I am sat in the office, my ears are ringing and I have some wonderfully painful welts on my arms and shins. Yup, I was at a gig last night. Hatebreed (who I missed most of), Slayer and Slipknot.
Contrary to early fears, due to the early start we actually got the better part of 90 minutes out of each of the two headliners. Slayer could have played for another 90 without running out of good material. Disciple to open, Hallowed Point, War Ensemble, Chemical Warfare, Dead Skin Mask, Post Mortem, Raining Blood, Angel of Death…
Slipknot also put on the usual good show, but with slightly less of the effects I saw at Leeds a couple of years ago. Again, a good variety of tracks with the obvious choices thrown in – Wait and Bleed, Duality, Pulse of the Maggots and so forth.
I think we caught the last four or five Hatebreed tracks. From what I heard, they were quite good and managed a very impressive feat for a support band – virtually all the seated area on their feet for the last track.
If I had to make a complaint, it was that the sound wasn’t great. I went with Mike who’s more a watcher than a participant (and therefore ends up much less bruised than I do). The sound for Slayer was rather “muddy”, while Slipknot was so loud it was actually distorting. Not great for someone who’s not that familiar with their stuff and just came along for the show.
With the actual length of time on stage from the two headliners, great value for money and a really good crowd. Particularly impressive was a rather short 11-year-old lad who was kicking ass with the rest of them (including people easily 4 times his body size). His dad was proud! Mind, the little bugger hit me in the nuts more than once. Damn his short stature.
It’s also great to see more women jumping into a pit and not getting all girly and crap when they realise that it’s actually as violent as it looks. Also, they don’t get groped any more. I’m only going back 5-6 years and women were really just treated like **** at the heavier concerts.
Next up is Machine Head in Leeds on the 29th of November (followed by Blink 182 in Newcastle 2 days later). I think I need the rest…
Don’t say you’re getting to old for all of this.
There are other people out there the same age as you who are still trying to feel young 🙂
There are people out there the same age as me with a gorgeous wife and lovely young daughter. Can’t have everything! 🙂
This is somewhat different to the home life of our own dear queen ?
Did they play any of Dez O’Connor’s greatest hits – This is a really criminal record
cheers
mog
AKA Zaphod (Count the heads !!)