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Review by Lucy Hayes |
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This review, relating to Sunday's rockfest at Reading in 2002, was kindly
submitted to the pages of Indielondon by Lucy Hayes. Feel free to do the same,
whether gigs inspire, disappoint, or simply bring out the wordsmith in you.
We look forward to receiving your views....
RRRAAWWK!!! Sunday has always traditionally been the rocker/metaller
day at the Reading Festival on the main stage and this year didn't disappoint.
At its best, the line-up was impressive, featuring the long-anticipated return
of The Prodigy, as well as Incubus, Puddle Of Mudd, The Offspring,
Hundred Reasons, and NOFX, while at its worst, it featured angst-ridden
hardcore metallers The Dillinger Escape Plan, Raging Speedhorn, Amen
and Slipknot.
A mixture of bands performed on The Carling/Evening Session/Dance stages,
including Spiritualised, The Shining, Reel Big Fish, Princess Superstar,
Alpinestars and The Music.
We stayed where the action was, at the main stage - though the first three
metaller acts (The Dillinger Escape Plan, Raging Speedhorn and Amen)
served as background noise for us and the majority of the early, hungover
crowd.
As hard as they tried, all three bands failed to get anyone moving as, although
they were loud and hardcore throughout their sets, they were a bit too much,
making it difficult to distinguish between each separate band, let alone pinpoint
a song as being unique from the collective "rrroooaaarr"-fuelled
cries and psychotically speeding thrashing of guitars.
Although, Dillinger Escape Plan frontman, Greg Puciato, raised some
guffaws as he yelled halfway through: "We're not The Strokes!" No
shit!! The singer then further enamoured the crowd as he peed into a towel
and chucked it amongst the masses, who promptly hurled it right back at him!
Raging Speedhorn screamed in agony and Amen's Casey Chaos slated
Axel Rose, while continually diving off the speakers.
Hundred Reasons managed to wake the crowd up and get those chilling
on the grass to their feet with their energetic, anthemic tracks, managing
to convert the atmosphere back to Rock!
Songs from their Kerrang-awarded album Ideas Above Our Station were
particularly well received and sung along to, especially the touching Silver,
with it's melodic sing-along chorus and pumping guitar and bass rifts throughout.
If I Could was sung with confidence, conviction and passion, as was
the new, emotive Falter. Toploader lookalike lead singer, Colin Doran,
did worry at one point that he wasn't giving enough chatter in between, so
he spontaneously burst into a creative"nestle" chocolate bar jingle
worthy of marketing!
We moved forth for Puddle Of Mudd, who blasted off with fast-paced
Bring Me Down, followed by Nobody Told Me, during which the
crowd motioned to sing along to the chorus of, 'same old shit, different day,
gotta get up, gotta get up'. The majority of debut album, Come Clean,
was played, including Drift and Die and Out of My Head.
It was the heartfelt and touching lyrics of lullabyish rock track Blurry,
an ode to Wes's son, which the crowd knew best and sang along to, while the
intense, chanting Control was shouted back with recognition and force.
The set ended with the latest release, She Hates Me, with its catchy
la, la, la, la chorus (but not like Kylie's).
Skatepunkers NOFX took to the stage next and, visually, looked wicked with their orange hair, green dreds, skater dress and attitudes, with slamming guitar rifts and pogying punky ska tracks dating back to 1983, which their vast aged fanbase went mad for. As an original finale, they combined an irish jig with ska which was infectiously received.
Incubus followed and we legged it to the front to get a good view
of Brandon and his vibrant stage presence, settling quite near to an intense
whirlwind moshpit and crowd-surfing area.
They played a breathtaking set which packed in their diverse back catalogue
of five albums, from the heavier rock of S.C.I.E.N.C.E to the evolved
melodic, mellow acoustic rock of Morning View, with it's insightful
and spiritual lyrics.
Brandon opened with Blood On The Ground, followed by Circles.
A large majority of the set was from Morning View, including the chronicled
and appealing 11am, the poignant and spine-tingling slow-builder Warning,
Are You In and the ethereal and euphoric, ultimate feel good track
Wish You Were Here, which was ecstatically sung back as endearingly
as it was sung out, as was Make Yourself's single, Drive, about
taking risks in life and being optimistic about the future. The closer was
the hardcore, A Certain Shade of Green, which was yelled for throughout
the set.
When Slipknot graced the stage we stayed as far back as possible -
near the bar from the sick, scary masked ones, for fear of projectile vomiting
amongst other rituals, whilst the very young fan base surged forward to headbang
to tracks with titles such as People=shit!! Errr, more like slipknot
=shit!
To define their screeching sound as music is a violation, when there is nothing
audible in the form of melody or lyrics! With the exception of one track,
in which some semblance of something could be heard during the enchantingly
titled Wait and Bleed.
As the
day darkened and The Offspring appeared, the crowd were drunken and
up for it in preparation for headliners The Prodigy. Noodles and Co
delivered a kick ass 1,000 miles an hour, 'coming at ya', energetic set with
track after track form their six album history.
They exploded into Americana followed by Blackball, from The
Offspring and I'll Be Waiting. The crowd went pogoying mad and
loved Conspiracy Of One's Original Prankster, Want You Bad,
and Million Miles Away.
Americana's comical mainstream chartbreaker Pretty Fly For A White
Guy was chanted in American accent, as was Walla,Walla and Why
Don't You Get A Job? Noodles ended by wanting to carry on with the Nirvana
sounding floor-filler Self-Esteem.
With Offspring heading off into the sunset, Keeeeef and posse made a confident
entrance to yells and screams galore.
Maxim was wearing evil fluorescent yellow contacts, Keith with his stereotype
mad green mohican and Liam revealing peroxide spikes and piercings.
A rush of adrenalin surged through the crowd as the amps decibel levels soared
and the thumping bassline intro of new track Baby's Got A Temper rippled
through the air.
The crowd's reactions were tested for the next two tracks, which were from
upcoming album Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned. The tracks epitomised
The Prodigy sound and so were hyperactively rave danced to like all the other
classics.
The pulsating hard break beats of Music For The Jilted Generation were
represented by the classic Poison and the enraged, funk-guitared Their
Law. Keith showed he was a fiyarrrrstarter and belted it out, Smack
My Bitch Up pounded and Mindfields, from Fat Of The Land rocked.
As a set surprise an original cover of Madness' Night Boat To Cairo
added a ska vibe and suited the track.
Hearing Charly, Out of space and No Good Start The Dance would've
topped off the excellent set, but only some of the many nostalgic tracks in
the band's back catalogue could be fitted in to the set of just under an hour.
We were left hoping for more as a swift stage exit was made from a welcome
return to The Prodigy massive.
RELATED LINKS: Click here
for Prodigy's website...
Click here
for Incubus website...
Click here for The
Offspring website...
Click here for
Puddle of Mudd's website...
Click here for Hundred Reasons
website...