at Reading Festival last year showed has faded into nothing more than mediocrity. Rating: 1/10
Due to the way in which the stages are set up at Sonisphere, there are no clashes between main and second stage bands. This meant that after Black Tide had finished, we were able to wander up to the other end of the arena in time to catch the opening of Arch Enemy’s set. Not knowing too much about this band, I was content to sit and watch from afar. From this set and a couple of listens in Spotify, I think I would enjoy this band more if they had a different vocalist, however, they still played a decent set. From this, we progressed back to the second stage to see House of Pain. ‘Pain’ is in fact a good word to describe this performance. A band ‘painfully’ out of place at Sonisphere, this set was, in a word, awful. Covers of Dr Dre sandwiched in between Arch Enemy and Parkway Drive. No. The first lines of ‘Jump Around’ were met with cheers, but all too soon the crowd got weary with this overrated and overplayed song, preferring to wander away to watch Parkway Drive begin to tear it up on the main stage. Tear it up they did in fact, the Aussie metal-corers were on top form this afternoon and I would definitely recommend one to watch them if they happen to be at the same festival as you in the future.
The next event to take place on this day was a fantastically well respected 2 Minute’s silence in honour of Slipknot’s recently departed bassist, Paul Gray. The silence, and the cheers afterwards showed the high regard with which the entire rock community held Number 2. He is dearly missed by family, band mates and fans alike.
In Flames were given the less than enviable task of following this event. From where we were standing, the sound from the second stage was not great and therefore I was unimpressed with this performance. Mastodon up next, and they were the epitomy of mediocrity today and as such I really cannot be bothered to write any more about them.
Now, up until this point, it is safe to say that I was wondering whether I wasted my money in coming today as I had not really enjoyed any performance from the bands that I hoped that I would have done. However, this was all about to change. Airbourne were next on the second stage, and from the moment they bounded onto stage to the riff of ‘Raise the Flag’, I knew that this was going to be something special. Throwing themselves into an up tempo and exhausting set, the Aussie rockers literally smashed it up. Highlights including ‘Runnin Wild’, ‘Aint No Way But The Hard Way’ and ‘Cheap Wine, Cheaper Women’, were however eclipsed by the antics of frontman and lead guitarist Joel O’Keefe. These antics included smashing beer cans on his head, downing a bottle of wine, and climbing up to the top of the stage, a height of over 100 feet, and standing on top of the stage while playing a guitar solo. The whole performance was completely epic and I cannot wait to see these boys again, maybe at their own gig. Rating: 9/10
Next were fairly mundane performances from Motorhead and Opeth. I was fairly disinterested with both of these sets so therefore cannot really offer much commentary on their performances.
Sub-headlining the main stage this year were the rap-metal goliaths that are Limp Bizkit. Fighting my way through a throng of ‘becapped’ fans I found a fairly good position, just to the right of the stage. Having seen the boys at Reading Festival last year I was very much looking forward to this performance. However, in my honest opinion, the Bizkit set left me unimpressed and ultimately disappointed. While the performance of the songs were decent, and seemed to get the crowd going, it was the incessant pausing and bumbling between songs that ruined this set for this reviewer. All momentum gained from a rousing performance of, for example, Break Stuff, was completely lost as Durst and co played with the audience and talked amongst themselves. I have put up with enough of that kind of crap from bands like Lostprophets before and have grown extremely tired of it. While Durst was probably revelling in the recent resurgence in popularity that the band has received, that kind of performance can only serve to grate on those who are there to see the songs they love. Just smash the granny out the hits with minimal faffing about, you tarts. While my views may not be shared by many who were there, I feel that this review comes from a position of relative objectivity and honesty. Rating: 4/10
Headlining the second stage today was Bill Bailey. I did not catch his set as it was raining and to be honest, I really couldn’t be arsed.
So, on to the day’s headliners. Slipknot were making there only UK festival appearance of the summer with this headlining set, and to say it was highly anticipated would be the mother of all understatements. As the group walked menacingly on stage, there was the unescapable feel in the crowd that things were about to ‘go down’. This was heightened as the opening tones of ‘sic’ blasted out of the speakers, and the crowd went pretty damn crazy. This enthusiasm did not diminish and kept up its heightened level all the way through the performance, which was nothing less than the band deserved. This was a phenomenal headline set from Iowa’s finest metalors. Full of aggression, energy, feeling and beer kegs, this show had it all. I am not really sure that I could do the performance justice with a blog review so the best way to relive it is to go to Youtube and watch the full set. If you are a fan of this band then this really is a must see. Highlights included: Surfacing, Spit it Out and Duality to name but a few. I sincerely hope that this is not the last the we see of the group in he UK, Corey Taylor hinting earlier that this tour would determine whether the band could continue, but if it is, they have done what any good band should do when calling it a day, left their fans wanting more and more. Rating: 9/10
