YI Does "Give It A Name: London"

[YI]

:::SATURDAY:::

First of all, Saturday was a HELL OF A LOT WORSE than Sunday. We got there a little late, with us having to check in to where we were staying, and having a 40-minute or so travel to Earls Court. By the time he arrived we had missed Broadway Calls and Meg & Dia. From what we heard, it doesn't sound like we missed much. Broadway Calls are generic uninspired pop-punk. Meg & Dia however seem totally out of leftfield on the bill, as from what I've heard (via myspace) they're seemingly much more of a pop-rock, Eisley style, indie band.

Anyways, I manage to stomach a bit of Mayday Parade, but boy were they were awful. Sloppy as hell, the vocals were terrible, and basically just struck me as a band trying to ride the coattails of Fall Out Boy and Panic! At The Disco's original success. I honestly felt there was no redeeming features to their performance.

After the torture that was buying a 'pint', I head on off to catch Chiodos on the main stage. Again, I wasn't really digging them. Singer sounded like he wanted to be in a Coheed & Cambria tribute band. They ripped on the 14 year old emo fucks...but then again...when like 90% of your audience are made up of them... not really a good thing to do. They had energy, and I quite liked their 'attitude', to a certan extent, but I really was not digging their music at all, and neither was anybody I was with. There was seemingly plenty of people into it though. So, go them!

At this point my friends and I were questioning coming this early. However, one of them soon perked up because MC Lars was coming on the 'side stage'. He was backed by Preston based alt-rock band, Failsafe, who I saw in January supporting A Wilhelm Scream, where they were totally outclassed, not only by AWS but the opening act, All Idols Fall. Anyways, for the show at hand. I enjoyed it. He seemed quite funny, his songs were fun. Failsafe did their job backing him well, plus their singer seemingly just hanging about most of the time was hilarious. Reminded me quite a bit of Atom & His Package. Not really the smartest of all humour, but some fun tracks, one of the redeeming features of the day.

Two of my mates buggered off to see Cobra Starship, I opted for drink instead. For what it's worth, one enjoyed them, the other says they were terrible. We all gave My American Heart a miss. No idea what they are, who they are, what they sound like...and I don't particuarly care to find out.

Next up were Set Your Goals on the main stage, followed by All Time Low on the 'side stage'. I mention them both together as I honestly cannot remember one from the other. I know I found both of them dull, neither of which seemed to embrace the 'cheesiness' of their genre. They both seem much loved by others. And my mates were mostly into them.

Roll on the almighty Finch. I'd been here for the best part of 4-hours and this was the first band I actually wanted to see. And boy did they deliver. I must admit. I didn't know a lot of Finch's set. I recognised one of the tracks as the single from their second album, but I only really know 1st album stuff. They busted out "Letters To You", "Stay With Me" and of course, as the closing number, "What It Is To Burn". They played a new song, which sounded awesome. Really good stuff as a whole. Suffered from a bit of sound trouble, but basically everybody did. I'm quite surprised that where I was, there seemed to be a lot of people who had no idea who they were. In fact to a lot of 'the kids' "What It Is To Burn" drew literally nothing out of them. It upset me.

I gave The Audition a miss as their records are so boring, that listening to them brings on deep vein thrombosis.

Next on came Alkaline Trio. Matt Skiba looking incredibly metrosexual in a gay flat cap. Again the band suffered from sound issues, but they fired on regardless and put together a good half hour set, which was a good mixture of old and new, popular and lesser known tracks and of course a somewhat even split between Dan and Matt vocals. They played 2 (3?) new songs, "Help Me" and "In Vein", the latter of which, whilst I find the studio version boring, live it's a very rocking tune. The other potential new tune was a short introduction, I didn't recognise it from anywhere, so it could well be (hopefully) a snippet of a new track (as if on a 10-track album, that's a full track, I'll be pissed). As said, a good mix of old and new stuff. The "From Here To Infirmary" material, "Private Eye" and the 'rarely played' "Stupid Kid" were fan favourites. Although personally, I went estatic over the inclusion of "I Lied My Face Off".

I paid zero attention to the Guitar Hero Contest...and I curse it, as the following day, due to not having it, Sheffield apparently got an extended Alkaline Trio set.

