Friday and Sunday reviewed by neko: Limp Bizkit, Primal Scream, Foo Fighters, Manchild, RATM, Slipknot, Placebo and more! [Read the guest review by The Click] Friday, 25th August 2000 My 3rd weekend in a row at a festival, but this time it's the big one: Reading Festival!!! I'm still tired from last nights amazing Primal Scream gig in London as I get to Reading around noon on the Friday. Masses of people are arriving, masses of ticket touts are trying to sell tickets for horrendous prices. No wonder, the weekend tickets have sold out already weeks ago! Getting in at about 1pm and first catch a bit of Monk & Canatella who are on in the Dance tent, but then meet up with various friends, which takes up the next while of my time. I catch some of Asian Dub Foundation, and although the whole hype about them I still can't really get into them. The first band I really get to see then are Limp Bizkit who are on at 16:15 on the main stage. Big anticipation as the the stage is being made ready for Fred Durst and co. and of course the crowd can't help cheering as by coincidence (?) now 'Take a look around' is played on the speakers of the main stage!
Limp Bizkit get on stage and as expected everything goes wild now. I don't know why this band hasn't played a proper UK tour lately, popular as they are around here, but this makes the reception they get here even better. However, there isn't that much originality in their live show, it's just playing all the hits, and some live tracks don't even sound as good as they sound in their studio version. Fred tries to be funny : "So the Reading Festival is for all the people who like to read? I'm a dumb American, f*** it!" Oh, and by the end of their set we all get 'showered' in snippets of papers. Next on the main stage are gonna be the Bluetones, so I meet up with some friends again and wander around a bit. Catch the Alpine Stars in the Dance Tent, who after all aren't that bad, apart from that I am bored of them after 3 minutes. Get to see the last bit of the Bluetones and and then getting ready for Foo Fighters, one of my favourite live bands!
Of course memories come up from Reading 98 when Foo Fighters played here just before The Prodigy's last UK gig to date. But that's history... Kicking off their set with Breakout Foo Fighters just got me so much into it that I have to jump my way through to the front for the rest of the gig. Surprisingly the mosh isn't as big as during Limp Bizkits set though, everyone is quite well-behaved, for a Foo Fightrers gig at least.
People are dancing, moshing, even crowdsurfing as they play more tracks from recent album XTRMNTR like Shoot Speed Kill Light and Pills. 'Bobby, Bobby' you can hear people shout, no question, this is the year of Primal Scream. After Primals we have to leave from the front, this turns out not being too easy with literally hundreds of Oasis fans walking in the opposite direction! I had nothing against Oasis before I moved to England, but here the whole hype about them just really makes me sick, cause in my opinion they are ok, but really nothing special or in any way particularly innovative. However, I decide to give it a try, watch some of their set (since Muse on the 2nd stage aren't really my favourite band either). They come on stage, start the first song (boooring!) and it just starts to rain! Ok, no Oasis review then, I'm out! Saturday, 26th August 2000 not reviewed by neko, sorry. write your own!
Sunday, 27th August 2000 Strangely we arrive incredibly early at the festival today, just around noon. We catch some of of My Vitriol's set, who are opening the main stage. They're said to be the 'best new band' and indeed they do rock, although the band deserving the 'best new band' tag are to follow a bit later. It's very sunny, nice weather today. We're wandering around a bit, having some drinks, meeting some friends, whatever you do at festivals. Walking around you notice more than a few people in Slipknot-style boilersuits, some even with home-made masks, sweating inside, I suppose! Today is also 'Eminem cancellation' day, he had to cancel his appearance at the festival cause he isn't allowed to leave the USA and I'm definitely not the only person who is gutted about it! What remains is the pop-duo Daphne & Celeste, who apparently did everything to play this festival, just cause they wanted to meet Em. Shit happens! After 2pm we're heading towards the Dance tent where Manchild will be on shortly. As we're walking there it's starting to rain and as we're getting there the tent seems to be full! You almost can't get in anymore, but we manage to sneak in anyway. A DJ called 'Miss Pink' is warming up the crowd between live sets but soon Manchild take over the stage.
The 8 piece live band storm on stage and kick off their set with Rockin the Place and seem to be in top form. The tracks Hard Wax and The Bitch from forthcoming album Untied States follow and then We share the same kool. MC Nathan keeps everyone jumping throughout the whole set and dancer Kwam climbes up almost to the top of the tent! During Rehab unfortunately the speakers stop working so half of the song is unusually silent, but people dont stop dancing anyway! The gig is finished with Bring the tune down, personal 'live favourite' of mine, absolutely brilliant. The best gig of the whole festival?
Next on we walk over to the mainstage again, A are on. They're generally a good live band, but somehow today they seem a bit lost on that big stage. We're heading for another drink before we then join the masses to see Daphne and Celeste. It is great fun to see how people throw bottles, eggs, fruit, vegetables etc at them, I've never seen anything like that! In a way I respect those 2 girlies to have the courage to step up there! Next band on are Blink 182. Although not being a great fan of their music I have expected them to be sort of entertaining (kinda Bloodhound Gang style) but they just aren't. Boooooring! Anyone got any tomatoes left?
Rage Against the Machine end their set with Killing in the name and you realize that this still is the best RATM song ever. Still full of adrenaline from RATM I realize next will be Slipknot, and I decide to go for it, get to the front, see them full on!
The gig starts with weird noises, and the band run on stage, one of the guys jumping into the crowd before the music has even started. I'm getting completely into it, jumping, moshing not caring about anything outside this gig at all anymore! The Slipknot guys come down to the front, all kind of stuff is being thrown into the audience, in between band members jumping into it. After 55 minutes the gig is over and i get back, meet my mate, completely exhausted, i just lie down for a while realizing what a great buzz this gig was. And, you would hardly believe it, I'm not even really into Slipknot's music that much. Next on are Placebo, I'm still exhausted, have to watch from the back (someone is getting old!). Placebo live are nice, but, nothing special. They play quite a lot new songs which probbaly made the big fans happy, but in front of a festival crowd its a bit hard to arrive with songs no one has ever heard. Personal highlight is when 'Every me and every you' gets played, which gets a massive response. All in all a great gig but just not as exciting as that band before. Anyways, we're having a few drinks more and decide NOT to watch the Stereophonics who are headlining tonight and enjoy going home before all the masses of people do. Yay! and the winners of this weekend are: Manchild, Slipknot, Primal Scream .. in that order! [Read the guest review by The Click]
Many thanks to Manchild and Midi Management |
