#12

THE DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL 2009 - A SPECIAL EDITION

PARENTAL WARNING - THIS BLOG CONTAINS WORDS ABOUT NUDITY AND OTHER CRAZY FESTIVAL GOINGS ON.


First of all, this blog will begin with lists and tallies.

What I Saw

Men's Genitals: 2
Women's Breasts: > 60
Drunk People: > 50,000
Men's Breasts: > 60
Beer Guts: > 5000
Clogged Toilets: > 100
Underage Guys Who Couldn't Hold Their Booze To Save Their Lives: 5
Tents on Fire: > 10
Explosions: > 5
Porta-Loos Severely Destroyed By Human Waste: > 50
People Passed Out, Prostrate On The Ground: > 10,000

You get the picture people. Insanity ensued last weekend.

What follows is a list of bands I saw and a brief, brief summary of what I thought of them:

FRIDAY 12TH July

Limp Bizkit: Saw them for about 10 minutes. They stunk.
Lacuna Coil: Solid band, quite tight.
Faith No More: A truly magnificent reunion. Brilliant performance - my top highlight. Mike 'The Human Synthesizer' Patton and the crew doing Poker Face and then Chinese Arithemetic.

We Care A Lot!


SATURDAY 13TH JUNE

Dragonforce: Highly entertaining, very impressive unit. Virtuosic Playing.
Pendulum: Another highlight for me. These guys were mind-blowing live. Aussies too! Propane Nightmares.
Prodigy: Unfortunately couldn't hear these guys as the area was so packed we couldn't get close. I heard though they rocked.
Marilyn Manson: Overall, a sub-par performance. He's getting old, tired and tubby.
Slipknot: Not my cup of tea really, but very impressive unit. Energetic and fun to head bang to.


SUNDAY 14TH JUNE

Journey: Awesome. Don't Stop Believin' baby!
Dream Theater: These guys were nuts, another set of virtuosos. Notable mention to the keytar/guitar/keyboard/synth duel. Holy crap.
ZZ Top: These old rockers rocked. Still got the wacky sense of humour and the slammin' rockabilly-blues vibe. I especially liked the fluffy guitars they brought out for one particular song.
Whitesnake: Truly Awesome. Although the only original member is the lead singer, they all slotted in very well. They played some great classic hits, said some funnies, blew everyone away. Here I Go Again
Def Leppard: Amazing performance. The band hadn't played there in 23 years - that show being the first major gig after the drummer, Rick Allen lost his arm in a car accident. It was moving to hear a tribute from the lead singer about his drummer and friend and the amazing recovery that occurred. Notable mention to Rick Allen himself - who is an amazing drummer, minus a limb. His setup is truly awesome if you want to check it out here.

And now for some of the funny stuff. Honestly, there was too much to remember ALL of it - but here are some of the things that were humorous.

Upon arrival at the festival, the bus parked outside a solid 10-set of porta-loos. I had to go, so I opened the first door that was available and burst out laughing immediately. Let's just say that it was already not in a good way. Concurrently, Ben was approached by a 'nasal Englishman' who asked,
"Are you waiting for the bog?"
Ben replied in his most Australian of accents,
"Yeah nah, go for it"
Apparently, he looked blankly at him and proceeded to the nearest bog.

What's next...ah yes! Our introduction to Download - Limp Bizkit. It became abundantly clear that there were some haters out there. How do I know this? Well, lead...singer...I guess... Fred Durst came out and did his trademark whine 'Wassup Download!?'. A man walking away from the stage, clearly already disgusted and annoyed simply shouted, very loudly,
"FUCK OFF!!" and kept walking.
Brilliant!

Later on, a man we saw a few times over the weekend was only wearing underpants. We never saw him wearing any other clothes than a pair of black undies the whole time!
Anywho, there was a couple making out on the ground, and he got his bits out. Yes, those bits. He was proud of it too. What happened next was hilariously horrifying - close your eyes if you don't want to know. You know you wanna. I thought so.

He started to pee, in front of everyone. And then, the edged his stream close to this couple having a moment. My view was obstructed, but I'm quite sure he got a few spots on them. Of course, he got his hands wet in the process, and started congratulating the couple with pats on the back and head. Disgusting.

EVEN LATER, during Faith No More, one of the ladies in front of them started vomiting uncontrollably. They ran out of tissues, Ben felt it his duty to help them out - handing them a packet of tissues to help her out. Good on ya Ben.

That's about it for the moment, if I think of anything more entertaining to write I'll put it up. If not, I won't!

Rock on!