Next onto the main stage were Plain White T's, who may have in fact been the most universally hated 'headline' act I have ever come across. It's a fact that Plain White T's have one good song, and it's not "...Delilah", it's "Lazy Day Afternoon"...and yeah...it didn't happen. Fuck'em.

By this point I was exhausted, but in a total 'in a downer' kind of way. The show had dragged, outside of MC Lars none of the lower bands had got my attention in the slightest. I wasn't expecting a lot as Paramore stormed the stage to shrieks and screams from their fans. My first thought was, that even if they're going to be shite, watching Hayley Williams bounce about the stage for the best part of an hour is going to be incredibly fun. My second thought was how much the guitarist looks like Robert Sugden from Emmerdale, now that he's cut his hair. My third thought was..."Hang on...THIS IS FUCKING GOOD!!". And they were. REALLY fucking good. Whilst I didn't know a lot of the songs, they interspurced their singles well, so I knew what the fuck was going on, and all in all, they were just a tonne of fun. They also didn't seem to suffer from the sound problems that affected so many other bands over the weekend. Finishing with "Misery Business" caused the night to end on a high.

As the four of us took our long journey back to where we were staying, the general concencous (split 50-50) was that either Alkaline Trio or Paramore were the best bands. All in all, we were all pretty dissapointed with how the day turned out. Thankfully, Sunday was a new day...a day in which I would be clean shaven, following a beard sabotage during the night (FUCKERS!!). And more importantly, it was a day which saw many a good band, at hand, to entertain us............

.....Sunday coming soon.

:::SATURDAY IN SHORT:::

The Good

1. Alkaline Trio

2. Paramore

3. Finch

4. MC Lars

The Bad

1. Plain White T's (Fucking terrible)

2. Mayday Parade (EUGH!)

3. All Time Low/Set Your Goals (I can't remember which was which...they were both dull)

5. Chiodos (Just couldn't get into them)

The Ugly

1. Some bird my mate got into during Plain White T's

2. 14 year old, fat, emo girls

∞. Hayley Williams (for the benefit of IAceI...this means...SHE'S FIT!!)

The Didn't See:

- Broadway Calls

- Meg & Dia

- Cobra Starship

- My American Heart

- The Audition

:::SETLISTS:::

Please note, these are what I know/remember...so not a lot. Not in order either.

Paramore

Emergency

Pressure

Crushcrushcrush

For a Pessimist, I'm Pretty Optimistic

(A first album song, which name I can't remember)

Misery Business

Alkaline Trio

(new song)

Private Eye

Stupid Kid

She Took Him To The Lake

I Lied My Face Off

Time To Waste

Help Me (new song)

In Vein (new song)

Either "We've Had Enough" or "If We Never Go Inside" (a "Good Mourning" song...but I can't remember which)

Finch

(new song)

Letters To You

Stay With Me

Worms Of The Earth

What It Is To Burn

Plain White T's

Hey There Delilah

Edited May 13, 2008 by YI

[Jimmy]

For what it's worth I love Cobra Starship and thought they were brilliant live. I saw them a couple of months back. Sounds like a pretty good night and I'm quite into Paramore, I'm glad they're a good band live. But yeah, in my opinion, you missed out with Cobra Starship.

[Gazz]

A no-sell of 'What it is to burn' makes me feel sad

and old

Fucking kids these days.

And Plain White T's over Alk3 - sacrilege

[ROC]

This sounds like the worst thing you could have ever went to, YI. >_>

[YI]

This sounds like the worst thing you could have ever went to, YI. >_>

Nah, I hear Vampire Weekend are touring over here soon.

[Gazz]

This sounds like the worst thing you could have ever went to, YI. >_>

Nah, I hear Vampire Weekend are touring over here soon.

You wouldn't.

Would you?

[ROC]

This sounds like the worst thing you could have ever went to, YI. >_>

Nah, I hear Vampire Weekend are touring over here soon.

Pfft, you'll sing along to "Blake's Got A New Face".

[OGpistolpete]

I remember My American Heart before they started getting big. They were pretty freaking good, but I haven't listened to much of their new stuff, and I'm assuming they are taking a more emo-approach to their music just because it sells.

