The Angry Budgie on Tour - Download Festival 2009 Day 1

The Angry Budgie on Tour – Download Festival 2009

For three days in June The Angry Budgie made its second pilgrimage to the home of rock and metal music, Donnington Park. This years line up was a damn fine thing to behold, with the three headlining acts being, a reformed Faith No More, Slipknot, and bringing the curtain down on the Sunday, Sheffield’s finest: Def Leppard.

So for my Download Review im really only going to pass comment on the bands I saw day by day. This review will concentrate on the Friday, June 12^th.

Day One – Friday June 12^th 2009

After a short period of rain before the festival there were a few worried thoughts in my head as to what the ground would be like at the festival. Add in reports from friends camping of muddy campgrounds, both my girlfriend and I decided to pack our wellies! We needn’t have bothered, thanks to some excellent sunshine on Thursday the main arena had obviously dried out. As soon as we arrived on Friday the ground was bone dry, the sun was shining strongly and there were few clouds in the sky.

Anyway on to the bands, ill review each one in order that we saw them, culminating in the headline acts.

Main Stage – Hollywood Undead: These were probably the band my girlfriend wanted to see more than any other over the weekend. Bit of a strange band but one that tries to fuse rap/electronic with a bit of rock. I’d been used to them for a while thanks to the gf playing their cd in my car, and to be fair to the boys they put on a decent show and sounded excellent. Each member wearing masks but not in the Slipknot full face stylee. The standout tracks being ‘Young’ and ‘Undead’. The latter being a big crowd favourite. 7/10 for me, good peperformance, but opening up the main stage on the first day of the festival is a difficult and un-enviable position.

Second Stage – In This Moment: Another favourite of my girlfriends, a metal band from LA fronted by Maria Brink. Now anyone who has seen a picture will realise the obvious attraction of this band. Maria has a cracking voice and……well….check out a picture! Despite this the band sound great and much like the CD, however Maria’s voice on occasion did sound a little strained on the day. Either way ITM did well and managed to get the crowd involved. 6/10, would have been higher had the vocals been better.

Second Stage – A Day To Remember, must apologise dont remember this lot!

Second Stage – Parkway Drive, or this lot!

Main Stage – Killswitch Engage: Probably the first band of the festival for me to get really excited about. Im a bit Killswitch fan and firmly believe they never put on a bad show! I only wish they would stop Adam from speaking, he really can be a bit of a tool! Anyway with Howard on top form the boys pummelled their way through a storming set. With ‘Holy Diver’ and ‘My Last Serenade’ being highlights for me! 8/10 cracking performance!

Main Stage – Limp Bizkit: Before the start of the festival and, when the line up and timings were announced, I felt sorry for Lacuna Coil. Im a fan of theirs, but they had the difficult slot of performing on the second stage as Limp Bizkit were scheduled to return on the main stage. It was the main stage where we decided to be, the return of Fred and Co. too tempting to miss. Now putting aside whether you think Fred Durst is a tit or not, Limp Bizkit are an awesome band live. Throughout the set you remembered all the good songs and were left thinking, they were actually pretty damn good! Starting with the epic ‘Break Stuff’ and finishing with ‘Take A Look Around’ ensured those in attendance went ape! 9/10 a cracking return to live action for the Bizkit boys!

Take A Look Around:

Main Stage – Korn: Korn are a band that I own many albums of but have never seen live. With some of the crowd leaving after Limp Bizkit’s set we managed to edge closer to the stage. What can I say, Korn are brilliant live, and Johnathan Davis has an amazing live voice! ‘Freak on a Leash’ provided the obvious high, with the crowd exploding into a mass mosh on the main riff. Korn have a tried and tested formula, down tune those guitars and beat the crap out of them, but hey it works! Another 9/10 for me!

Main Stage – Faith No More: It was a natural decision to stay on the main stage for Faith no More. You got a sense you were seeing history, no disrespect to Motley Crue, there was no where else to be! FNM arrived and played a damn fine set, with a fair few ‘oh yeah I remember that tune’. Admittedly we left a bit early to try and beat the crowds but we got to hear ‘Epic’. A fine return and 8/10 for me (would have marked higher but did not see the full set)!

A great first day, fantastic bands, great company and great weather! Roll on day two!

…..which ill try and post tomorrow!