Enter Shikari Live at Heaven (Live Review: Dan)

I wasn't happy about this gig for a number of reasons.
a) I had to wake up at 5am to get into Oxford street for the 8am release of free wristbands.
b) Being a free gig, it meant that the crowd was full of losers.
c) Because we had to collect wristbands in the morning, it meant that I had to go into London twice. This cost me around £40. I'd prefer to have just paid £20 for the ticket...
d) The venue of choice was Heaven - notorious London gay bar. Not only was I uncomfortable being in their with the gay bar staff, I had to walk around Stevenage town during the day with a wristband on which was telling everyone that that is where I was going to be spending my evening. This was made worse by the fact that HMVs (the sponsor of the show) little slogan is 'Get closer to'. So I had a wristband on that said "Get closer to enter shikari at heaven". What had I gotten myself into?

So, on the train on the way back into London I was preparing for the worst night ever. When we got there I was even more fearful, as the crowd was rubbish. There were loads of people there in flat caps and backpacks and all sorts. Loads of people in the crowd cheered everytime a sound-tech guy came onstage, which you know is the sign of a 'well, I like that sorry you werent a winner song' kind of person.

The crowd were chanting "and still we will be here, standing like statues" and I got annoyed. A few of us went to get a drink, and then Ben insisted on asking where the toilets were.

We headed back into the stage area just before 7, when the band were due to start. Another thing I should add is, this show was a 'album release show and signing'. So none of us knew how many sogs this show would consist of. Some of us were considering the possibility that it could be just one or two songs, or it could be a full length set, or maybe they'd play the entire album through.

When the sound of Common Dreads began (familiar from the closing sounds of Take to the Skies) began playing, I became a little bit hopeful that they'd be playing the entire album through. This sounded like it would be great, as it would be the first chance to hear new songs like Gap in the Fence or Zzzonked.
The band walked onstage, and said hello. Rou announced "Here tonight I clock a thousand heads. Here to unite, through commom dreads.". Solidairty's synthetic intro then began, and Rory took a leap into the crowd and the chaos began to unfold.

The crowd were actually really energetic for the show, and they weren't as bad as I thought I knew they were going to be.
Having said that, there were some real wankers in the crowd, just running about throwing their fists around. I learned this the hard way, taking a fist to the face. I now have what looks like a carpet burn on my forehead. It's ok though, fans. I sorted him out.

After Solidarity, they played Step Up which is track three on the album. I was really pleased at this point, as it seemed that they were indeed going to play me their entire new album. Either way, this was the first chance I'd had to see them since I heard Common Dreads, so hearing these new songs was really nice as I knew the words this time.

Next, if my memory serves me rightly, however, they played Hectic. Though a great song, it's track number 14 so all hope was lost for the full album. Not too much of a problem though.

They then finished off their set which was, in fairness, composed of all new songs. Which was a really good thing, because it was refreshing to get away from Return to Energiser.

They did promise to play one old song though, so the crowd climbed up on each others shoulders and crawled over people to get to the mic and choose the song. My posse were all praying for Mothership, as they have appeared to have removed it from their live shows, much to every human being's disappointment. And, much to everyone's enjoyment, that was the song that was chosen. This was a great song, and it was nice to hear it again. Hopefully it taught Enter Shikari a lesson, and they'll start playing it again. I guess we'll find out at Reading.

Overall it was a very decent show, though relatively short at just over 45 minutes. I also noticed that I may have broken my personal sweat record, previously held by Pendulum at KoKo. This would normally be a good thing. But hot, sweaty boys in a gay bar made me want to get the fuck out of there all the more. So we did. Then we went home.

I'd give it a 5, but I felt really uncomfortable all night. 4.

