DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL
@ Donington Park
05/06-06-04
reviewed by lex
pictures by Booie

DAY 1
As we wandered into the festival arena, Dillinger Escape Plan had already taken to the main stage with the noise that they call music and I would call... Well, noise. From what I could tell there was nothing much to it.
Fireapple Red, were much more promising on the barfly stage and The Bled even more so on the Snickers stage with their blend of hardcore.
Back to the main stage Opeth were taking to the stage. And to describe them in one word, dull. Even when the vocalist announced that the next song was going to be heavy, it wasn’t.
Soil didn’t show because they were apparently stuck in traffic or something so it was on with the next band.
Monster Magnet gave an average performance. Hardcore fans would not have been  disappointed.
I’m not a fan of Cradle Of Filth, in fact I hate them, but seeing them live blew me away. A band that should definitely be seen on a big stage like this one used dancers on stilts and scantly clad ladies swinging on ropes.
Unfortunately we only caught the end of 36 Crazyfists and then only watched the beginning of the Distillers (Seeing as I’ve seen them before I wasn’t too bothered) so I haven’t got too much to go on to describe these sets.
36 Crazyfists were putting on an energetic performance and The Distillers weren’t. The Distillers great tunes sound dull when they perform live.
The biggest disappointment of the day was finding out that Static X, one of the bands we were looking forward to seeing the most had pulled out. So it was up to Sum 41 a bit later to cheer us up. They weren’t very successful.  On a smaller stage they would probably have been good but they failed to impress on the main stage. They also disappointed me because they didn’t play In Too Deep which is in my opinion the best Sum 41 song.
And so then we were left with the headline act, Linkin Park. Could they live up to the pressures of headlining the main stage? Could they pull it off? Hell yeah.
They were easily the best act of the night. Chester and Mike spoke easily to the crowd. They played songs mainly off Hybrid Theory with great effect and got everybody dancing and singing. A great performance like this show why they are one of the biggest bands at the moment.

Lex’s Highlight: Linkin Park

Opeth

Cradle Of Filth

The Distillers

Linkin Park

Linkin Park

HIM

HIM

Brides Of Destruction

Taking Back Sunday

Bowling For Soup

DAY 2
We settled down on the grass to watch Breed 77 take the main stage with their ‘flamenco rock’. The songs weren’t that strong to win over the crowd. The strongest song of the set being the last one, ‘La Ultima Hora’.
We inadvertently caught ex-Almighty member Ricky Warwick on the Snickers stage whilst shading from the sun. It’s the sort of music I could imagine Cowboys listening to whilst working on the ranch. But even so, it was done well if not my cup of tea.
After Ricky Warwick came Silvertide a band rising from Philadelphia who gave an average performance.
Ill Nino took to the main stage and played a satisfying set.
On the Barfly stage were Acidtone, A bunch of 13/14 year olds from Ireland who were surprisingly good for their age. They sounded too much like a rip off of RATM though especially the vocals.
After unfortunately only managing to hear Hoobastank on stage (thanks to a certain long queue) we watched Hatebreed give an energetic performance. They played a strong set of their metal.
Drowning Pool surprised me by starting their set with Sinner, a song from their debut album. I was unsure whether they’d play any songs from that album. They did. Bodies got the biggest reaction from the crowd. During this song they were joined by Soil singer. And as the last note played suddenly the rest of Soil came running on stage and treated the audience to Halo. Drowning Pool then finished the set with current single Step Up.
Nikki Sixx’s new band Brides Of Destruction had a lot to live up to after Drowning Pool’s stunning performance and managed it well starting off with Shut The Fuck Up and it kept going up from there.
Next stop: Slipknot. Not letting the pace of the day down they gave an engergetic and stunning performance of the type that makes Slipknot an excellent live band.
Whilst Slipknot were Storming the main stage Dirty Americans were attempting to storm the Barfly stage. Unfortuanately it was a little weak. The best song of the set was definitely the last song and current single Strange Generations.
Korn played a good set, not quite living up to Slipknot, but one which pleased the crowd.
Slayer were moved from the Main Stage to the Snickers Stage due to equiptment not turning up and played to a packed Snickers tent with many people milling outside trying to get a view. They played a set that pleased fans but that I thought was dull.
I have decided that Taking Back Sunday vocalist Adam Lazzara is crazy. He pranced around as though he was being attacked by bats or bees or something. He swung his Microphone all over the place and from where I was standing it looked like it kept whacking him in the face. He then proceeded to climb up the scaffolding at the side and dangle from it.
Musically Taking Back Sunday had the emo/hardcore vibe going on and played a good, lively (if you could call emo lively) set.
Bowling For Soup let the pace drop considerably. They seemed more intent on fooling around than actually playing any songs. And when they did play songs it was just the same old pop punk which make you realise why so many of those bands are ‘growing-up’.
Unfortunately the band that should have been my highlight of the weekend wasn’t.  Firstly HIM’s sound wasn’t very good. There was too much bass.  There were also quite a few times when you couldn’t hear Ville Valo sing at all. I don’t know if this was due to where we were standing but it still dampened the set. And that only consisted of six songs. The times had been messed up and bands started being on an hour late so it ended up that HIM didn’t have much time to play.

Lex’s Highlight:- Drowning Pool (or possibly Brides Of Destruction)