Monday 29 August 2011

Reading Festival : Weds-Fri Summary (more to come)

Well I don't know where to start as I've had a fucking epic weekend, probably one of the best weekends of my life so far!

It all kicked off Wednesday with an early start and me getting my haircut and sorting out camping equipment and packing all my shiz up ready for a long weekend of fun times.

The plan was for me to meet a lad I went to school with at the station at 12:00am and the rest of our soon to be "wolfpack" (plus the wench).

[fairly normal journey goes here]

We arrived in Reading at decent time and only queued for like half hour to get in, the crew so far was as follows:

Myself, Pete, Chard (Richard), Jack (Jackone, pronounced Jackwon), Duffy, Rachel(Duffy's wench)..wet set up camp and got utterly gazeebo'd.

Wednesday and Thursday were pretty much just getting so drunk and wandering around the campsite to meet with random people and have a good laugh make some new friends and get messy.

We had some excellent banter, we as a group introduced a few new things to the Reading experience firstly was a simple "Hiya" (pronounced 'I-Ya') you would literally just say it to anyone and everyone, after the first day everyone camped around us was accustom to this.

Secondly was yelling "They're taking the hobbits to Isengard" (or a variation of) this was an excellent way for us to find the lost hobbits within our group during sets, or whilst lost in crowds. Others were "Auto-bots Roll Out!"....and the favorite "Activate Beast Mode!!"


There was also a lot of casual(or not so) racism, but hey we are in reading and floating jackets are for win!

Fridays music was ace I will run through the bands I saw and give you some info on them along with my opinion on how the performance went and shiznitch.

First up was the Architects to open the main stage, they are a metal band from Brighton and I had not heard much, if anything, of theirs in the past but I was impressed with the performance they gave and I will be investing in some new tracks of theirs in the few days to come, I feel they did give it their best in getting the crowd going even though the weather was shit during their set.



Next up was The Blackout, they are post-hardcore band from Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, formed in 2003, may be known for supporting Lostprophets on their Liberation Transmission Tour. All of the lads said we should go to see this band. I had not heard any of their songs but was willing to give them a chance, I am glad I did, I loved the set and was well into the band.


Third band of the day was one of my favorites over the whole weekend, New Found Glory!

New Found Glory are a rock band from Florida who I use to listen to as a wee nipper and had seen in 2009, I absolutely love all of their albums and loved the set list and had a little sing along and bop in the crowd, was hands down one of the best bands I have seen live, great bunch of lads and an excellent show.


Not to mention lucky bastard Chad Gilbert (Lead guitar/backing vocals) who is dating Hayley Williams (paramore)..Damn she is hot!


The fourth band I saw of the day was yet another I was not all that familiar with, I had heard a few songs of theirs but nothing more, Bring Me The Horizon who are a modern metal/metalcore band from Sheffield, played an awesome set and I would definitely recommend them!


After BMTH I left the wolfpack and headed back to camp to get tanked up before Sub Focus and then the Nero set, my good pal Tommy from uni managed to grab a ticket last minute so we arranged to meet up,

Nick Douwma, known as Sub Focus is an electronic music producer (Drum n Bass) who drops some pretty sick beats and excellent music for throwing shapes and having a good time. Sub Focus played a pretty darn sexy set with some crazy lights and the lark! Was great fun.


Next up we had a Nero DJ set, Nero are a duo of electronic music artists, best known for producing house, dubstep and drum and bass. This was also epic! Nothing better than a nice dubstep workout with friends and strangers, bopping and throwing shapes completely off your rocker.


Next on the Agenda was 30 Seconds to Mars, 30 Seconds To Mars is a band from Los Angeles lead by the actor Jared Leto, their music is difficult to categorise, being associated mostly with progressive rock/metal and post-grunge but also included electronic music, space rock, post-hardcore and synth rock into their music. I really Love their albums and think Jared in one sexy mofo, the entrance to the stage and the act itself I thought was great but by gosh did they drag the songs on and on and on a hell of a lot longer than I felt was needed.


I also felt it was just a massive ego trip for Jared, I mean I love the guy but you didn't get a glimpse of the band it was all him and him alone, I loved the songs and the effects and the show as a whole but in general felt that stretching each song to about 10 minutes longer than it's originally meant to be is a bit off and him parading around on stage like he's gods gift was a wee bit over the top.

Lastly for me on this faithful night was a band I wasn't all that keen on, I liked a few of their songs in the past and knew the words to others, My Chemical Romance.


My Chemical Romance is an American alternative rock band from New Jersey who have been around for the last ten years, I am glad I went to watch them as they played an amazing set with all the songs I knew and liked and played them well, some great effects and lights to go with a great set list.

Awesome end to an awesome day of music, 8 sets in one day, not too shabby.

So tired, writing up Saturday and Sunday tomorrow!

4 comments:

  1. Saying you got utterly gazeebos earns you my love lol. Fun times. I like 30 Seconds to Mars, and I'm slowly coming to terms with my liking of MCR. I've also heard of New Found Glory, but not actually heard them, but part of the reason people go to festivals is to be introduced to new music, as well as celebrate the ones they know. Or so I assume. Two of my favourite bands were bands that my brother discovered at a music festival.

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  2. Wow sounds like you had a lot of fun!

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  3. Damn i miss that kind of festivals. It's a shame we don't get to have many of those in Argentina. Looks like you had an amazing time.

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  4. In Pericles, his queen and daughter, seen, Following!

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