Download Festival 2009 (Live Review: Dan)

This is going to be a long one. You've been warned. Sorry if it's not a good read, then you will have truly wasted your time. I'll throw some pictures in there to keep it colourful. Download Festival 2009 was a bit of an impulse purchase. I had an exam on the 12th so it was all a bit of a rush getting there aswell. After several mishaps including losing my phone in my bag for about an hour and then forgetting the tickets we finally got in, having missed the opening band of the day, Hollywood Undead (who got a 5/5 review from me when I saw them at Slam Dunk).
Then we had to deal with some incompetent security guards and try and get inside the arena. By the time we made it to the main stage, The Blackout were playing their final 4 songs.
This was the 8th time I've been present for a blackout set. I can safely say that I'm done with them now. They played some songs from the new album and Sean Smith tried his ridiculous "I want everyone to kneel down" stunt. It didn't really work, and he looked stupid. He also appears to have completed the transition into a raging homosexual, and he pranced around the stage in his tank top, black skinny jeans and black/pink trainers. Aswell as his pink microphone. Hopefully by the time I get to the end of this review I'll have a picture. In fairness to them, I still liked the old songs, just the way they performed them, embarassing themselves in the process, wasn't as good as it used to be. After The Blackout departed the stage we went and got a Hog Roast. It was marvellous. It cost £6, but that was ok. The Hog Roast stall also became the meeting point of the weekend. An overall success for Hog Roast. (This was before Muller Rice, but we'll get to that later).

We then went and caught the end of Staind. They seemed OK, but I'd never really listened to them before and so I didn't know what I was listening to. They were certainly better than The Blackout today, and the crowd appeared to enjoy them. My attention wasn't entirely focused on them anyway, as I was munching happily on my Hog Roast.
Next to grace the stage was Billy Talent. I was greatly looking forward to them, and this was to be the second time I saw them. They opened with This is How it Goes, track one on their debut album. It was very good, and I actually realised that they are very talented people. They played a good variety of songs from their albums I and II, aswell as a few from their upcoming release - III. I was really pleased with Billy Talent, but I was saddened by the fact they weren't particularly high up on the line up so they had a fairly short set. The set was really good I thought, and I couldn't think of how it could have been a whole lot better...But I did feel a bit let down from my expectations. I suppose I wanted a full length set, maybe in a more enclosed venue. Still, they were a nice way to get the day going properly. Next up was Killswitch Engage. I'm not personally a fan, but I know and like a few songs. So I was hoping for a good show, but didnt get my hopes up. The band all came on stage in their finest 'metal' outifts. Except for two members in particular. First was Adam Jonathan Dutkiewicz, guitarist. He was dressed in some sort of wrestling mask and a cape. He looked like a seven year old. Turns out he also acts like a seven year old, as he pranced around the stage making jokes about vaginas.
The other unusually dressed member was the singer, Howard Jones (pictured above). He was wearing a shirt and jeans, and looked a bit smart for the occasion. He sort of reminded me of my dad. But, image aside, the music ensued. For the first three songs of the set, to the fault of the sound guys who decided against doing a mic check, we couldn't hear Howard Jones. The crowd were shouting to have the mic turned up (or on) and eventually it was done. After this mess, the set was actually quite good. They played some really good songs, and it went down quite well with the crowd. Most of the audience interaction was done through Adam though, which was disappointing as he kept tying to be funny. I may purchase Killswitch Engage's album, which I think comes out in July. So I suppose they were successful.

Next up was the band that I bought my ticket for; Limp Bizkit. It was to be their first show in what must have been about 5 or 6 years. After a long pause, the band finally emerged, and the crowd went mental. Wes Borland was dressed in a bizarre black, white and red costume and Fred Durst had his trademark red cap on. Everyone one stage was wearing black. They opened with Space Odyssey and then went into Break Stuff, both of which went down a treat with everyone. They played a variety of their hits, and they had so much energy through the entire set. The crowd loved it, and gave such a great response to the band. Limp Bizkit provided me with some great entertainment and we decided to call it a day once they left.
We then got in the car and drove to McDonalds. We sat in McDonalds for about 2 hours. It was great fun. We discussed a variety of things. Not much of the things said were related in any way to Download Festival. Then we went home and got some sleep.

