Download Festival Day Two 9th June, 2018

Day Two of Download, its Saturday and we are ready to get started.

First up WSTR. What a way to get the party started, the band announce their name for those who do not know pronounced Waster with some intro played over which includes a voice over as if they don’t realise the crowd is there (we know its false).  The funny thing is where it says there’s a crowd out there following saying but they’re all Goths lol you don’t have to be a Goth to be at Rock Festival but it’s quite clear that this festival is now more diverse now than it use to be.

These guys kick off with their pop punk which sees the first waves of crowd surfers. Closing first track “doooooownnnnloooad, wake up”, we get asked to create a big ass circle pit, as if we haven’t heard or seen enough yet but here we go, ☺ to be fair it was a fun way to start the day, fairly busy and the sun is shining down hard.

Back to the Avalanche stage and offering a respite from the ‘heavy stuff’, The Faim are a fairly small alternative rock band from Australia who are gaining much deserved attention from the UK. After working with the likes of Fallout Boys’ Pete Wentz, their debut single Saint of the Sinners is well produced and it has to be said that The Faim’s live music leaves no room for sound effects like their music videos so therefore allows the raw talent to shine through.

Then straight to Sleep Token.  As acts go this was something fairly odd to witness, again another act that seem to have something about it.   A very dark and moody atmospheric stage setup, smoke, hooded masked characters, the music a blend of soft atmospheric music. The lyrics cut like a hot knife through butter and the delivery is eerie.   The main singer who is masked, is known as Vessel.   Sleep Token worship and commit themselves to the ancient deity known as sleep. The story on the street is that they are masked because they don’t want to be known for anything other than their music.  A fairly static crowd – but busy for them.

Rollo Tomassi. Well, she might be little, she might be cute and she smiles here and there but she’s got a huge voice on her.   The demonic voice with lots of anger and emotions locked up inside, then channelled through the performance of their tracks.

An extremely energetic, emotive performance, that goes down a storm.

Mid afternoon we see this guy turn and we get a photo of him and he’s laughing, right next to this is 2 guys in lobster suits also laughing, calling me over asking if I want my face painted, erm, looking at the guy I got a photo of clearly no.  Basically they’re asking if people want to get their face painted, this is the result and are dubbed the #Rocklobsters

Shvpes are busy on the Dogtooth stage attracting the mothers!  Probably one of my favourites acts to have seen today, these guys put on a show.  All band members have so much energy when it comes to jumping around and moving about the stage.

Frontman Griffin Dickinson is constantly moving, getting down with the fans and up on the speakers out to the front, he does everything in his power to ensure the show it as captivating to listen as it is to watch.

The Fever 333.  I don’t know Fever, I certainly will not forget Fever, opening with  a hooded person at the front of the stage with a white sheet with the Nazi emblem displayed.   The curtain falls and there are more hooded people being ushered off stage.

Frontman Jason Aalon Butler races out and is quickly into heavy screaming lyrics. He sprays water along the floor and slides from one side of stage to the other, the guitarist is jumping around stage before coming down to the speaker stack and jumping from one to another, climbing the rafters.  All this combined with pretty intense sounds.

Baby Metal.  I don’t know about you but when I go to these festivals I expect to be treated to something I wouldn’t normally see at a standard gig. It is safe to say Babymetal definitely meet that expectation. When they come onto the stage they are dressed in full on Roman style costumes and their wing guitarist is covered in white face makeup. When Doki Doki plays, the girls quickly fall into a well-choreographed and synchronised dance routine. This Japanese threesome sing in their native tongue but with everything else happening, not being able to understanding the lyrics is irrelevant.

Being as an Ocean.  Great sounding performance, this goes down well with the crowd, not your most active performance but musically on point.  Not as heavy as some of the other music here, with more tone.  The vocals are understandable and some tracks such as Dissolve you can throw yourself into the abyss and not care. You can see the anger and emotion put into the performance, another added to my playlists over the week.

 

The Maine.  Not a band I’m familiar with though yet again another I will be checking out in the confines of my home, after seeing this performance.

Such a happy, infectious front man who seems humbled to be here and very likeable.  Not your average star on stage and saying they are not the heaviest band here but we can have some fun with them and to be fair, considering the line-up today, they fit perfectly.   This stage had plenty of people here, yes ok it’s a bit softer than your average band here, the crowd are still enjoying it and they  went down really well.

Mayday Parade.  These guys have been around for what feels like forever  and 12 years is a pretty long time since their debut EP.   They are very infectious and believe its their first time at Download.   Given the day its quite clear that the Download mix of bands is evolving and with the crowd here….who is any rock fan to say the bands don’t belong, today being the busiest day in either a very long time or even ever.. but then GNR might have something to do with this regardless.

This tent is not enough to contain us all for Mayday Parade.   As ever the performance includes much jumping, barefooted tongue sticking out antics and glorious music with massive amounts of sweaty crowd surfing.

Neck Deep.  What a great headliner for this stage.   The  crowd is electric, waiting then screams and cheers as the stage is revealed with a Guns N Roses Neck Deep Logo then an intro of Sweet Child o’ Mine Cover as the band enters. Quite ironic as when leaving the Neck Deep performance to go and catch some of  Thy Art Is Murder , we can hear Guns N Roses actually playing this on main stage.

On the busiest day/night its surprising just how full this tent is and that’s no discredit to Neck Deep it may have something to do with the headliner. We see soo much crowd surfing, mosh pits, we have fire and we have a very active Ben and the rest of the guys jumping around with so much energy. Musically they were the best I’ve seen them, the performance was tight.  With Citizens Earth, Gold Steps, Smooth Seas Don’t Make Good Sailors they’re all here the whole list of great Neck Deep songs which means the security team have their work cut out for them!  What a great way to end the day.

Off we walk again to The Dogtooth Stage legs still attached, just, and the this tent is absolutely packed out.  Outside the tent people are sitting listening too.  Heavy thrashing riffs and a booming drum beat see singer Chris “CJ” McMahon out to stage to belt out his demonic vocals.   Proceeding one after another of heavy ear bleeding sounds which is great if this is your ba  and it is fairly popular with circle pits forming and crowd surfing crazy.

They play songs such as Holy War, Reign of Darkness and Puppet master. The atmosphere is intense and heavy with this sense of overwhelming tension,  as the lyrics which I can barely understand are belted out.   To keep it in tune the entire time is a skill in itself.   There are some great guitar riffs underneath the thrashing drums.

Day Two and we are still standing bring on Day Three.

 

Reviewers: Catherine Verrechia and Chris Bowley

Photographer: Chris Bowley

About Author

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *