Day 3 – Sunday
Saxon
Due to morning laziness, I only got to see the last 3 songs of their set. It would have been cool to see it all, since they played the entire Wheels of Steel to commemorate their 30th anniversary and 30 years of rock at Donington. Plus, Saxon performed at the first festival there, so it was quite special. They dedicated one of the songs to Dio and I was really happy to see Wheels of Steel live. Not many people were awake at that early hour, so the crowd was not quite up for such a show, in my oppinion.
Ricky Warwick
I tagged along with my friends to the acoustic stage to see the performance of Ricky Warwick, the next Thin Lizzy vocalist. He played accompanied by his guitar alone, and I so loved his harsh voice! He used to be the frontman of The Almighty and supported some big names on their tours. It was awesome to see that the crowd knew his songs and sang along.
Cinderella
Back to the main stage for the American heavy metal from the 80s. They had a heavy start with some cool riffs but I noticed a continuous change in the volume of the instruments, plus it was very annoying that the video projection was not synchronised with the image, making it weird to watch the show. Also annoying was the fact that they had no interaction with the crowd.
Slash
Still at the main stage as I was really curious about how his new band sounds. I hadn’t heard them before, and was wondering if it was going to bear any resemblance to Guns ’n Roses. The music was more melodic, more heavy metal and Myles Kennedy’s voice sounded incredible. I won’t even mention the quality of the guitar riffs. The only downside, let’s say, was that the performers seemed a tad stiff, maybe because they had played for such a short while together. I especially enjoyed Starlight and the GNR covers of Paradise City and Sweet Child of Mine, for which the singer did an impressive job. They even had Lemmy from Motörhead as guest on Doctor Alibi. Myles Kennedy presented Slash to the crowd as the world’s greatest guitarist, and Slash paid back with band presentation at the end of the show. And, of course, he wouldn’t miss his famous black tall hat.
The Dillinger Escape Plan
Looks like the second stage was reserved for crazy musicians at this festival. The vocalist Ben Weinman did all his best to jump and run on every spot of the stage, including the side monitors, while the guitarists threw themselves at the floor, looking almost epileptic. Their music is described as mathcore, making the rhythm very atypical, but one can tell the technical skills of the members. And to spice up his crazy stage show, the vocalist ended up doing some crowdsurfing himself, despite the rain that had started falling. A mental concert, I could say.
Billy Idol
As I was on the run to get some food and catch another band on the second stage, I paid little attention to his concert. He looked as I expected him to look, like a rebel, albeit an old fashioned one. He sang just as I knew his songs would be sung. Nothing more to say on his performance.
Porcupine Tree
One of my “must see” bands at this festival. Despite the rain that had been falling for quite a while and that made me soaked and cold, I fought my way to the front of the stage. They looked like a bunch of geeks lost in space. However, if the geekiness of the British progressive band makes them sound so perfect live and helps them compose such amazing songs, then I couldn’t care less. The artists did no stage show, they were too concentrated on playing their instruments flawlessly. They even had an old piano on the stage. They should borrow their sound technicians to all the bands in the festival.
Motörhead
They started rather late, so I missed the end of Porcupine Tree for nothing. The British heavy metal legends with Lemmy on vocals came on stage with their classic “We are Motörhead, we play rock ’n roll”. They asked the crowd if it was loud enough and played a mix of old and new, including classics like Iron Fist, Going to Brazil and, towards the end, Ace of Spades. Slash paid back Lemmy’s visit to the stage to perform some cool guitar riffs on Just ’cos you got the power. The crowd was too tired and cold after all the rain, so they seemed rather bored during the performance. The show was spiced up with two women who played with fire on stage.
Steel Panther
The glam rockers from California made a fun show, which I am not sure it is a parody or not, considering their humorous and a tad perverted lyrics. I’d never seen them before. They had an extravagant look, with hair looking as if the members had just been electrocuted, and glammy sparkling clothes. I had seen people dressed or looking similarly during the day, but now, due the heavy rain, all the crowd looked quite homogeneous. They had a cover of I want it that way by Backstreet Boys and some long guitar riffs.
Airbourne
They came all the way from Australia to put together another one of the most insane shows at he festival. Their style is maybe in the tradition of AC/DC, a wild rock ’n roll combined with heavy metal, reminding me of either W.A.S.P., Judas Priest or Motley Crue. They actually told the crowd that they play rock ’n roll for real people and we were real. It was raining even heavier, so I enjoyed their show from a distance, but I saw that the band members were all over the stage, going wild. And the most extreme was one of the guitarist who simply climbed on the wet metal pole n the side of the stage and played his guitar from the top of the stage.
Stone Sour
Initially, they were supposed to play at same time as the headliner of the day, but as the schedule on the main stage got delayed, I got to see half of their show or so. It was cool to see the Slipknot’s frontman Corey Taylor without a mask and wearing “normal” clothes. His voice is fantastic, being able to sing very melodically, both soft ballads and then go up and scream and still keep the melody. The crowd was quickly entertained and sang along during most of the songs, jumped and applauded. Corey was affected by the death of his fellow Slipknot bassist and it showed during the show, although the crowd were actually screaming Corey’s name, instead of the band’s name. I liked the fact that he continuously talked to the crowd and made them feel even more special as they played Sillyworld, saying they haven’t had played it in the UK for quite a while. Later on, he got the crowd to scream for as long as they could.
Aerosmith
I saw the crowd running towards the main stage, so I left the Stone Sour show to catch the main band I went to see at the festival, Aerosmith. It’s their 30th year of existence, so another celebration at Donington. I saw a Steven Tyler dressed in gold sparkling clothes, with Indian feathers in his hair that I would probably consider more suitable at a circus, but, considering his showmanship, anything he’d wear is just perfect for his show. As for the voice, after so many years of music and abuse, it sounded fantastic. When he only had vocal parts accompanied by piano before What it takes, he blew us away with the melody in his voice. Even the rain stopped before the concert. And, besides his usual gestures and face expressions or walking around with the microphone “dressed” with scarves, I noticed a double guitar brought up for Livin’ on the Edge. The guitarist was presented as “Joe fucking Perry”, and a small joke was added for each of the band’s members. In return, Perry introduced Tyler as the best singer in the world. To my surprise, Tyler left the microphone to Joe Perry for one of the slow songs they performed, while he played his harmonica. At some other point, during one of the two songs where Tyler didn’t sing and that felt like a jam session, the guitarist put his guitar on the drum kit and the drummer played the guitar with his drum sticks.
I still smile at the thought of this concert, as it really met all my expectations and will keep remembering to Dream on. The songs I experienced live were:
Love in an elevator
Back in the saddle
Mama Kin
Eat the rich
Livin’ on the edge
What it takes
Train kept a rollin’
Cryin’
Lord of the thighs
Stop messin’ around
Don’t wanna miss a thing
Sweet emotion
Baby please don’t go
Draw the line
encore:
Dream on
Walk this way
Toys in the attic
All in all, a huge festival, with good organisation and big names on the setlist. Most of the bands declared they were really happy to be there and they really showed it by delivering good quality music and good shows. I am thankful for the good weather, because 3 days of rain as heavy as the one on Sunday would have made it a really bad experience, instead of the simply amazing one it was.