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At 8.45am I'd been lying in bed for a little while. I then looked a the time and realised we were meant to be leaving at 9. So I woke Matt up and we rushed over to Ben's. We got in the car, then set off for Download, round 2.
We decided that we were going to stay the night in the car, but on the way we passed a hotel so we gave them a ring. There's more of a story to that actually, which involved rock paper scissors and missing Five Finger Death Punch. It also includes us not being able to get a room at a hotel. It also includes a man asking us if we had any spare trainers.

We got to Download in time to see DevilDriver, who had quite a reputation from the last time they played. When they finally emerged onto stage I didn't see why, all I heard was a disgusting sound coming from some 'metal' old men. So we left.
We saw the band Hardcore Superstar leaving the second stage, where we decided to place ourselves for a while. We sat down against a rail while In Case of Fire set up their instruments. We had listened to their album on the journey to Donnington, so I was sort of looking forward to them.
After the sound of what the Irish jig to, the band emerged and I was already feeling a bit disappointed (because of the irish jig music). Then they started playing. The first thing that caught my attention was the singer/guitarist Steven Robinson. When he sings a long note, his tongue hangs out of his mouth. It makes him look a little bit retarded. After I snapped out of being immersed in his strange facial antics I glanced my eyes over to the other side of the stage, towards the bassist. The bassist, who can only be 17 or 18 years old, decided that he wanted to keep his mouth open and bounce around. Also like a retard. I never got a chance to look at the drummer. I can only imagine that he, too, has escaped from the lunatic asylum.
Musically, they are an OK band. The guitarist is actually very skilled, but I found myself very bored. They didn't do much on stage, and as a three-piece band the massive second stage felt empty. They didn't interact with the crowd at all, and I think they were just a bit nervous. I would also imagine they were a bit disappointed with the turn out. I'd say there were three rows of people in front of the stage watching them. If you can try and imagine that, it's pretty empty.

Staying at the second stage, it quickly filled up for the next act - Fightstar. 6 years now since Busted, I think the world is finally ready to accept them. The crowd were getting impatient for fightstar, and soon a huge bottle fight ensued. I'm sure you can find something similar on youtube if you want to get an idea of what it was like. The chaos finally stopped when Fightstar came on stage. They opened with Colours Bleed To Red - a song from their new album Be Human. I found this unusual, as it is neither track one, nor a single. And the record hasn't really been out long enough to be a fan favourite. Just looking over last fm quickly, it doesn't make the top 15 on the most played tracks in the last 6 months. So I found this unusual. It was very good though, so I guess that makes it OK. They then played a variety of songs from the album Grand Unification (their debut) and their latest Be Human. They also played from their first ever release, EP 'They liked you better when you were dead'. I thought that they must not like their sophomore album 'One Day Son...' as they weren't playing anything from it. I found this unusual also, as they had some fairly successful singles from it. However, for their short set maybe it was a good choice, as every song went down brilliantly with their crowd, and Charlie Simpson had everyone on their feet. Then for the final song they played Death Car, which was from their second album. I felt relieved.
Overall, the setlist was great and I don't think they could have asked for a better crowd reaction. Possibly a highlight of the festival for me. When I deciding scores for all the bands, in my mind I was going to give Fightstar a 4. But upon reflecting on the set, I think it's going to be a 5.