[YI]

:::SUNDAY:::

Arriving at Earls Court on the Sunday, I felt naked. I felt violated. During the early hours of the morning I was set upon, having my 2 weeks worth of beard brutally attacked with a disposable razor, in what was clearly a callous, premeditated assault. Whilst having a shaven strip in an otherwise perfect mass of hair would have led to me fitting in perfectly with a number of the freaks at Earls Court this weekend, to the general London public I'd appear to be the sort who'd eat from bins, shit in doorways and wave his penis at pigeons. For their sake, and my reputation, I had to sacrifice the whole beard. With piss poor hot water, no shaving foam and a terrible disposable razor, I struggled with this task, but I managed to make myself halfway presentable.

I laughed the shenanigans off, whilst secretly plotting to murder the families of my friends once we returned home. With my beard gone, it was up to my Strung Out, "Fuck Dying" t-shirt, to exert my prowess over the renegade group of minions. An interesting side note. This t-shirt was commented on twice during the course of the day. Neither of which had anything to do with the band. One was from a scruffy looking guy trying to sell me weed. The other was from this kid who looked about 12, trying to buy "dope" from me. Gods honest truth. Do I look like I smoke weed? No. Well at least, not since losing my beard.

When we arrived we met up with the hideous looking troll that my friend 'pulled' the day before, who's with her her friends. Despite claiming to be 18, I'd say they were definately younger. Especially one of the group, who seemed to have come dressed as Rosie from hit 90's childrens show, "Rosie and Jim". Whatever, they annoy me, so me and a friend go on the wander. We've already missed Mexicolas, meaning we soon head on over to the 'side stage' for what was to be one of the highlights of the weekend.

Saturday, lower down the bill suffered from having poor bands, who lots of people struggled to connect with. This was the complete opposite, as Four Year Strong take the stage to quite possible one of the busiest, wildest side stage audiences of the festival. I claimed before this festival that this 'little band that could' would totally steal the show, and they damn well did! As the band broke into "Prepare To Be Digitally Manipulated", I stood mid-crowd, arm in the air, finger pointed, screaming out "Calling all cars...calling all cars...calling all cars" at the top of my lungs. It was the first time, at this point in the festival that I was focussed on what was happening around me, I wasn't thinking about how out of place I felt, how old I felt, I was focussed entirely on them...and their glorious facial hair. Yes, there is not a band with such glorious, many variations of, facial hair, as Four Year Strong, outside of Scandenavian metal. But hair fetishes aside, they were absolutely killer, one of my favourite bands of the weekend, and the sing-along to "Heroes Get Remember, Legends Never Die" to close was so intense. Such a shame they only got 20-minutes. Absolutely incredible. All my mates, who had no prior knowledge (besides one track on a CD on the way down) were blown away by them.

Following that I grab a ridiculously overpriced 'pint' and head back to the side stage for The Color Fred. The 'Fred' in question is the former guitarist of Taking Back Sunday, Fred Mascherino. I saw Taking Back Sunday two summers ago, supported by Eisley and Hellogoodbye. In the course of that gig I developed quite a like of Fred. As the singer was prancing about, swinging the microphone like a cowboy, he was screaming his lungs out, strumming furiously at his guitar, providing an intense atmosphere to the gig. You could see the passion in his eyes. He really drew me into that gig more than I thought I would be. However, here, he seems dull. There's no passion. The songs are second rate, and all the energy that Four Your Strong put out was sucked away in the course of one 25-minute set.

First band on the main stage were Envy On The Coast, and they were pretty good. Much like Chiodos yesterday I felt they had a Coheed feel to them. Bit of a proggy vibe to their music. Not sure I liked them enough to check them out, but they weren't offensive. They had me bobbing my head a fair bit. Better than all the 'lower down' bands from yesterday.

I gave State Radio a miss. I did hear some quite good things about them though. Meanwhile, those fucking annoying girls are still around us. I resist the urge to start hitting the shit, as it was still incredibly early. I once again become very aware that I feel old, and hate just about everybody here. It's like the time I saw My Chemical Romance, but worse. The booze is even more expensive and the fanny we're with, whilst double in number, is more than likely underage and not a patch on MCR girl and her mate. With all my mates getting all chummy with them, I fuck off outside and bum a tab or two out of desperation. It's either kill myself slowly tabs or kill a bunch of emo girls quickly, leaving me to killing myself a more difficult way, hanging myself in prison. And to be fair, I don't really think I'm up to a prison hanging.

