Download Festival Report - Saturday
13 June 2009
Donington Park, England
I hadn’t been hugely impressed by Tim Ripper Owens debut solo album Play My Game and have to say I wasn’t expecting much but he really kick-started Saturday in style. Owens had put together a touring band that included no less than Dave Ellefson, Chris Caffery and Simon Wright and their class was evident. The short set was wisely chosen with Judas Priest’s The Ripper early and two Owens era Priest songs in Burn In Hell and One On One. John Comprix was manning the second guitar and Scream Machine from his and Owens’ band Beyond Fear was included. Fleetwood Mac’s Green Manalishi, famously covered by Priest, closed the set which saw Owens hit all the high notes with ease.
Tim Ripper Owens set list:
Believe / The Ripper / Scream Machine / Burn In Hell / Starting Over / One On One / The Green Manalishi (With The Two Pronged Crown)
The crowd had swelled and was younger for Five Finger Deathpunch who seem to be getting quite popular judging by the reaction. At times Ivan Moody’s clean vocal over the heavy backing brought to mind River Runs Red era Life Of Agony, though FFDP are a bit more aggressive overall. Actually the macho posturing did become a bit tiresome after a while but seemed to get the desired result from the crowd.
Five Finger Deathpunch set list:
Ashes / Salvation / The Way Of The Fist / The Bleeding / White Knuckles
I’d heard good things about the Black Spiders and on the strength of their St Peter single decided to check them out, which proved wise. On record I’d picked up a Queens Of The Stone Age vibe, but live they were much more rocking. This was the type of music to listen to whilst downing a beer in London’s Crobar. These guys are definitely on my radar to keep an eye out for.
Black Spiders set list included:
Stay Down / Just Like A Woman / St Peter
A pick me up was required, so it was time for a quick Jaeger Bomb whilst watching Devildriver from the Jaegermeister viewing deck. Testosterone a plenty seemed to be flying round in front and on the mainstage and under usual circumstances I would have gone closer but the sun had drained most of my energy.
Devildriver set list:
Clouds Over California / Die (And Die Now) / Not All Who Wander Are Lost / Hold Back the Day / These Fighting Words / Pray for Villains / I Could Care Less / Before The Hangman’s Noose / End Of The Line / Meet The Wretched
Time to seek refuse from the sun in the third stage tent and check out Facecage. The Des Moines four piece are signed to Corey Taylor’s own label and there was a rumour that the Slipknot frontman was going to make an appearance. Well unless he did in the first 15 minutes I missed it and ended up watching some pretty generic nu-metal.
Fightstar were dressed like they should be at the V Festival rather than Download and although their music would probably be a bit too aggressive for pop fans, it was painful to my ears. A steady stream of enthusiastic young crowd surfers were popping over the barrier, running round and repeating the process. Time to get some food. At this point a giant swarm of bees suddenly appeared over the second stage crowd. Very strange.
As I had never seen Static X I decided to stay put rather than watch Down. As I would be seeing Static X the following Friday it was probably a bit of a mistake and although I enjoyed the set I was hardly blown away. In bright sunlight obviously a light show was out of the question which would have worked well with Static X’s industrialised metal. It was therefore left to the band to provide the visual backing and given the lack of movement this was hardly thrilling. Wayne’s porn star wife kept popping onto the stage with shots to add a bit of “glamour” to the occasion but I was left kicking myself I hadn’t gone to the mainstage.
Dragonforce took me by surprise. On a nice warm day I had envisaged the allure of the backstage rider may have blunted their performance but they appeared to be firing on all (well oiled) cylinders). Kicking off, rather than ending with Valley Of The Damned was a great choice and Starfire is still their best ballad in my opinion and had the band grinning as the crowd waved along.
Dragonforce set list included:
Valley Of The Damned / Starfire / Strike Of The Ninja / Reasons To Live / Through The Fire & The Flames
Heading to the third stage I caught the last two songs of Manraze. This is Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen’s other band and they’re also notable for the drum stool being filled by the Sex Pistols Paul Cook. From what I’d read I was expecting something sounding more like The Police, but the Def Leppard sound was obvious from Collen’s vocal with the band having a slightly punkier edge.
