Live Review

Sonisphere: Day Three – Sonisphere, Knebworth

• 14th Jul 2011

It was very apparent from the start that the last day of Sonisphere was building up to an amazing climax. In amongst a sea of masks, boiler suits and Slipknot attire, this day was most definitely gearing up to be a day dedicated to the memory of Paul Grey. A 2 minutes silence was observed in memory of Slipknots number 2 in what was an amazing tribute as you could have heard a pin drop amongst the 60,000 strong crowd and something I was personally grateful to be part of. A loud roar greeted the end of the touching tribute and the rock was back in full swing with the arrival of IN FLAMES on the Saturn stage.

This was my first introduction to the Swedish metallers and I was not disappointed! The melodic riffs and thundering drums drilled right to my core, a band which I thought were a little reminiscent of Killswitch engage, effortlessly reeled through their tracks which really got the crowd going. They played a few tracks from there new album Sounds of a playground fading and some old ones too, one which really stuck in my mind was THE HIVE which was packed with heavy riffs and growling vocals. Another track that stood out was the blistering TAKE THIS LIFE which was also a real crowd pleaser! A great effort which really left me wanting more and definitely will have me scouring the net for their back catalogue!

Next on the bill on the Apollo stage were MASTADON. I’m not sure if it was because of the high expectations or that I was so impressed with IN FLAMES but I found MASTADON to be a little bit stock for my liking. They had it all going for them with the brutal vocals and great riffs but certain aspects of there set which included strange electronic vocal effects and hard screamo vocals mixed with whistling didn’t really float my boat! I liked the songs which lent more on the melodic side and it was good to see the meat and two veg of any good metal band guitar solos but it all was a bit same old throughout.

So back to the Saturn stage to see the Aussie rockers AIRBOURNE. On the walk towards the stage I was greeted with the sight of a wall of Marshall Amps! This was going to be good! At the beginning AIRBOURNE were living in the shadow of AC/DC, but still riding on the back of their second album NO GUTS, NO GLORY they have beyond proved themselves to be a band in their own right. When AIRBOURNE arrived on stage the crowd made a big surge forward. In a whirlwind of beer and testosterone AIRBOURNE ripped through great hits like cheap wine and blackjack! This was indeed a party to which everybody was invited with good time rock and roll being the soundtrack. And yet again the crowd were treated to the antics of the lead singer climbing the heights of the Saturn stage and playing on the roof! A stunt which i’m sure had management and insurance companies holding their breath but sent the crowds wild! More electrifying hits followed with no way but the hard way and of course runnin wild! Another outstanding effort from AIRBOURNE and they still obviously enjoy what they are doing as well as the fans enjoy them doing it.

MOTORHEAD opened their set on the Apollo stage with a heartfelt message that there guitarist of 11 years Wurzel died the day before of a heart attack and that the set for the day was dedicated to him. With MOTORHEAD you know what you are going to get. New material mixing with the old favourites but not really sounding out of place had it been released 20 years ago, but you have to wonder would any good rock festival be complete without them? MOTORHEAD appeal to audiences young and old, one of the youngest being a lad of about 3 years old who was sat on his dads shoulders throwing up the devil horns! I wasn’t in anyway disappointed with MOTORHEADS set, it was good wholesome, home grown rock n roll but all the songs slowly blend into one and all start to sound like the Ace of spades after a while. New song I know how to die was another solid effort from MOTORHEAD but like I said earlier it soon blended into all the songs that preceded it!

Now we all have our guilty pleasures in life and I am about to share mine with you….

Yes LIMP BIZKIT. This was to be the highlight of my day! To be honest I shall try not to be too biased in this review but Fred Durst could have walked on stage and stood there for an hour with his thumb jammed up his ass and I would still have said it was great! Luckily this was not the case. LIMP BIZKIT exploded onto the stage with the first track Hot Dog. Mosh pits immediately started appearing through out the crowd, this was going to get messy! The whole set ended up being requested by the crowd so all the favourites were played like My Way, Take a Look Around and Break Stuff. Faith was requested and Fred Durst agreed to sing it if all the ladies sat on peoples shoulders, apparently getting your boobs out was optional but a majority of the willing participants took the option! Unfortunately only one track from the new album Gold Cobra made it into the set and that was the aggressive Douche Bag which was more fuel thrown into the mosh pit fires! The final song of the set was of course Rollin. A great song to end a great set. With the return of Wes Borland to the axe Fred and the boys are back and definitely back on top!

The final headlining act on the Saturn stage was comic/musician Bill Bailey. I was really looking forward to this set, having seen the DVDs like part troll I was quite optimistic that Bills set would transpire well in a festival atmosphere. A short and stocky man arrived on stage in a Bill Bailey mask, the mask was pulled off to reveal….Bill Bailey! Simple but genius I thought. Bill then started his set with Human Slaves in an Insect Nation, quirky and strange in typical Bill Bailey style! Other offerings to the crowd came in the shape of songs like Hey Asda I aint gonna be your Bitch, more of Bills intelligent humour aimed at consumerism. The Chas and Dave style song titled Satan ave a word with yourself and the west country style Poker Face by Lady Gaga! The first time I saw a lot of Bill Bailey’s material on DVD like the Kraftwork style take on the Wurzles I’ve got a brand new Combine Harvester and the German techno version of the Hokey Cokey I found them to be quite amusing, unfortunately tonight having seen them before they didn’t quite have the same effect, like the novelty value had worn off, so the Rammstein style Scarborough Fair also fell into the trap that it was a bit same old same old. Having said that it was still a real thrill to see the man do his thing live but just had lost the shine a bit from the first time I had seen the material.

It was a 20 minute wait till the final headlining act took to the Apollo stage and it felt a lot longer! This is the act that was to be the ultimate climax to the 3 day event. This was to be the final date in what was described to be a very emotional tour for SLIPKNOT.

SLIPKNOT took to the stage to be met with thundering applause and screams from the crowd. Dressed in there original style red boiler suits with Paul Grey’s suit and mask hanging beside them, this was an end to a tour dedicated to the memory of Slipknots no2 who sadly passed in 2010.

In a statement from the SLIPKNOT front man he described the tour and indeed the evening not to be about negativity but positivity and celebration, and he was a man of his word. SLIPKNOT owned the stage playing a majority of the songs from their self titled first album with real energy! They picked a really good set from there back catalogue with songs like Before I forget, Duality Liberate, Left behind, and Wait and bleed. I could go on but the list of great tracks just kept on coming. The stage was alight with great pyrotechnics and the members of Slipknot made great use of the stage giving an eerie visual performance as well as a total audio assault on the ears! It did feel like something was missing but SLIPKNOT did Paul Greys memory proud tonight. This band have proved that no matter what is thrown at them, they will never die!