Download festival 2009

Leaving Cardiff on the Wednesday morning was exciting. We laughed at the fact that Becca lives opposite a shop called 'S&M Minimart' (which sold milk and newspapers rather than whips and chains) and called in Tesco for vitamins and paper cups. Whilst every other car on the journey to Download was listening to metal, Roz, Beca and I listened to the delights of Tom Jones and Soulja Boy (Travis Barker remix). We're big Tom Jones fans and become overly patriotic at Download, which is why every night we'd get drunk and sing Tom Jones and Max Boyce songs along with Sosban Fach and the national anthem.

By the Thursday night, it felt like we had been there for about a week, which caused Beca to announce that 'Sometimes I forget why I'm here'. Oh yes, the weekend was full of excellent Beca quotes which had everyone in hysterics.

Friday was spent at the Main stage all day, the lineup was amazing! We started off watching Billy Talent, who Beca, Roz and I absoloutley love. I always find it funny that Benjamin Kowalewicz sounds the same when he talks as he does when he sings, I saw them in Reading Festival in 2007 and heared someone say 'He sounds like a cartoon duck!' which made me chuckle. A fantastic performance never the less from these Canadian four piece, which was a superb start to the day.

Killswitch Engage were excellent but it was the next band that we waited for with colossal anticipation. It was the return of the one, the only, Limp Bizkit. I was not dissapointed. You'd think that the four year break from performing would weaken the band but they were far from weak. Classics such as 'Break Stuff', 'My Generation', 'Rolling' and 'Take A Look Around' made me feel like I was in year 8 of comprehensive school again, and I fucking loved it. Their cover of George Micheal's faith is one of my favourite songs of all time, so seeing this performance at Download was quite the treat.

Typically, Korn played all of my favourite songs when I was quing for the toilet, but it was okay because next was Faith No More. I'd honestly marry Mike Patton. I know he's 41 but my goodness, he's cool. He wore a red suit and the stage was decorated with red velvet curtains. The entire performance was amazing and their cover of Lady Gaga's Poker face was brilliant, I fucking love Faith No More.

Saturday morning started with a hair of the dog. I love nothing more that a warm can of Strongbow as soon as I wake up, and it is perfectly acceptable at a festival. I'm pretty sure that we just chilled out at the campsite for the majority of the day, with the exception of Mel, the lone ranger who would be equipped with a rucksack, a home made timetable (highlighting the bands she was going to see) and probably a fucking compass, leaving the nest at 11am sharp to cram in as many bands into her day as physically possible.
Well, the rest of us sat down, cracked open a can and spent some quality time with Bert. It was brilliant. We finally left the campsite and wandered over to the bands at around 5ish, and the first act was Pendulum. If they didn't have that irritating cunt of an MC, they would have been alright. They played 'Tarantula' for the first time ever, which is my favourite song of theirs, but the lack of volume and enthusiasm left me bored. We wandered over to Marilyn Manson after this because not only is he meant to be marvelous entertainment, but Roz wanted to see if he was really that tall. And Jesus Jenkins, he was tall. Shame about the performance though.

With Pendulum being such a K Hole of entertainment, I wondered if all drum and bass acts would be as shit. The Prodigy, however, blew my fucking mind. They combined classics such as 'Breathe' and 'Smack My Bitch Up' with their latest masterpiece 'Omen' and truly delivered an orgasm of a performance. We watched a bit of Slipknot after this, then retired to the campsite, to devour a crate or four.

Since Roz and I had been drinking heavily all day, I failed. I threw up and went to bed before midnight. FAIL.

Due to the previous night's results, I decided not to drink on Sunday so that I could enjoy Journey in pure sobriety, and remember at least one act.
What a good idea, because Journey were AMAZING. I remember looking at Roz at one point and seeing her smiling from ear to ear, jumping on her tip toes, shaking her fists like maracas. Like a child meeting Santa. The dance that I, Becca and Roz had made up for 'Wheel in the sky' was a winner, and really caught on.
We hadn't realized that the original singer had died, and had been replaced by a younger man from a Journey tribute band, so a rather shocked Becca pointed out when the young Filipino entered the stage 'Hahaha.. He's Asian... he's Chinese... And Now... Straight out of the Chinese shop.. It's what's his name!'

Becca doesn't mean to be racist.I promise.

Papa Roach were so phenomenal that Rhi was literally frothing at the gash. To my disapontment, they didn't play 'She Loves Me Not', but such classics as 'Last Resort' and 'Getting Away With Murder' certainly compensated.

On whole, the best bands of the weekend had to be Faith No More, Journey, Limp Bizkit, Billy Talent and Papa Roach. Roll on Reading Festival!
xoxo

Listen to Faith No More's cover of Poker Face:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBE3CTcNa8I