Download Festival 2010 Highlights

First of all, apologies for the delay – technical issues. But hopefully it’s a refreshing change from the week’s attack of Glasto Festival coverage. Let’s return to Download…

The sun is shining, the birds are tweeting, and the popular festival sings of “bollocks!” are getting ever louder across the campsite. It can only mean one thing – the arena opening time is quickly near, and almost audible tingles of Rage anticipation are already running riot up the spines of all and sundry.

The live consequence is almost always amazing – if a bit of an acquired taste. But sadly, this festival setting does the extraordinary five-piece no favours and the usual passion is weak.

Fresh from the hub of alternative music that is the “Land of Song” – better known as Wales to you and I – The Blackout [4/5] win over a sceptical crowd with surprising ease on the Dio stage,

Chino Moureno has got to be one of the famous showbiz names ever, despite belonging to the frontman of one of the least glitz-glam-thank-you-mam bands around – Sacramento’s best known quartet Deftones.

While the England foeti team kicked-off their World Cup hopes,

Finally, they’re here. It’s almost inconceivable that the band that fans once thought they’d never see together again could now play two UK dates within a week – the thank you gig for all who made Killing In The Name Of Christmas Number One at London’s Finsbury Park and now, Donington. Despite being 20 fashionable minutes late, Rage Against the Machine [5/5] were welcomed onto the main stage with a roar like no other that weekend, and which only intensified as the crowd swarmed into fight circles and mosh pits for classic provocatives Testify and Bombtrack.
When a security guard ventures onstage to tell frontman Zack De La Rocha that things are getting more than a little hairy in the front rows, the iconic political rap-vocalist (in true Rage style) asks: “Brothers and sisters, please please look after each other. There’s a couple people been real hurt over here.” As the fists return to the air from face-level for the restart of People Of The Sun, it’s clear that every ear in the crowd is hanging on every LA-accented word he says.
With a dig at Simon Cowell, and an outright chastisement of both American and Israeli governments, De La Rocha, guitarist Tom Morello and the team use every track to pound home the timeless sentiments of songs like Sleep Now in the Fire and Wake up.

Two words. Acoustic Blackout. Ok, technically that should be three words – Acoustic The Blackout – but that doesn’t sound good. What did apparently sound pretty good (due to timings changes that weren’t very clear I just missed it – shame on you Download for not letting us know) is The Blackout’s acoustic set. Phew, glad that paragraph is over.

Despite thousands missing them due to said mysterious timing rearrangements, Californian metallers Atreyu were undaunted, delivering a storming set as always.