Here’s all the bands that I personally watched and what I thought:
FRIDAY
Goldie Lookin’ Chain
When they named the GLC as the opening act at Reading 04, I don’t think they could’ve known how it would go down. It turned out that it was the biggest crowd I’ve ever seen to watch an opening act. Their piss take hip hop had a lot of people dancing around at midday . Highlights - ‘Guns Don’t Kill People, Rappers Do’ & ‘Half Man Half Machine’.
Taking Back Sunday
TBS are one of my favourite bands and this was the 1st time I’ve seen them live but unfortunately due to sound problems that weren’t their fault (a sound problem that also went on to disadvantage Reel Big Fish & Hundred Reasons as well). However with the energy that TBS put into their live performance they did recover & ended on an awesome live version of ‘Cute Without The E’ which had me singing that song for the rest of the festival. Highlight - ‘Cute Without The E’ & ‘A Decade Under The Influence’.
Reel Big Fish
Whenever you watch a band like RBF, you know your going to have a good time & people did. There were still the sound problems but RBF are so good live that it doesn’t matter. Highlights - ‘ Where Have You Been?’ & ‘Beer’.
Hundred Reasons
I’ve seen HR many times & they are a wicked live band but on this occasion they were just better on some songs than they were on others. The sound was still a bit dodgy but songs like Silver should have had the whole crowd going crazy, but they hardly registered. Highlight: ‘What You Get’.
Jurassic 5
Some good old-school hip-hop that had the crowd bouncing along to the beat and the fact that the sun decided to come out & pay us a visit just added to the whole J5 experience. With some added live performance tricks up their sleeves such as making beats using children’s toys, they couldn’t fail. Highlight: ‘Golden’.
SATURDAY
The Bronx
This was one of the performances I was looking forward to the most because I’ve seen them before & I’ve seen how much energy they give live but unfortunately I think that 1 o’clock in the afternoon was just too early in the day for such brash punk rock, the crowd just looked tired & because of that Matt Caughthran didn‘t seem to be giving as much to the performance. Highlights - ‘ Notice Of Eviction’ & ‘White Tar’
Allister
Last time I saw Allister I wasn’t that impressed but then again the last time I saw them was when they were headlining a Drive-Thru UK Invasion gig that should’ve been headlined by Homegrown. This time they are not headlining and look more comfortable and sound brilliant. Highlights - ‘Flypaper’ & ‘None Of My Friends Are Punks’.
Goldfinger
Goldfinger are a good band and they had a very large crowd come out to see them and I was quite impressed in my first time seeing them. They are a good punk band and they offer an excellent and energetic live performance. Highlight - ‘Spokesman’.
Funeral For A Friend
Yet again there was a very packed Radio 1 tent for this headlining performance but half the people in that tent probably couldn’t actually see FFAF (I was one of those people). They should have been on the Main Stage earlier instead but they still rocked live & proved they are one of the premier UK bands around at the moment. Highlight - ‘Rookie Of The Year’.
SUNDAY
Thrice
I like Thrice, I’m not their biggest fan but they did really impress me live. They sounded brilliant live and had stacks of energy which was needed to wake up a crowd at midday who had probably all been drinking constantly for the 3 days since they arrived. Highlight - ‘Cold Cash and Colder Hearts’
The Rasmus
All weekend every person you spoke to said that they planned to go and watch The Rasmus, unfortunately for the band it wasn’t so they could listen to the music. After Thrice finished the crowd totally cleared, the only people who stayed near the front were people preparing to throw stuff. People had bottles, people were making mud balls and as soon as the band walked on it became total carnage. The Rasmus did one song and then gave up and walked off the stage never to return. Highlight - The drummer throwing his sticks into the crowd in a rage & also Lead singer Lauri Ylünen getting hit in the privates by a mud ball.
The Streets
After seeing The Streets last year at the festival I knew that this was going to be a guaranteed good time. Everyone was dancing and singing along and Mike Skinner even made a joke at The Rasmus’ expense which made the crowd even happier. Highlights - ‘Dry Your Eyes’ & ‘Don’t Mug Yourself’.
Lostprophets
I’m a big fan of Lostprophets (more their older stuff than the new) and the crowd went crazy as soon as they stepped on stage. The crowd were bouncing up and down all through the set and the mosh pits were really quite scary. Definitely one of the best sets all weekend. Highlights - ‘The Fake Sound Of Progress’ & ‘Shinobi vs. Dragon Ninja’
50 Cent & G Unit
This was very similar to The Rasmus earlier on in the day apart from there was a much, much larger and more hostile crowd. When people were throwing stuff at The Rasmus it was done for a laugh, whereas people seemed to really hate 50. People were throwing stuff which even included a chair which 50 then held up like a trophy and every time a song ended you couldn‘t hear him speak over the constant booing. G Unit didn‘t last the whole hour of their set but at least they lasted 25 minutes, 20 minutes longer than The Rasmus. Highlights - ‘In Da Club’ & Lloyd Banks’ ‘On Fire’.
Green Day
Green Day are definitely one of the best live bands around and they didn’t look rusty at all headlining Reading . They started off with their new single ‘American Idiot’ and they went on from there with an array of their international superhits and a couple of new songs from new album ‘American Idiot’. Green Day were really the best possible headlining band there could have been for Reading and the crowd loved every moment of their one and a half hour set. If the new songs are anything to go by, Green Day’s ‘American Idiot’ is going to be huge and we’ll hopefully be seeing a lot more of Green Day in the next year. Highlights - ‘Waiting’, ‘Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)’ & ‘Brain Stew’.
To find out about Reading Festival & this years festival - Click Here |