Manraze set list included:
Turn It Up / Spinning Out / Skin Crawl / Its Entertainment / Youre So Wrong / Search and Destroy
I was actually over here for Lawnmower Deth who I hadn’t seen in 18 years. Revisiting the band’s “Ooh Crikey…” album prior to the festival didn’t have me salivating to see them, but I’d forgotten just how funny they were live. Guitarist Kev had decided to dress as a clown for no explained reason, we had one legged Mexican waves, fish dancing, a new metal hand symbol (unite the devil horn and fist to form the snail!), a ukulele performance of I Wanna Be Like You from The Jungle Book and all the guitarists trashing their guitars at the end. As vocalist Qualcast Mutilator said, if they can do it anyone can play Donington and they did it in style, and dared Andy Copping to let them play on “the big boy’s stage next year!”.
Lawnmower Deth set list included:
Spook Perv Happenings In The Snooker Hall / Drink To Be Sick / Sheep Dip / Flying Killer Cobs From The Planet Bob / Did You Spill My Pint / Emo Rabbit / Icky Ficky / I Wanna Be Like You / Watch Out Grandma, Here Comes A Lawnmower / Kids In America
The tent started filling up rapidly for Thunder and was in fact about three deep outside by the time I’d made the decision to head round to the second stage for Chris Cornell. Moving between the main stage and third stage had been quite easy but the bottleneck getting up the hill to the second stage meant a revision of my planned schedule on a number of occasions.
Last time I’d seen Chris Cornell I’d been frankly quite bored, however he and his band were on top energetic form today. Thankfully not much was played from the god awful Timberland produced Scream album, though I would concede the songs were a lot better live than on record. Instead Cornell mainly cherry picked his way through the Audioslave and Soundgarden back catalogue and threw in the awesome Hunger Strike from the Temple Of The Dog album. Striding around the stage like a complete rock god, Cornell surprised me by turning in one of the sets of the weekend.
Chris Cornell set list included:
Part Of Me / Let Me Drown / Show Me How To Live / No Such Thing / Set It Off / Cochise / Hunger Strike / Spoonman / Scream / Watch Out / Outshined / Black Hole Sun
Catching the tale end of Marilyn Manson confirmed my decision to watch Chris Cornell was right. To put it bluntly Mason was shit and the majority of the large crowd’s lack of reaction would confirm that. Manson clearly didn’t want to be there and either his behaviour was calculated to antagonise or those around him should be worrying.
Marilyn Manson set list:
If I Was Your Vampire / Disposable Teens / You And Me And The Devil Makes 3 / Hate Anthem / mOBscene / Sweet Dreams / Putting Holes In Happiness / Just A Car Crash Away / Rock Is Dead / Heart Shaped Glasses / Tainted Love / The Dope Show / Great Big White World / The Fight Song / The Beautiful People
My plan to see some of The Prodigy went right out the window on encountering the enormous crowd heading towards the second stage. Had I made my way further in I undoubtedly would have missed a large portion of Anvil trying to get back out, so I headed straight back to the third stage. Anvil last played here at the third Monster Of Rock in 1982 and if you haven’t seen the film do as it’s brilliant and will give you the significance behind them appearing today. Lips stories between songs were both interesting and hilarious but the music did the real talking, being both heavy and tight. Lips maybe not the most gifted singer but he can certainly play guitar and Robb Reiner’s drumming was incredibly powerful. The whole of Down were watching gleefully at the side of the stage, with Phil Anselmo venturing out to provide backing vocals on Winged Assassins.
Anvil set list:
March Of The Crabs / This Is Thirteen / 666 / School Love / Jackhammer / Winged Assassins / Forged In Fire / Race Against Time / White Rhino / Metal On Metal / Mothra
Back at the mainstage Slipknot had gathered the largest crowd of the weekend and had them in the palms of their collective 18 hands. Corey Taylor getting a vast proportion of the crowd to kneel down showed their command and the Des Moines nine piece were on top form. Once again I was annoyed that a clash had meant I had missed most of their set. I was however in time to see Joey Jordison’s drum kit elevate and turn upside down, but gimmicks aside Slipknot were worthy headliners.
Slipknot set list:
(515) / 742617000027 / (sic) / Eyeless / Wait & Bleed / Get This / Before I Forget / Sulfur / The Blister Exists / Dead Memories / Left Behind / Disasterpiece / Vermillion / Everything Ends / Psychosocial / Duality / People=Shit / Surfacing / Spit Out / ‘Til We Die
LINKS:
Download Festival
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