After Fightstar has finished and the hundreds of fans flooded out we headed out and met Matt at Hog Roast. I then bought a pizza and a Tango. Ben disappeared for a while talking to Vodafone so Matt and I made camp on the grass. We sat about and enjoyed the summer weather and got sunburnt. Whilst enjoying some pizza and listening to Down in the background (who I really enjoyed) we sat and watched our fellow festival-goers. There were a few people that had an effect in this interval; first was the high-five-fella as I shall refer to him as. Or maybe HFF, for short. As we were minding our own business a man dressed in a navy blue jacket approached me and asked for a double low. I provided. He then asked Matt for a single high. He got that too. He then made a joke about how his hands were sore from the power of our high fives. We laughed and he staggered off in search of more fives from a variety of heights. We watched him for a while, and he was just walking around the campsite getting high fives from everyone. We could even see him making the same joke he used on us (which wasn't funny then, but was actually quite funny now). When he encountered a sleeping person he was in a spot of trouble as they were unable to give him a high five. So he just high fived them on the head.
Then our attention turned to two people playing catch with a rugby ball. One of them, known by me as Samoa, seemed to start off pretty useless, but got significantly better upon the arival of new members. The other fixed member, known first as Curly Shithead, then Curly Colin, was dreadful. He had the worst throw, and couldn't catch. Everything about him was messy. His catch ability and his appearance. Eventually they were joined by a fairly long-term member 'Medicine Man' who was on his break from the Download Pharmacy. He was actually very good (as good as one can be at playing catch) and made a mockery of CC. He had clearly been practicing for moments like this. Eventually MM had to get back to work, and CC and Samoa were left to their own devices. Not long after, Ben returned and we set off towards the mainstage. Down had finished by this point.
Ben then made the outrageous suggestion that the ever tempting Muller Rice truck would be giving out its product for free. So we went ove there to prove him wrong. But he was right, so we got a free Muller Rice. Mine was strawberry flavoured, and was the best thing I'd eaten all weekend.

DragonForce emerged on stage, and blew us away with their face-melting metal. I am a liar.
DragonForce were embarrassingly bad. They were making me cringe for the entirety of their set. All they sing about is dragons, ninjas and mythological beasts. Also, everytime they were going to play a new song (which in fairness wasn't very often, as all of their songs are about 30 minutes long) the singer sung the title in his strange, high pitched voice.
"This song is called Battle of the Ninjaaaaaaaaaaaas" he wailed. I, personally, could have guessed.
The guitarists of DragonForce were all showing off the fact that they can play guitar, and doing all sorts of 'crazy' things. Just look at the above picture.
Matt made a very valid point that everything about DragonForce is just too high pitched. From the vocals to the guitar-work, everything makes a high-pitched sound that just can't be enjoyed.
The only good part of their set was when some nurses came on stage to give something to the guitarists (probably something that was really 'metal'. I can't say I was paying attention). Then a man ran up behind them with a sign saying "Tits Out". And they obliged. Then the band finished their only popular song (Through The Fire And The Flames, courtesy of Guitar Hero) and departed the stage. We went and got some more Muller Rice.

Next up was the mighty DnB legends Pendulum. I saw them at the iTunes Festival 2008 and they became my favourite live band from that show (they have since been replaced by Alexisonfire at the Borderline. Who have also been replaced. But we'll get there). I then caught a tiny bit of their set at Reading 2008, but left due to how overcrowded it was.
Today I was ready to be blown away again, but the time of day worried me. The sun was at a point where it was roasting my neck and making the sky very bright. Pendulum burst onto stage with a very high-tec light system and their high-tec instruments. The lights seemed a bit wasted though, as it just wasn't dark enough for the right effect. The bass made the ground shake and I was really excited when they started playing Showdown. The crowd started jumping and everyone was really into it. Everyone was having fun and you could see that the band were too.
After the first song, Ben Mount (front man, MC) was bleeding from his ear. Either he hadn't noticed, or he didn't care. Either of these two reasons made me appreciate him a little bit more. The fact that he will be on stage, entertaining thousands of people with blood running down his face made me appreciate his passion for what he does.
The set was great, it was full of energy and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. My only complaint was that the setting didn't seem right. In a big, dark venue it would have been near perfect. The trampled on grass and blazing sun, combined with Pendulum and their lights just didn't give me the same satisfaction I felt when I left KoKo on that July night last year.
We went and got another Muller Rice.

