Reading Festival 2008 - Sunday
Quite simply, Metallica are one of the best live bands you could hope to see.
It had already been confirmed that Slipknot had cancelled through Joey Jordison's injury, but when we get to the arena to discover the best news of the whole weekend - that overrated rubbish merchants Avenged Sevenfold have had to cancel - Sunday becomes National Festival Improv Day. It opens with last-minute additions Bring Me The Horizon (2/5), who can dodge projectiles well, but whose own projections are ill-suited for an early main stage appearance. Similarly, Alexisonfire (3/5) have outstanding songs, but seem a little lost on this scale stage, especially when the still too-quiet sound (the weather's fault, apparently) means the wonders of the likes of 'Boiled Frogs' are lost into the afternoon air.
That afternoon air is soon filled with other things, as those who spent a lot of money hoping to see Slipknot and Avenged Sevenfold have the displeasure of being faced with Plain White T's (2/5). Inevitably, the popsters are bombarded by a legion of bottlers (0/5), serving only to prove there are people in the crowd lamer than the dull, pop-punk dross being performed on stage. The T's do, however, end up looking defiant as a result; holding their own in the face of grand twattery, they even get a comical circle pit going.
After seeing such rubbish (and the band onstage), we want to get the party started again, and lucky for us there ain't no party like a Dropkick Murphy's (3/5) party, and within moments all animosity dissipates in favour of moshing, circle-pitting or jigging whether you're a fan or not. We make our way through a hell of a lot of people by the BBC Introducing Stage, completely unaware that The FF'ers have just been bottled off for not being the Foo Fighters, to get to see The Music. We get there as Hadouken! finish their set and get utterly freaked out when a hundred carbon copies of the cast of Skins nearly trample us. Luckily, The Music (4/5) put us at ease; the youthful energy of the previous act seems to still be in the air as everyone bounces along to excellent songs like 'Welcome To The North' and newer tracks like 'The Spike'. The fact they aren't far more widely known is as baffling as it is a shame.
Then we nearly die.
You see, most of the packed NME tent wants to stay for the following band. Thing is, we reckon around twice that number want to get in to see the following band. What ensues is like trying to pack a litre of play dough into a coffee cup. It's messy stuff, but this is what happens for a band that's had a year like Pendulum (4/5). Once you give up trying to breathe, these onetime Drum'n'Bass kings absolutely devastate. You can call it chav music if you like, but if you witness their remix of 'Voodoo People' live and aren't driven into Tazmanian-Devil-on-crack levels of movement there is clearly something very wrong with you. We stagger out, unsure if we've still got all our limbs and watching, unsurprised, as people are carried out out-cold. This is one of those 'I was there' moments, and if you were, you probably still have the bruises to prove it. Literally breathtaking.
Cooling down is needed, and what better way to chill than with Tenacious D (4/5)? Their comedy rock show works well, an improv song for a passing train proving one of the funniest moments of the festival and all the sing-alongs you could possibly want are provided. In fact there's only one more thing you could want for, and that's an amazing headliner.
There's only one band up to the task, and it's not The Cribs. Two hours is the longest set of the weekend and could be filled twice over without a dud track, because quite simply, Metallica (5/5) are one of the best live bands you could hope to see. James Hetfield is a faultless frontman, charismatic and passionate about what he does. What he and Metallica do is provide song after legendary song to a frenzied, baying crowd. Peppering the set with a number of less obvious tracks such as 'Harvester Of Sorrow', each one is greeted like a long-lost friend. We're graced with the joy of 'So what', which sends the crowd into further acts of happy carnage. More importantly, in a set otherwise bereft of anything past the Black Album, we're introduced to 'Cyanide' and 'The Day That Never Comes' from their forthcoming Death Magnetic album. And things are sounding good. With every danger of them becoming a nostalgia act that just reels out the classics to mindless 'fans', 'The Day That Never Comes' in particular indicates that we are not going to get another St Anger. After the pyro onslaught of 'One' wows us, they're offstage barely long enough to call it an encore, and return to end the night with the inevitable wonder that is 'Seek And Destroy'. Worries after St Anger and that documentary need to be cast aside, Metallica tonight appear to be a band that have lost nothing.
We shake ourselves, unsure how we survived such a gruelling and impressive festival, and head for our tents pleased to find it hasn't fallen prey to tent burning pricks (0/5), we get our breath back, crack open some beers and recount our favourite moments of the weekend. Did we really see Rage Against The Machine?
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