Live Review

Sonisphere Day 3 review – Knebworth

• 3rd Aug 2010

After having checked out the site on Thursday evening, covered Friday late events and then all day Saturday – it was no surprise that Sunday got off to a slow start for this reviewer.

But he was even sadder when the rest of his team seemed in equal poor form. So with that in mind we’d like to send out our apologies to Henry Rollins as all four of us really wanted to catch his spoken word sermon.

Instead the first band I shot and caught was Skindred on the Apollo stage. They are a returning band from last year and are great at giving the crowd that much needed energy by enticing them vocally as opposed to using their bodies too much. Perfectly timed and perfectly placed on the festival bill. Skindred score points for both years in a row now.

It’s at this point when I decide to soak up the crowd a bit and wander the entire site. I hear parts of Dir En grey, Parts of Slayer, Parts of the stand up comedy by some guy from across the Atlantic who was actually not all that. So I decide to not waste my time at a festival watching comedy when I should really be checking out the music. So I head off to the Jagermeister, Strongbow and RED Bull Stages.

The Red Bull one has a Juliet Lewis wannabe playing. Not too bad an act but a shame the tent was hidden off where it was as it looks fairly empty most of the time outside. The Jager stage is a bit better and had the odd act on stage who may well make an impression in the future. Again as there are so many big acts on it can be hard for them to draw a crowd. Perhaps if their stage was aimed at the passing people it may have drew bigger crowds. The Strongbow stage acts like a mini indoor stage which of course limits the crowd potential, but it is based in a spot when it will at least be heard.

Later that day I’m back on camera duties for what will turn out to be the highlight of the festival for me. Alice In Chains, like Skindred, played the Saturn stage last year, so it is only fitting that they get promoted to the Apollo and my god do they rock it! They rock it so well that literally the whole set flies by that even the band comment on how soon it’s gone by. Jerry Cantrell leads an impressive pack and the writing material on their last album (out last year) is played well. Of course their vocalist William DuVall killed any suspicions about his voice last year when he not only carried material before his time but rocked the new stuff too. This year he went even further and showed that he is a natural at projecting. If anyone wants to see how good this guy is then the song to hear is “Man In The Box” which they played early on.
Knowing full well all the manic running around I had done and had yet to do had just paid off – I left upset that I had to walk away from Chains as they played “Would?” which was rounded off by “Rooster” I prepared myself for my next shoot which would be for The Cult.

And it is sad to report that while there are bands that surprise you and exceed expectations, there are also those where they don’t meet them. And The Cult were that band for me. It wasn’t a bad performance and they all sounded, quite, well. They just didn’t bring the stage presence needed to remind us of how much of an impact they had on us back in the day. So instead of making things worse for myself I wandered to hear what else was going on and check in with others… and was overjoyed that on the way out of the photo pit came William DuVall walking towards the Stage the Cult were on. Clearly he wanted to check them out too and was kind enough to give a friendly wave back after I gave his performance the ultimate thumbs up. Thank god none of my friends were around to see this bit of fan worship! Well the guy is clearly cool – and so cool he even braved hanging out casually in the media area later on.

Pendulum turn out to be not what I expected so I run away quickly to check out the small stages only to find them either between acts of closing down earlier. In dire need of sleep I run back to the Saturn in time to shoot Iggy Pop who hasn’t lost any of his energy – but looks even more leathery than ever. But the guy isn’t young so I won’t go into too much detail except to say that it’s a performance any of us would be proud of if we had given it at a young age even!

This leaves Iron Maiden, so we grab a spot for what is 2 hours of British rock. And they do not disappoint. But they do pull the rug from under many of the fans by mainly focussing on work over the past 10 years. It does show you that they have still got the goods when it comes to what they write – but the material is fairly repetitive in the nature of the songs as they seem to allow for the vocalist to have breaks in the guitar sessions. You can imagine Bruce Dickinson out back towelling himself off and drinking before he legs it back for the finale of each song. He then returns the favour every 30 minutes or song bay giving the band a break while he addressed the crowd for prolonged periods of time.
It’s a fitting end to the show though as a highly energetic (and not to mention short looking) Dickinson leaps all around the stage sending out that voice to 50,000 screaming and singing fans. Sonisphere has come to its close for the second time and all in all it seems vastly improved.

There are things they need to iron out for year three. There was more entertainment on offer for sure – most things onsite were all stupidly expensive – but what we need is some late night entertainment onsite after the bands. The bars stay open but it’s quiet. An outdoor rock is area would be most welcome but Sonisphere do not appear to be providing it which is a real shame.
Also having a lot of emo may get the girlies in, but it endangers the reputation of the festival in terms of it being a strong rock contender which at this moment it still is. It may make them diverse by trying to plug as many holes as possible musically, but it ultimately makes it appear weak within the rock community as they appear to just want to pander to too many tastes. But perhaps this criticism should be saved for the years to come as they have managed thus far to get some very impressive acts and huge names to the site.

All those grumble out the way Sonisphere is probably one of the most comfy festivals. The rain tends to stay away for the better part making the weather very pleasant; it is also a nice number crowd-wise. If they were to grow the attending numbers it would probably start to get chaotic. Especially between the Apollo and Saturn stages. If you have yet to go to Sonisphere then make sure you keep your eye on their website for next year.