Reading & Leeds Festival 2010: In YouTube videos (Part 1)
The best weekend of the summer, in YouTube highlights.
Rocklouder rolled up to the 2010 Leeds leg of the annual Reading & Leeds spectacular with extreme trepidation. We'll be honest, we were a bit nervous about this year's big names: Blink 182 were never any good live first time round, Guns N' Roses are the most unreliable band ever, and indie kings Arcade Fire aren't yet proven festival headliners. We needn't have worried though - the whole thing felt like an absolute triumph, with most bands we caught putting in seriously impressive sets throughout the weekend. We didn't even have to deal with any mud.
Sometimes moving pictures can say more than we ever could in words, so we've collated some of our favourite bands we saw in the form of live YouTube videos. Here's the first part, and keep an eye out for the second and third parts later in the week once our cruel, brain-crushing three day hangover has disappeared.
- Queens of the Stone Age put in a really strong showing this year, with a set that featured a bunch of fan favourites lifted from 'Rated R' (celebrating its tenth anniversary this year). Though they didn't pull the kind of crowd Biffy Clyro did beforehand, it still felt like a fantastic celebration of a seriously underrated band.
- Ah yes, Biffy Clyro. Currently riding a particularly-bloody-massive wave of success with their latest album, the trio pulled a huge crowd to their main stage set. They rattled through some older stuff, but the majority of the newer material sounded just as amazing. Not entirely sure about frontman Simon's dyed blonde beard 'n' hair combo though. (Footage from BBC @ Reading)
- Weezer returned to the UK after about a million years and didn't disappoint - in fact, they were probably a highlight of the whole weekend. Frontman Rivers Cuomo has ditched his quiet 'n' moody persona from last time he was here in favour of an amazing, glorious mid-life crisis, cracking jokes and lapping up every second. More importantly, the whole band have remembered how to be fun, peppering their set with a bunch of classic 'Blue Album' tracks, as well as slightly bizarre covers of MGMT and, er, Wheatus (below). If rumours of a full Blue Album tour are to be believed, it's going to be the best set of gigs 2010 has seen.
- Arcade Fire aren't really on the Rocklouder radar that much, but their only UK festival appearance of 2010 was an absolute spectacle. Clearly realising they had something to prove, they ran through highlights of all their three albums, and pulled a respectable amount of people to their main stage headline slot. Though there were a bunch of lame 'festival unfriendly' tracks in the middle, by the end it was as intense and ridiculously euphoric as any punk or rock headline show we've seen in a long time, and they've easily cemented their place as one of the biggest bands in the world. (Top footage from BBC @ Reading)
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