Reading Festival 2009

Only just realized that I still haven’t put this post up, it’s not good that I am actually able to think of posts to write I keep forgetting to actually put them up. Anyway…

When the weekend began there was a much more placid atmosphere then the year before, without as many random encounters and socialization with complete strangers. Although this didn’t really change the weekend certainly picked up and became a lot more entertaining. The weekend wasn’t without its dramas either but I’m not going to go into that here.

Now for the life source of Reading Festival, the music. There wasn’t a hard-hitting Main Stage like that of 2008, which featured Rage Against The Machine, Metallica, Queens of the Stone Age and The Killers (if they’re your thing), in fact it was a weedy disappointment in comparison with the 3 headliners being Kings Of Leon, Arctic Monkeys and Radiohead. My reaction, along with many others when these headliners were announced was where is the heavy Sunday that Reading is renowned for? Fortunately the smaller stages redeemed Reading this year. Bands such as Alexisonfire, Billy Talent, Atreyu, Rise Against, AFI, Gallows and Lostprophets exerted a much greater draw on me than any of the main stage headliners and these were bolstered by mid-lineup appearances by Funeral For A Friend and Enter Shikari.

I wasn’t really sure how Enter Shikari would fair on the Main Stage of Reading when up to now I have only seen them in small, dark venues but I am pleased to say that their main stage appearance had all the energy of their more secluded shows, as did their new material (this being the first time I have seen them live since the release of Common Dreads). The BBC’s coverage of Enter Shikari, along with Rou Reynolds beaming throughout, can be seen here. Funeral For A Friend are always amazing when I see them live and this time was no exception. It was a show like had never experienced before, being in a mosh pit to Juneau whilst it pours down with torrential rain is an amazing experience. Even when the rain caused a complete power failure on stage the amazement didn’t stop, with the crowd partaking in chants of “You’re no singing anymore” and a rendition of We Will Rock You lead by the drummer of FFAF. This performance being incredible despite technical difficulties, made this Kings Of Leon outburst along with there complaints about the sound quality all the more pathetic.

Very glad I went this year and bring on Reading Festival 2010!