I couldn't be arsed to find anybody, instead went and got myself a good position for Strike Anywhere. I was a little nervous at how the band would be taken by the crowd, but as soon as they kick in into the rapid, ultra catchy "Blaze", everyone was already lapping it up. Really powerful stuff, the vocals really shone through. Whilst they really did seem out of place in such a large venue, they still totally rocked the place with some of the most vicious pits of the weekend. Absolutely awesome set, the only downer was the lack of "Sunset On 32nd", which I would have presumed to be a 'must' live, but whatever. I also bumped into my mate Rich, who I had no idea was coming down for this, in the pit, which was awesome. As I then spent a good chunk of the day with him, and provided the awesome, possibly homo-erotic moment of us, arms around each other, screaming the opening to "Instinct". Best band of the entire weekend, with "Prisoner Echoes" being the best individual song. I honestly don't think my voice will ever be the same again! They're doing a headline tour in September. In smaller venues, they'll be absolutely insane.

I refused to go see You Me At Six, they have a shitty name, I have no idea who they are, they can fuck off. I did spend the latter half of the weekend calling them "You Meat Six", which I found great humour in...nobody else was really getting it. For what it's worth, when I met up with the friends I came with, later on, two of them enjoyed it and the other thought they gave him cancer.

We decide to catch The Blackout. They were craptastic, and we walked away after like a song and a half. They were shite. People moan about the lack of UK bands on the bill, but when these are the UK bands they get, I'm happy.

I got myself a good position for Armor For Sleep on the side stage. I was quite dissapointed, purely because in my mind I had them mixed up with The Spill Canvas, who I quite like. However, once I got that out of the way, they were actually good. Had me rocking out a few times, the musicianship was tight, and I even vaguely recognised a tune or two. Definately a band I will be looking into. Don't get me wrong, I'm not expecting their record(s) to blow me a way, but it's something to add to my collection.

Up next were Silverstein. I used to be a big fan of Silverstein, with "Discovering The Waterfront" being one of, if not the best 'emo' album I've heard (off the top of my head, there's only possibly "Casually Dressed..." that can compete with it). Recently I haven't listened to them much, mostly due to the dissapointment that is their third release, which just came across as a soulless ripoff of DTW, leaving a bad taste in my mouth. I always felt they constructed their songs a lot better than most other bands in their genre, and that the dynamics and style changes 'meant more' than just because they sounded cool. If I'm to be honest, I was pleasently surprised as the setlist. They played a lot of 'older' stuff, and I soon got really into it. They weren't the flashiest of all performers, but then again, Alkaline Trio are dull as hell to 'watch', but much like Trio, they totally rocked it for me.

Given my absolute disdain for Anti-Flag I wasn't sure whether I should go and see them. However I realised, If I didn't, it would mean hanging around one my lonesome. And even though I was beginning to get into the mood of being able to wander around for half an hour and shake hands with anyone and strike up conversation, I really didn't feel like it, so headed on over to watch Anti-Flag. I was pleasently surprised. The only tune I recognised was "Turncoat", but they had a lot of fire and were fairly rocking. However I don't think it's going to change my oppinion on them, as they're still 'cookie-cutter' to me with cheesy as hell 'political' lyrics. Then they got all 'preachy' as well. Something which Strike Anywhere never suffered from, even though their message through lyrics is 10-times that Anti-Flag's is. Plus there was fucking annoying circle pits. Circle pits are shit. I mean I'm not against them as a concept, when other shit is happening, but basically every single circle pit I saw this weekend basically just amounted to people running around in a circle. What the fuck is that? Emo-athletics? Fuck off! Anyway, they did the whole 'shake the hand of someone next to you' shtick, which allowed me to 'schoolboy error' a couple of kids. Brilliant. As a whole, not that bad. But not good enough to change my oppinions on them.

Rich left after Anti-Flag, leaving me to track down my mates again, who I hadn't even seen for a good few hours. I managed to find them and we headed off to Glassjaw on the main stage. I admit, I never overly got into Glassjaw. I mean, they were a solid band, but at the end of the day they released two 'good' albums, they were nothing more. However, they did tear shit down live. They have a great sense of humour, as seen in interviews, and on the odd occasion it shines through here. Anyways, good stuff, 'the kids' ate it up like a bag of fizzy cola bottles. Did a good number of songs I knew as well as a couple of new tunes.

