Reading Review Pt2 (saturday)

[3Chordwonder]

This was probably the busiest day I've experienced in my 10 yrs of going to Reading. Mr Mean Fiddler needs to have a word with himself, seriously.

Pete & The Pirates: Checked out the Carlings stage early on and watched this local band get a chance to play. Pretty average local band fodder too. Mums and Grandparents of the band in the smallish crowd did little to add to their image. Ho hum...

The Dead 60's: Ok, off to the main stage to check out the Ska/Indie Clash-lite 4 piece. I have their first album so I knew most the songs. They seem to have beefed-up their image and played hard and aggressive. They played a couple of songs from the up coming second album (jncluding new single "Stand Up") Very fine indeed. Really enjoyed them and a good start to the day.

Ed Byrne: A brief mention that, at this point, I headed into the comedy tent to watch the mighty Ed Byrne. Lots of bashing of James Blunt and Daniel Beddingfield amongst others. Top man, check him out on tour later this year.

Angels And Airwaves: Now, I always was a big Blink 182 fan and I absolutely loved the Angels & Airwaves album last year, however, things started to go spectacularly wrong for them earlier on. The album is quiet big on production and it was clear that this was going to be tough to replicate live. What also was clear was that Tom De Longe has completely lost the plot. Not only the plot, but the foreword, index and glossary too... He staggered around the stage in a bizzare way, suggesting he may actually have shat himself. He struggled with the vocals and appeared to be labouring under the impression he was Bono. Each song was stretched out and culminated in Mr De Longe ranting bizzare things to an inreasingly restless audience. Result? a hail of bottles at his skinny little ass.
I was dissapointed, young 3Chord was dissapointed....like watching a slow-motion motorway pile-up with your mum in the paasenger seat. Not good.

Bloc Party: Onto much better things...and following a refreshing cider and chip tea, it was with eager aticipation I pitched up for Bloc Party. They didn't dissapoint. On cracking form, they hit us with 60 minutes of their finest moments (Like eating Glass, Helicopter, Hunting For Witches) Kele was happy and seemed more than a little overwhelmed. A storming set during which I danced and sang....happy once again.

The Arcade Fire: What can I say about this band? Just THE best thing I saw all weekend. Amazing show, amazing songs, amazing stage presence, amazing musicianship. Like being on the best drugs possible (can I say that here?) Easily my favourite band right now. And 3Chord junior also pointed out that Wim the singer looks like Rik Mayall in Bottom...thats my boy. Canada has produced some absolute donkey cack music over the years, but AF make up for for them all. If you love epic songs that make you dance and give you goose-bumps, if you love violins, brass, pounding drums and mad blokes throwing stuff in air - this is the band for you. I heart Arcade Fire.

Red Hot Chili Peppers: Nice playing...for the first 60 minutes during which we got "Dani California" "Can't Stop" "Snow" and a few others. BUT .....way way too much noodling between songs, too much ignoring of the crowd (connect for fecks sake!!) and, in the end, it just got very very boring I'm sad to say. I wandered away for a kebab and and sit down.

I have also realised I forgot to review Jack Penate from Friday - top man, awesome mad dancing and a great set. Can't wait for the album.

Sunday to follow later.....

 

[MingMong]

Nice reviews again 3CW mostly I agree with what you have said about the bands I saw, here's my version of events.

Paramore: I wasn't expecting too much from these, being a relatively new band on the scene, but was pleasantly surprised at how good they were. They sound like a slightly rockier version of Avril Lavine with their young female singer. Good entertainment.

The Dead 60's: I hadn't heard of these at all prior to seeing them on the lineup for the festival, and I must say I really enjoyed them. I've always been a fan of a bit of SKA and with the rough, rock edge, they were very enjoyable.

Eagles of Death Metal: Another band I knew very little about, apart from the fact that Josh Homme (lead singer of Queens of The Stone Age) is their drummer. Rumours were all over the internet a few days before the festival that Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters) would be joining them on stage, but unfortunately these proved to be false. The band were very lively, played well, communicated well with the audience and looked to be thoroughly enjoying themselves. A great set!

The Shins: Yawn! Sounded like the sort of music they play in supermarkets, all that was missing was the shopping trolleys. Not my cup of tea at all.

The Young Knives: Got to see these briefly, the Radio1 tent was absolutely heaving, the only person in our party who got to see much of them was my daughter who found herself a good vantage point on top of my shoulders. Sounded good from what I could hear, but would like to have caught a bit more of their set to appreciate them.

The Pigeon Detectives: Due to the crush in the Radio1 tent we watched these on the screen outside, what we heard and saw was good. A little more commercial than what I would normally listen to, but enjoyable non-the-less.

Panic! At The Disco: I caught the tail end of their set, and the few songs that I did hear sounded pretty good, a very good live singing voice on their vocalist, and although they are not the sort of band that I would go and watch, they were pretty good.

Bloc Party: I can't pinpoint why, but me and Bloc Party just don't get on. Although their performance seemed good, and they got the crowd going well, I didn't enjoy them one bit. That is probably because i've never really enjoyed their music though.

Arcade Fire: Another band that I had not heard of until i saw their name on the bill, and having listened to their album (Neon Bible) before going to Reading, I wasn't really expecting too much. However, they were really good, they have a fantastic live sound although that is probably helped by the fact that there is about a dozen of them on stage. I really think this is one of those bands that are better suited to a live show than on CD. Their stage set was also impressive, good use of lighting and some funny looking small video screens dotted around the stage, I would agree with 3CW, one of the highlights of the day for me.

Red Hot Chilli Peppers: Totally agree with your review on these, I was really looking forward to seeing RHCP for the first time, and left somewhat disappointed. They were very good when they got going, but I went there expecting brilliance, not just really good. As 3CW said, there was too much messing around between songs, and not enough actual music. Anthony Kiedis seemed to keep disappearing off stage and leaving Flea and John Frusciante to keep things ticking over by playing twiddly duet stuff. When they knuckled down and played their songs, they were excellent, but they could have been so much better. Talking to my sister who has seen them a couple of times before this show, they are usually so much better, so maybe they were just a little off the boil that night. Maybe the technical problems they seemed to be having at the start of the set put them off a bit.

And on to another issue I have with Reading festival,

Why does it have to go on so late? I normally wouldn't complain at all about a festival ending too late, but when the last trains home in both directions are around midnight and the last band is scheduled to finish at 11:30 then people are going to have to leave early to catch their trains home.
We left just before RHCP left the stage (presumably before coming back for an encore) and managed to make it in time for our train, and there were thousands of people leaving the same time. many of them were heading to their tents (obviously they had had enough of RHCP too) but an awful lot were making their way to the station. Surely it would be a lot better to move the whole thing forward by half an hour to give the punters a fighting chance. I never remember Leeds Festival finishing so late, but i've always camped at Leeds so probably been too drunk to notice.

 

[mad_mo]

Why does it have to go on so late? I normally wouldn't complain at all about a festival ending too late, but when the last trains home in both directions are around midnight and the last band is scheduled to finish at 11:30 then people are going to have to leave early to catch their trains home.

You would think additional trains would be run on such events. There has been major events around the country were the appropriate train company liases with the festival bods concerned. A bit like free travel on the tube after midnight on new years eve paid for by major drinks companies.