Download Festival 2009 - Day 2

Its early morning Saturday, and despite the splitting headache brought on by last night's over-exuberance, the unbearable heat within the tent made it almost impossible to oversleep. Heading towards the showers with heavy legs, I noticed the unwelcome queue of people who were just as hot, hung-over, sunburnt and as desperate for a shower as I was. Sleeping-bag crease-marks on some bodies were a funny sight, and the smile on one's face served to remind us we were not the only ones sleeping uncomfortably. The long wait was spent digesting the events of Friday evening and planning the exciting day ahead, with some tough choices to be made - The Prodigy or Slipknot?...or both and miss out on a full set either way? Life was proving to be hard....and this queue was proving to be motionless. Beneath an early morning sun that was already shining its menacing rays on everything within its reach, we all shifted our weights uncomfortably from one foot to another, and contemplated sitting down on the trampled grass - but this thought was quickly dispelled as the smell of the overflowing toilets to our right sailed through the hot air. After 20 minutes of deep thought, and once the decision to skip The Prodge had been made, I asked the same 10 people queuing up in front of me, the reason for the delay. Out of 8 showers, only 2 had hot water. Despite the blistering heat and the sunburn screaming out for icy coldness, the thought of a cold shower was far more unbearable than the thought of remaining in the queue for an extra 30 minutes or so...sheer retrospective madness I know, but after a rather uncomfortable and tense sleep, my muscles needed to relax...and so they did, for what seemed to be an endless amount of time under the most refreshing hot shower I have ever had. I realised then I had also contributed to the long wait behind me, but to be honest, who am I going to kid if I were to say I was ‘considerate' ?

Five Finger Death Punch were already gearing up to blast their heavy riffage on the Main Stage as I walked back to our tent bouncing with energy and enthusiasm. Gathering the necessary belongings and some fruit and veggies from our weekend supply, we proceeded to make the short walk to the VIP lounge for a much needed greasy breakfast.

Refueled by the fruit we had brought and the lovely, but pricey breakfast in the VIP restaurant, it was time to do it all again, day 2 was just beginning.  A quick visit to the bar to purchase some much needed summer rock fuel (Pear Cider) and off we went to the main stage, just in time to catch Devildriver. In 2007 they played Download on the 2nd stage and although we weren't able to see them then, footage of them placed on You Tube trying to break the Guinness World record for the largest mosh pit was a sight to behold. This year they didn't disappoint us, back again and even more determined to break that record, Dez Fafara roared at the crowd to push their way to the barriers and make history. It got messy to say the least! We are still unsure as to whether the record was actually broken, so I guess we will have to wait for those eggheads at Guinness World Records to decide whether it made it into the books or not.

We made our hasty retreat up the hill to the 2nd stage, a song or two before the end of Devildriver's set, to check out a group of newcomers onto the indie/rock scene. The Irishmen of In Case of Fire have been wowing crowds all over the UK for the past year or so, and have received many good reviews of their live performances, which have been likened to that of Muse. Now that's a pretty big name to live up and that's a fact, as Muse viewed in the live arena are phenomenal, they are one the best live bands around. Most people watching were completely new to them, just as we were and although they didn't really live up to the hype that's been written about them, they were good. If you're a fan of Muse or The Mars Volta, then it's definitely worth checking out their debut album "Align the Planets".

Rooted to the spot, mere metres away from the front barrier of the 2nd stage,  we eagerly awaited for our most anticipated band of the day so far. It had just passed 2pm GMT, everyone stood under the sun, roasting like chickens, as an influx of fans started pushing forward to get a closer position for Fightstar. These guys are more popular than we thought, speaking to other festival goers over the last day or so, any mention of Fightstar would bring an instant negative reaction which included lead singer, Charlie Simpson's tragic past. He played in a pop band called Busted, you may recall them in the UK top 40 a few times, so how could we ever forgive him. Well, he has Vox's forgiveness hands down as he and his band mates erupt onto stage in a ferocious, melodic bombardment of the senses. After releasing and touring their previous two albums, Fightstar are noticeably tight in their performance with enough energy for the thousands of fans before them. It's clear to see that they're really enjoying themselves playing Download, an honour which is very much deserved.  The atmosphere they create is nothing short of epic with "Grand Unification Part 1", "Paint Your Target" and the Godzilla stomping riffs of "The English Way". The sound problems that seemed to have dumbed down other bands performances on this stage were making no appearances, as Fightstar blasted their way through their catalogue of music. Highlights included "War Machine" and "Deathcar", both tunes encapsulating what Fightstar do best, beautiful melodies containing intricate strings and devastating sledgehammer riffs. One minute you're floating around in the clouds with peace and love in mind then brought crashing down into the deepest depths of aggression. Outstanding!