Once again, fuck the Guitar Hero shit.

Up next were Billy Talent. I was basically 'on the roof' by this point, and half their set is a complete blur. But I know the pits were rough as fuck, and Billy Talent were awesome! A good mix of new songs and the 'classics' like "The Ex" and "Try Honesty". As I said, I can't really go into details, I remember about half their setlist though.

After Billy Talent I realise I'd once again shed my friends...and I've got fuck all in my pockets! Phone, wallet, keys...all that jazz, gone! After shitting myself for the best part of 10-minutes my friends appear, one of them holding all my shit, which I apparently dumped on him and charged off towards the front after shouting "I'm going to nail this shit like Jesus Christ!"...I still have zero recollection of this happening.

Anyways, we left there, nobody particuarly interested in seeing 30 Seconds To Mars, who turns out, judging from responses elsewhere, were fucking awful. Despite nearly having a heart attack, Billy Talent, and Sunday as a whole, had left things on an upper. Making the whole journey feel worth it.

Unlike yesterday, there was a 3-way split in regards to best band of the day. Four Year Strong received 2 'votes', surprising as before the day, outside of myself, nobody had heard anymore than one song. I personally thought Strike Anywhere were the best band of the whole weekend, and the last 'vote' went to Billy Talent.

All in all, a fun weekend away with my mates. I got to see a couple of bands I love for the first time in Four Year Strong and Strike Anywhere. It's been about 4/5 years since I last saw Alkaline Trio, so it was great to see them again, even if they should have had a longer set. They're still one of my favourite bands, no doubt about it, and contrary to what people say, have never put out a bad release (even though I admit I MUCH prefer their earlier stuff to later stuff, "Crimson" and"Good Mourning" are still great releases). On top of that, I got to see a bunch of bands I like, who I've never seen before, in; Billy Talent, Finch, Silverstein, Glassjaw, Paramore etc. And found a handful of bands that may be worth checking out, in; Armor For Sleep, MC Lars and Envy On The Coast.

...I still wish I'd went to Groezrock.

:::SATURDAY IN SHORT:::

The Good

1. Strike Anywhere

2. Four Year Strong

3. Billy Talent

4. Silverstein

5. Glassjaw

6. Armor For Sleep

7. Anti-Flag

8. Envy On The Coast

The Bad

1. The Blackout

2. The Color Fred

The Ugly

1. Some bird (and her mates) my mate met up with and got into again

2. 14 year old, fat, emo girls

∞. My memories of Hayley Williams from Saturday

The Didn't See

- Mexicolas

- State Radio

- You Meat Six

- 30 Seconds To Mars

:::SETLISTS:::

Please note, these are what I know/remember...so not a lot. Not in order either.

Billy Talent

Devil In A Midnight Mass

The Ex

This Suffering

Fallen Leaves

Try Honesty

Perfect World

Red Flag

Glassjaw

Tip Your Bartender

Mu Empire

Ape Dos Mil

Pink Roses

Siberian Kiss

Anti-Flag

Turncoat

Silverstein

Your Sword vs. My Dagger

Smile In Your Sleep

My Heroine

(another song off "Discovering The Waterfront")

Smashed Into Pieces

Bleeds No More

Strike Anywhere

Amplify -> Blaze

Allies

Chalkline

Infrared

(something else off "Exit English")

Prisoner Echoes

Instinct

To The World

Four Year Strong

Prepare To Be Digitally Manipulated

Abandon Ship or Abandon All Hope

Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Hell

Catastrophe

Maniac (R.O.D)

Heroes Get Remembered, Legends Never Die

Edited May 13, 2008 by YI

[METALMAN]

No "River Below"? That's upsetting.

[YI]

No "River Below"? That's upsetting.

They might have done it. They did the best part of an hour. I've only got about half of their set. But personally I can't remember it. To be fair, a couple of the 'setlist' I only remember vaguely. Like I remember singing along to the 'bridge' in "Devil In A Midnight Mass"...but nothing else about it...so I presume they did it. >_<

[gunnar hendershow]

The fact you didn't see State Radio is very disappointing. But they played on a day with a pretty ridiculously stacked lineup, so it's slightly forgivable.