Next up was Marilyn Manson. I've always been a bit scared of Marilyn Manson. His image disgusts me. His music disgusts me even more. However, I was prepared to face my fear and see him perform.
I've been reading a lot about him lately. I sort of thought that maybe he's just a bit misunderstood. Maybe we shouldn't blame him for all these bad things.
Yes we fucking should.
He staggered on stage, a complete mess, and performed the most awful song I've ever heard in my life. Then he walked to the back of the stage, had his make up adjusted and came back on. Then repeated the process. Stumbling around, rolling on the floor and making noises that can't have really been his songs into the microphone. It was embarrassing. No one there was enjoying it. You could see the looks of disappointment and disgust on all the faces in the crowd. No one was happy about what was going on. Between each song he had to get someone to put a new hat on his head, or a coat on for him, or wipe the sweat from his face. He was being treated like royalty, yet all I could see was an overweight, old goth.
It was a really sorry affair, and I was astounded that this was the best he could do. He had gotten a very good spot at this year's festival, and in my opinion he wasted it. He was clearly really drunk, or on a lot of drugs. It was a shame really. But he was such an awful person. He never once spoke to the crowd, apart from when he wanted to know whether or not he should wear a coat. He never introduced himself. The time he spent between songs probably clocked up to about 15 minutes, which could have given his loving fans and additional 3 or 4 songs. Perhaps I should be grateful for the silence, as each song he performed was dreadful.
Now I know why people blame him for things, and I think he deserves it.
On what was his last song (whether it was meant to be his last song or not we will never know) he took a bottle to the head and swiftly left the stage for good. I have no doubt in saying that what he had just given me was the most dreadful and embarassing performance I've ever seen. This was made a hundred times worse because he played such an important role in this year's line up. I feel genuinely sorry for everyone involved in the booking and organisation of Download Festival, as Marilyn Manson effectively just stole their money.

The final band of our weekend, Slipknot, were preparing to come on. I was both excited and terrified, becuase of things I've read and just because of the reputation they have as one of the most brutal live bands there are. After a long wait, they finally came onstage. I didn't know the first few songs, but I was absolutely blown away by what I was hearing. It was incredible, and I felt ashamed of myself for not knowing it. They powered through a fantastically brutal set. Each of the nine members working together to put on more than just a live performance of their songs. When Shawn Crahan's drum stage was elevated and rotated and he threw huge metal barrels down to hit Mick Thompson, all the while Sid Wilson is hanging from this platform, thrashing around. I've never felt so entertained in my life. Meanwhile, I'm hearing Corey Taylor screaming to tens of thousands of people, whilst Joey Jordison performs some sensational drumming.
In December 2008 I was preparing to purchase a ticket for their tour, where they would be playing in the Hammersmith Appollo. Then when the ticket price was revealed at £40, I was horrified and decided against it. After witnessing them at the enomous donnington park, I can safely say that this was probably one of the biggest mistakes I've ever made.
The amount of energy they all have is remarkable, and they really put everything into what they do.
It's been 10 years since their debut album was released, and they are only now headlining download. When I was listening to the music, I simply couldn't understand how it took them so long to get this spot. They are without doubt one of the most unique and talented bands in the world right now, and all of their old songs sounded so good. I'm almost glad that they pulled out of Reading 2008, as seeing them and then watching Tenacious D would be almost criminal.

Slipknot were definitely the best band I've ever seen, and I can't wait until the chance I get to see them again (which is apparently "a lot sooner than [i] think").

It took us a while to get out of the park, and eventually we were back on the road headed home. We listened to three brilliant albums on the way home (Maroon 5 - Songs About Jane, Jimmy Eat World - Chase This Light, Placebo - Battle For The Sun), and I had a fantastic weekend.
I hope this wasn't too boring. It took me fucking hours to write.

EDIT: Just realised I forgot to do any scores.

The Blackout: 2/5
Staind: 3/5
Billy Talent: 4/5
Killswitch Engage: 3/5
Limp Bizkit: 5/5
DevilDriver: 1/5
In Case Of Fire: 2/5
Fightstar: 5/5
DragonForce: 1/5
Pendulum: 4/5
Marilyn Manson: 0/5
Slipknot: 5/5

Hog Roast: 5/5
Muller Rice: 5/5
Pizza place: 1/5

Download Festival 2009: Has to be 5 really as I saw some of the best bands of all time. Despite the fact there were some pretty bad acts, I had a brilliant weekend.


Dan.