Even more outstanding was the views of the horizon, just hovering above the crowd as everyone left the 2nd stage was an enormous bee swarm, invading the arena. When I say enormous, I really do mean ENORMOUS! To be honest it was scary as hell because they're were thousands of bees darting around everyone, swirling around like a black storm cloud right above your head. Regret not taking a picture of this strange occurrence but in hindsight we were too busy running away from them.  They weren't the only winged bugs to be metal fans either as Donington was infested with what seemed like millions of green flies. From the moment you stepped out of your tent in the morning at least one green fly would land upon you roughly every minute for the entire day, no joke.

Pop Makeover

Despite skepticism from one of us, Chris Cornell was not one to be missed. It is true that since embarking on a solo career and more recently teaming up with top hip-hop producer Timbaland, the former frontman for legendary bands such as Temple of The Dog, Soundgarden and Audioslave, has been undoubtedly mocked as a sell-out who has traded his soul for a pop makeover. It is obvious he has struggled to find the same level of success since the break-up of Soundgarden, and has endeavoured to recapture some of the old magic by working with members of Rage Against the Machine in Audioslave. However, his latest solo album ‘Scream' is too ‘Justin Timberlake' for my liking, and ends up doing him absolutely no credit - samples, voice effects and synthesizers - since when does Cornell need effects on his voice? His exceptional vocals are one of the greatest and unique in the rock/grunge world, where very few are able to cover. Some years back, during a Pearl Jam concert with backing band ‘Wolfmother', Eddie Vedder bravely offered us a rendition of ‘Hunger Strike' simply because Wolfmother's frontman is able to hit Cornell's high notes, and therefore invited him on stage in his place. But despite all his recent ‘shortcomings' I was confident Cornell would not disappoint us. I knew he would be offering the ‘old-school' Download crowd what we had come here for, the Chris Cornell we grew up listening to. And he thrilled us all with a set filled with various songs from his Soundgarden, Audioslave and solo career, and to my obvious delight, Temple of The Dog. The crowd seemed reluctant to get into his solo material, however we all cheered loudly on the opening notes of songs such as Soundgarden's ‘Spoonman' and ‘Black Hole Sun', Audioslave's ‘Cochise' and ‘Show Me How to Live' and Temple of The Dog's classic ‘Hunger Strike', where he also performed Eddie Vedder's part. It was evident he was enjoying the reception and for an afternoon slot on the second stage, he definitely had the large crowd at his mercy.

A much needed break was taken, trundling off to our tents to recoup a bit of energy for tonight's performances. Whilst unwinding, talking to other festival goers, sharing our stories, Pendulum wreaked havoc on the main stage.  This was one band we weren't too keen on seeing but, from the comfort of our tents, our view of the crowds sprawled out in front of main stage,it was easy to see why they are so popular.

At times it really did look like 70-80% of the 80,000 people were throwing their arms in the air and jumping around like mad folk. Blending electro beats and their very own brand of metal ,they create an electric atmosphere.

To our dismay, as we join the crowds of the main stage, Marilyn Manson manages to destroy the atmosphere within seconds. Vox has seen Manson live twice before, once at Madrid's, Festimad and the other at Download 2007. Download 2009 saw him at least be consistent in his performances which can be described in one word "Painful". Opening your set with new tunes is never a good idea, especially when they are as bad as "For Rusted Horses" and "Pretty As A Swastika". He moans and croaks, depressingly through his tunes as if he is bored of them himself, it's that bad. Not even "The Beautiful People" can muster up enough energy. Further adding to the embarrassment of the whole spectacle is the constant toweling and re-applying of his makeup between every song.  Do us all a favour Marilyn, get your coat, p**s off and please for the love of god, don't comeback.

Thank the lord that headliners Slipknot are up next, who proceed to drop an atomic bomb on Donington and bring the life back to the party with aplomb. Their first headlining appearance at Download, marks the 10th anniversary of the release of their debut album. Incredibly fitting as tonight 80,000 people witness history in the making. The turnout for Slipknot is nothing short of breathtaking and clearly way more people have made a point of watching this band over any other. This is the strongest set of the weekend without a doubt, the minute it started we knew that this was the highlight of the Download 2009. Opening the set with a few old favourites burns down the house and gets things started in true apocalyptic fashion.

One dedicated fan beside us screaming the lyrics in unison flew all the way from Australia just for 2 days to see Slipknot! He wasn't disappointed and neither was anyone else here, not a single soul. Each song played by the 9 masked, boiler suited  men got underneath your skin and spread goose bumps down your arms and up your spine, till the hairs on the back of your neck stood on end.  This performance was mind boggling, ferocious, aggressive, chaotic and just plain ridiculous. The sing along to "Duality" and "Wait And Bleed" was deafening and had the crowd increasingly rabid. "People = Shit", "Sulfur", "Left Behind", "Psychosocial", "Surfacing" every single tune was astronomically immense. The best of all was left for last, though, as front man Corey Taylor commanded the ocean of people to squat down and to wait for his signal before every one had to "Jump the f**k up!" Seeing nearly 100,000 people sit down on command is a memory you will never forget but when everyone then jumped up at a particular point in the song "Spit It Out". Incredible!