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FRIDAY
My Sonisphere experience began with a few teething troubles at the hotel
with our booking, which meant that we unfortunately missed Delain and
Turisas, 2 bands I had penciled in to see. However, we finally made it
to the Saturn stage about ten minutes into EUROPE'S set, which
covered both their greatest hits and a couple of tracks from their
latest, 'Last Look At Eden'. It seemed that the band surprised a
lot of fans who can't see past 'The Final Countdown' with their
heaviness and they certainly set down the gauntlet for the acts that
followed with a particularly crushing version of 'The Beast'. The
band finished off with 'The Final Countdown', of course, which had
everyone jump on the hill overlooking the stage.
After GARY NUMAN's set, which was pedestrian at best bar a
rousing version of 'Are Friends Electric?', ALICE COOPER took to
the stage to show us that vaudeville ain't dead yet. This was the
first time I had seen Alice and I was particularly impressed with the
stage show, which I'm sure you will know involves him getting into all
sorts of nasty predicaments such as being decapitated, hung, and put in
an iron maiden (more on them later!).
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for the music Alice opted for a greatest hits set with a smattering of
recent tunes, beginning and ending with 'School's Out' and passing
through 'No More Mister Nice Guy', 'I'm Eighteen', 'Poison', 'Feed My
Frankenstein' and a blistering version of 'Vengeance Is Mine'.
During 'Dirty Diamonds'
Alice threw what must have been 100 necklaces
into the crowd much to their delight.
Special mention must go to
his band too who were top notch throughout. A great show and a
fantastic start to the weekend. |
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SATURDAY
The first 'full' day of the festival began with ominous weather as it
was pelting down with rain as we were on the way to the site, however
the metal gods must have been smiling upon us as by the time we made it
to the site to catch the last half of SABATON's set on the
Saturn stage the festival was bathed in glorious sunshine.
Sabaton themselves were in top form and will have certainly garnered a
few new fans, yours truly included, with a great blast of battle metal
to get rid of any lingering hangovers, the pinnacle of which was set
closer 'Metal Machine' which contains the hook to end all hooks!
Unfortunately I got mixed up with the stages and missed most of EVILE's
set, reaching the packed Bohemia tent in time to catch impressive
versions of 'Metamorphosis' and 'Enter The Grave', the latter of which
had the crowd swirling in a circle pit at the ungodly hour of about
12.40 in the afternoon!! From here it was a quick march round the
corner to catch the first half of SOULFLY's 30 minute set, which
didn't do them justice, Max Cavalera opting for the punchy opening salvo
of 'Blood Fire War Hate', 'Prophecy' and Sepultura's classic
'Refuse/Resist'. Arguably one of the heaviest bands of the
weekend.
From there it was a dash across to the main Apollo stage for the first
of the big guns, and one of the bands of the weekend, ANTHRAX.
Joey Belladonna is now firmly back in the band and with family and
friends watching on the side of the stage the band tore Knebworth up in
their short set playing the classic 'Thrax tracks 'Caught In A Mosh',
'Antisocial', 'Got The Time' and 'Indians' among others. 'Indians'
was dedicated to the late great Ronnie James Dio, and the band broke
into 'Heaven and Hell' during the middle section of the song in tribute,
much to the crowd's delight. The sight of Joey Belladonna racing
around the stage in Indian headgear will also live long in the memory.
Back across to the Saturn stage afterwards we took in FEAR FACTORY's
set, which was slightly disappointing and hampered by sound problems,
but also contained some new material such as 'Powershifter' as well as
oldies like the thunderous 'Edgecrusher' and set closer 'Replica'.
Another dash across to the Apollo stage for PAPA ROACH wasn't
really worthwhile, Jacoby Shaddix straining with his vocals and slightly
irritating mockney impression didn't really impress, the amount of girls
showing their breasts on the big screen probably the most memorable
thing about their set! The band did opt to play a brand new song
'Kicked In The Teeth' though, along with old favourites 'Last Resort'
and 'Hollywood Whore' which kept their fans happy.
APOCALYPTICA took to the Saturn stage next and despite turning in
a decent set their sound was muffled by the breeze that had been blowing
round the site all afternoon, however their string covers of Metallica
classics 'Fight Fire With Fire' and the timeless 'Master of Puppets were
certainly highlights. SKUNK ANANSIE were surprisingly
popular and an enthusiastic performance from singer Skin was good to
see, after which we headed over to the Apollo stage again for PLACEBO,
who now seem to be a six-piece. Although I'm not a massive
fan of Placebo's music they always put on an excellent live show, and
singer Brian Molko has a unique voice. The band, each one of them
clad all in white, blitzed through their hour long set taking in
classics like opener 'Nancy Boy', 'Every Me, Every You' and 'The Bitter
End' before visiting later hits such as 'Battle for The Sun'.
Another memorable performance from the boys.
Headlining the Saturn stage on Saturday were MOTLEY CRUE, who
brought their greatest hits set to town, Vince Neill on top form for
once. Starting off with the tremendous one-two of 'Kickstart My
Heart' and 'Dr Feelgood', the massive crowd were treated to hit after
hit, the band at the top of their game. 'Wild Side', 'Same Ol'
Situation' 'Too Fast For Love' and 'Shout At The Devil' were rolled out
again, the band strangely opting not to play anything from their latest
album, however the crowd left happy and the set climaxed with 'Girls
Girls Girls' and plenty of pyro. These boys could go on forever at
this rate.
Finally for Saturday, RAMMSTEIN were headlining the Apollo stage,
and despite yours truly having a poor viewing point, the show was
utterly fantastic, and included the full stage set, fireworks, flamethrowers,
crowd surfing dinghies and all that jazz. The music was terrific,
and despite the band only playing for 90 minutes of their allotted 120
minute set, no one went back home/to their tent/to their hotel
disappointed. Future classics like 'Du Hast', 'Ich Will' and most
spectacularly 'Feuer Frei' were played as well as some tracks from the
latest album, like 'Pussy'. A truly memorable experience which had
me waving a couple of glowsticks round by the end of the set like a
crazed loon!!
Review
by: Dan Armstrong
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