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 Friday August 25th
Bramham Park, Leeds
We’ve been looking forward to this for ages. Four whole days of sleeping
rough, forking out a fortune for overpriced burgers and rapidly loosing
our dignity in the world’s most minging toilets all for the chance to
see rock gods from across the world rock Bramham Park to its core.
As the event draws closer, a lot of questions are brought to the
forefront. Who will reign supreme on Sunday, heavyweights Muse, or young
contenders to the British Music throne Arctic Monkeys? Will anybody
survive the Slayer moshpit? And have we remembered to pack the poles for
our tent?
The LINC headed on down to find out.
Bringing a whole new definition to the silly term ‘Math Rock’, Leeds’
own iForward, Russia! Are best known to us, and many others, as being
the band that give each song, each fragment of artsy, twisted and
ballistic noise a number rather a name, with drummer Katie adding to the
digits theme by continuing to count to eight (we think) through one of
the songs.
Yet if this set, early on Friday afternoon in front of a packed out
Radio 1/NME tent is anything to go by, they’ll soon be better known for
their frantic cannons of danceable rock.
There’s the odd bit of angular indie guitar in here somewhere, lending
them some appeal to fans of the mainstream, but by and large, you get
the feeling that this off-kilt chaos was designed for those looking for
something a little different.
Not the best band in the world by a long shot, but a decent start to our
festival, and one we have to cut short in order to head over to the Main
Stage for a quick burst of fun in the sun with ska-punk heroes Less Than
Jake.
After fourteen years of seemingly endless gigs, the Gainesville, Florida
natives have earned a reputation as being a seriously enjoyable live
show, and they don’t disappoint.
Despite the fact that nobody told them the World Cup ended some time
ago, meaning the band then proceed to tell us how much Germany sucks at
every opportunity, it’s a small complaint that in no way reflects how
much we enjoyed LTJ.
Clearly enjoying themselves, Roger, Chris and Co. charge through a fun,
fast paced, energetic and entertaining set, mixing favourites old and
new into a great show that is a joy to behold.
However, the same can not be said for young heavy metallers Bullet For
My Valentine. Having attracted a truck load of hype, a Kerrang award or
two, and an army of devoted followers, the Welsh metal outfit are
rapidly gaining a reputation as Britain’s newest challengers to the
heavy metal throne occupied by the likes of Maiden, Sabbath et al.
Today though, they just suck.
Songs such as ‘4 Words (to choke upon)’ and ‘Tears Don’t Fall’ sound
pretty much the same; vocalist/guitarist Matt Tuck belching down the mic
over chugging, nondescript guitars. It’s all very uninspired.
And what they lack in originality, they make up for in expletives, with
Tuck totally incapable of stringing a sentence together without
inserting the F-Word in between every two words (and that’s no
exaggeration).
Fortunately for everyone concerned, thrash-metal Uber Gods Slayer arrive
next to show the young pretenders exactly how metal should be done.
Slayer are exactly how you’d expect them to be. Jeff Hanneman looks like
an angry hockey player, Kerry King is a big gripper who would probably
eat you whole if he couldn’t get his hands on a Mars Bar, Dave Lombardo
is hidden beneath a wall of toms, and Tom Araya screeches and bellows
like the proverbial man possessed.
And they sound awesome.
Playing a career spanning set that includes all the classics; ‘Dead Skin
Mask’, ‘South of Heaven’, ‘Seasons in the Abyss’, ‘War Ensemble’ and a
gut-busting rendition of ‘Raining Blood’ for the finale. Drums ricochet
inside your chest, guitars shred and Araya sounds brutal.
Which is funny, because in between songs, he looks genuinely amused,
smiling and laughing like a little happy old man, before suddenly
yelling something along the lines of ‘ARE YOU ALL READY TO DIE!?!’ and
launching into another vicious onslaught of thrash-metal mayhem that
sees the hardcore following crashing around with horns in their air,
whilst a large section of curious onlookers simply stand around looking
scared.
So no near-death pits then, but one hell of a good show.
