Rain, Mud and Rock n Roll - Part Two
The rain continued through Friday night and continued on and off throughout the Saturday but it was nothing that a burrito, a poncho, wellies and welly socks couldn't fight.
I went into the arena early afternoon on the Saturday afternoon since we had Guest Area passes with good food, running water and clean toilets but I did not see any bands until The Treatment at half four. Usually I would walk about and check out various bands but the mud made this near on impossible. No amount of alcohol was going to give me the gusto to trudge through the mud more than I already needed to.
The Treatment
Luckily The Treatment were playing The Pepsi Max stage which was next to the guest area. I fell in love with this band after seeing them support Steel Panther who they were stupidly clashing with at Download but I caught most of the set before I continued my muddy mission to see the mighty panther. As I expected the band were excellent and brought the same energy they did the last time I saw them. Like I said in my last review of this band they are set to blow up this year after the Motley Crue and Kiss tour and it will not surprise me if next time they play Download they are on the second stage. Well, I hope they are.
Steel Panther
As you figured from above Steel Panther are another one of my favourite bands and one that I have seen a couple of times before and like before they were shocking and talented as ever and of course they were a sea of tits before them. They played new hits like Just Like Tiger Woods and the old crowd pleaser's like Community property but the best bit of the performance in my opinion was when they got Corey Taylor on stage to sing his part in Death To All But Metal. Possibly a once in a lifetime thing and it was simply magic. I was disappointed at having to miss Corey later on the in the day due to a clash with Biffy Clyro so it was great to see him for that short period of time. One of the worst things about festivals is having two band's you love clash and having to make the choice between the two. Some years it is possible to run between the two stages and see a bit of both but with the mud slowing everything down this year it just was not plausible.
Tenacious D
The only band on the Saturday that I had never seen before and there's a good chance I never will again since they are not a band that tour very often to the UK. Seeing Jack Black the actor was awesome enough without mentioning the music. I still have my ticket stub from School of Rock because the film had such an impact on me. I sold my soul to rock n roll that day. The crowd seemed a bit disinterested during the songs from the new album Rise of the Fenix but I was glad to hear them play new songs like Low Hanging Fruit and Roadie. However we were all there and waiting for the classics of Fuck Her Gently and of course Tribute. Definitely a song to hear live at least once in your lifetime. Another thing that made the performance so enjoyable was Jack Black's smile - he looked so damn happy to be there. I might have been missing Howard Jones' (ex Killswitch Engage singers) smile but Jack Black's made up for it.
(photo: Efestival.co.uk)
(photo: Efestival.co.uk)
Biffy Clyro Being Scottish it was almost mandatory to go see Biffy Clyro who hail from Kilmarnock - 'Mon the Biffy'. As expected they were on top form but what was unusual was Simon Neil keeping his shirt on through the whole performance - maybe he was feeling the cold? I was fearful that the set would be exactly the same as the last time but they had a treat of new tracks up their sleeves - well Simon did - from their upcoming two disk album The Land at The End of Our Toes and The Sand at The Core of Our Bones.
New Tracks
1. The Joke's On Me.
2.Victory Over The Sun
3.Modern Magic Formula
Being honest I cannot remember much about the new tracks except that they were good. As anyone who has seen Biffy live knows the music sounds a little harsher live than it does finely tuned in the studio and it is not a bad thing it just makes taking note on unreleased tracks a little harder.
All the classic songs including Glitter and Trauma (a favourite song of mine live) and Mountains were as epic as always. For anyone whose first time time it was seeing Biffy they got an ace performance out the boys.
Metallica
Having seen Metallica once before and not being a massive fan I can honestly say I was not too fussed about seeing them again but I was with people who were fans so I stuck around to hear The Black Album in its entirety. Although I am not a big fan of the band it is hard to say that they were not good live for they are. It is just that they bore me a little, after a while the songs all sound the same to me. There are songs I enjoy like Master of Puppets and Enter Sandman but unless its a song that has been a commercial success for the band I am pretty clueless. Metallica fans lapped it up with talks of the Metallica family and the fireworks but for me it was mundane.
To Be Continued: Download 2012 - Sunday - 10/06/2012 - God Likes Rock n Roll After all featuring Heavens Basement, Sebastian Bach, Lamb of God, Megadeth and Black Sabbath.
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