Summer Shake Up

Well, my plans for the summer changed quite significantly today. To recap for anyone who doesn’t read this blog – I’ve got weekend tickets for Sonisphere and Wacken. I have a ticket to see Foo Fighters before Sonisphere and was planning to sit in Hyde Park and listen to Bon Jovi (fuck paying £65+ when you can listen for free!) That was my plan and quite frankly, I was really happy about it. I’ve talked about as a weekend, I think Download is weak, but I was envious to the extreme relating to the booking of System of a Down – a band that is on a very small bucket list of bands I have. I remember thinking that I’ll book a day ticket for the Saturday if the price is right. The prices were released and at the time, it was too much money. The bands were there, but it was just too much. I don’t know if SOAD will tour again but I’d be amazed if they didn’t. With that in mind, I opted not to get a Download day ticket. And then I saw the setlist SOAD will be playing on this tour.

1-Prison Song
2- B.Y.O.B.
3- Know
4- Needles
5- Deer Dance
6- Attack
7- Radio/Video
8- Hypnotize
9- Question!
10- Suggestions
11- Psycho
12- Chop Suey!
13- Lonely Day
14- Soldier Side
15- Kill Rock 'n Roll
16- Lost in Hollywood
17- Forest
18- Science
19- Holy Mountains
20- Aerials
21- Tentative
22- Cigaro
23- Suite-Pee
24- War?
25- Toxicity
26- P.L.U.C.K.
27- Sartarabad
28- Sugar

Now THAT is a fucking setlist! Yes, it is not perfect but still, seeing this made me bitter that I wasn’t going to Download. Then I looked again at the costs and decided that actually, I could afford it this month (making some severe cuts this month to plans) and I’d be able to go see SOAD. The other bands I want to see that day include Down, Hollywood Undead, Skindred, Alice Cooper (2nd Stage Headliner, so probably won’t happen), Twisted Sister, Cheap Trick, Dio Disciples, Clutch, Sacred Mother Tongue, Sevendust and Evile. The travel included, the costs for the weekend are £120. That is amazing. Considering the amount of bands I want to watch, that makes it so worthwhile. I still don’t like some of the bands that day (Avenged Sevenfold and Skunk Anansie will not be watched by me) but there is a lot of win, and I am really pleased with the decision I have taken to go to Download. I am very excited, not just for SOAD but also because I’ve not been to Donington since 2007. The very idea of going to Donington and Knebworth in one year is amazing. I thought when this was booked that my summer was finally sorted and somehow, it was going to be awesome. And then, things changed again, and now I’m going to Reading.

I had bought 2 Reading tickets already. I was trying to sell them as it was an ill-thought out purchase. However Reading/Leeds didn’t sell out on the first weekend of sale for the first time I’ve been aware of the festival. So I was sitting on two tickets and fearing I’d lose a lot of money on the deal. The first attempt to sell died on its arse, and as such I was nervous. They are on sale as I type but then when talking about this with friends at the pub, one expressed interest in buying them, providing he could find someone to go with. After this discussion went back and forth, we realised that if he bought one of the tickets, I could use the money from that sale to fund my own weekend. So we agreed this is what we’ll do and I was going to Reading with Rob. Here’s the thing, only when looking at the lineup again did I realise how good it was. Over the span of the weekend (well, what’s been announced anyway), I would watch:

Friday: My Chemical Romance, The Offspring, Deftones, Rise Against, New Found Glory, Architects, Pulled Apart By Horses, Does It Offend You, Yeah?
Saturday: The Strokes, Pulp, Jimmy Eat World, Madness, Seasick Steve, The Pigeon Detectives, Jane’s Addiction, Glassjaw, The Bronx, Title Fight.
Sunday: Muse, Elbow, Frank Turner, Death From Above 1979, Panic! At The Disco, Cage the Elephant, Fucked Up, Flogging Molly,
Unknown Day: Tim Minchin, Henry Rollins

That is a lot I want to watch, and there is still more to be announced, so I am pleased to be able to go. Reading for the whole weekend will be a new experience for me and I hope it is a good one. So, in one day I have decided to go to Reading. What a great summer this is shaping up to be. The bucket list only has Green Day left on it now I think. Possibly ACDC but the fact I’m not sure says they aren’t there. What a great summer of live music. Where’s my tent?