And then it’s back over to the NME/Radio 1 stage to catch one of the
most exciting live bands in Britain right now.
Having stormed across the charts with feel-good indie singles such as
‘She Moves In Her Own Way/, The Kooks have garnered a reputation as one
of the must-see bands of this weekend, and as such, the closest we can
get to the stage is five rows from the back of the tent.
Not to worry though, as we’re still treated to a great show, The Kooks
belting out hit after hit of animated guitar-pop and the capacity crowd
singing back every word. Surely bigger things beckon for these boys.
Unfortunately we have to cut out Kooks experience short in order to trek
back to the Main Stage in time for the band we’ve been waiting weeks,
nay, months to see.
It’s been a long time, a really long time since Pearl Jam brought their
anthemic grunge to a UK festival.
After the tragic events of Roskilde in 2000 when nine people were killed
during their set, playing larger events such as this is something the
Seattle five piece has not been too fond of.
Eddie Vedder addresses the situation before his band even strike a
chord, telling the audience to “look out for each other”, and that
“we’re in this together”, before later in the set adding that “There
were reasons why we haven’t played festivals for a long time. It was
nothing to do with the fact that we had no guts, we just needed your
trust.”
But thank the lords of rock that they’re back, as Vedder, Gossard, Ament,
McCready and Cameron launch into a full on, fast, furious and epic set
mixing songs from their latest eponymous album with classics from
landmark debut ‘Ten’, and everything in between.
Opening up with ‘Go’ and working their way through ‘Animal’ and
‘Corduroy’ with aplomb before letting rip with recent-ish single ‘World
Wide Suicide’, Seattle’s finest look fired up, charging into every chord
with guns a’blazin’.
The likes of ‘Hail Hail; and ‘Green Disease’ built up a steady momentum,
before PJ let loose with an epic rendition of ‘Even Flow’, and everyone
in the place goes mental, rocking along to the entire thing, including
the drum solo and seemingly impromptu jam in the middle.
Yet just as soon as they’ve whipped the crowd into a frenzy with the
‘Ten’ classic, Vedder & Co. look to follow-up ‘VS’ to calm them down
with a mass sing-a-long of ‘Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small
Town’.
The classics keep coming, from the acoustic-led ‘Daughter’ to the
atmospheric ‘Black’, every now and again breaking off into musical
interludes that would perhaps seem self-indulgent and unnecessary were
this anyone other than Pearl Jam.
After an impressive, high-spirited run through of ‘Why Go’, PJ answer
their own question: ‘Why go home…when you can come back and rock some
more for the encore?’.
Following a well-received run through of ‘Life Wasted’, Pearl Jam
finally unleash the song everyone wants to hear. Live, under the
moonlight and with maybe a thousand fans singing along to every word,
‘Alive’ sounds glorious. Vedders sings with the same passion he head
back on their debut album, with the entire crowd joining in.
And that solo. That majestic, marvellous solo that brings tears to grown
men’s eyes sounds phenomenal.
It’s a beautiful moment.
After a quick joke about old George Dubya Bush, Pearl Jam end their show
with a bold and brilliant cover of Neil Young’s ‘Rockin’ In The Free
World’, during which Eddie Vedder runs off the stage and as close to the
crowd as he can. It’s one of those moments that rock ‘n’ roll was made
for.
OK, so we didn’t get the addition of some of favourites such as
‘Rearviewmirror’ or ‘Jeremy’ like those lucky souls down in Reading, but
after such a perfect set, we’re hardly about to complain.
Recommended Links:
►
www.leedsfestival.com – Official site for the festival.
iForward, Russia!
►
www.forwardrussia.com
►
www.myspace.com/forwardrussia
Less Than Jake
►
www.lessthanjake.com
►
www.myspace.com/lessthanjake
Bullet for my Valentine
►
www.bulletformyvalentine1.com
►
www.myspace.com/bulletformyvalentine
The Kooks
►
www.thekooks.co.uk
►
www.myspace.com/thekooks
Pearl Jam
►
www.tenclub.net
►
www.myspace.com/tenclub
►
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