The Official Emotard Sonisphere Review

Sonisphere was AMAZING. Although I was only there for the day it was brilliant and I wish I would've been there for the weekend (would've saved the 5 hours driving in one day too.. THAT was a killer..).

I set off about 9am, preparing myself for my loathed enemy, motorway driving. I HATE motorway driving as it often triggers my panic attacks. NOT good when you're doing 70mph and surrounded by other cars.. By the time I'd gotten to Watford Gap services on the m1 (about an hour into the journey) I'd had 4 minor panic attacks, but thankfully nothing sufficient to really affect me that badly, just freak me out a bit.

So a quick pizzle and drink stop and I set off again for the final stretch. Once I got the car started that is... I think it hates motorway driving as much as me as it did NOT want to start again, but thankfully I manage to convince it by kicking it. :D result!

All in all it took 2 1/2 hours, including a pit stop of about 10-15 mins, to get to Knebworth. It was actually really really easy to get to. M6-M1-Jct 11 - A505 - follow signs to Sonisphere. Easy! I was actually suprised how easy it was, considering I was relying on my memory of the maps I had googled, and a normal retroesque road map that was in the car. I've always been good at reading maps and generally my sense of direction is pretty good, although I do have a sat nav. Well. I say I have a sat nav. I BOUGHT a sat nav when I was self employed last year, but my ex seems to have aquired it... *Scowls* Good job I DO have a good sense of direction innit?

So 2 1/2 hours later I arrive at Sonisphere and park up. I was meeting Cel and Lee, and so arranged to meet them at the main entrance. Great, I thought. Until it turned out that day ticketters had a seperate entrance at the complete opposite end of the campsite. So a good 2 mile walk later (the soundtrack to which is provided by Buckcherry, I arrived just in time to hear Crazy bitch :D) and various texts to and from Cel of, 'Where are you?' 'Where's that?' and 'I'm confused!!' I eventually meet her at the entrance to the area and we headed in. The arena itself was actually laid out really well, but a lot closer together than it was at download. The 2nd stage was possibly only 200m from the main stage, so whereever you were you could hear what was going on on the other stages. In credit to Sonisphere they set the times for the Main and 2nd stages up so noone clashed and there was a good 5-10 min gap in between in set to be able to get to the other stage, so noone missed who they wanted to see on those stages, which was a MUCH better method than download's clashing setlists where you had to prioritise who you wanted to see at the sacrifice of others.

We walked up and sat down near main stage in time to see Killing Joke. Who are possibly the biggest pile of shite I have ever seen, with a geriatric singer who's dancing mimicked the movement of an epileptic having a fit. Surely he couldn't have thought that was a good move? He may have appeared to come from the stone age (ie the 80's) but come on.... twitching like a dying myximatosis rabbit is NOT a good dance move.. Band wise it was a pretty packed day, and I managed to see the following...

Killing Joke-
More like a complete joke....

Lamb of God
We left about 2 songs in.... very much a typical RIFFRIFFRIFFSHOUTRIFFRIFFRIFFSHOUTSQUEALRIFFRIFFRIFFMOSH band. Booooring.

We then mooched around the shops looking for Lee who we think had possibly been eaten by the Lamb of God pit... or gone shopping.. either or..

Mastodon/Feeder
Were playing on the 2nd stage while we mooched around and waited for Lee and other bands to come on. Very much Meh but the couple of more popular songs were good. Cel and I agreed whatshisface Feeder's singer only gets cuter with age.. :D Nom...

Special guests... MACHINE FUCKING HEAD!
After much debacle and hissing fitting by Machine Head, with them dropping out after Limp Biskit were drafting above them in the line up, Sonisphere added 'special guests' to the line up a few days before the festival opened, and all sorts of rumours started flying around about who it would be. Pendulum, Prodigy.... but in the end the inevitable happened and Machine Head returned to the Sonisphere stage. I only have 3 words for it... MY... FUCKING.. GOD. They were absolutely amazing and managed to create what has been reported by the Official Sonisphere website as the biggest circle pit in Sonisphere history (http://uk.sonispherefestival.net/2009/08/machine-fcking-head/). At one point Rob Flynn was trying to create 20 circle pits in the entire crowd. One of which opened up by us. Being ever the 'spur of the moment' type person I went and got stuck in. Christ... if you ever need exercise go in a circle pit. Nothing like running around in a circle smacking into people to get your heartrate up... Machine head classics such a davidian and burn my eyes just made the whole set amazing. Metal as it's supposed to be, absolutely BRUTAL.

Limp Bizkit
A very very fun and lively set, which helped by us being pretty close compared to where we'd been for other bands. Lots of dancing and singing along, which made it a lot of fun. The performance itself was great but personally not as good as their download show. Can't put my finger on why but still great and would definately want to see them again if they toured. Altogether now..... keep roooollin rollin rollin rollin YEA!!

Alice in Chains
First tour with the new singer since whatshisface went and died... for some reason I managed to make myself look like a retard, thinking it was Jerry Cantrell who'd died... I was quickly informed by Cel and Lee he was the guitarist, and in fact very much alive... oops... If you're reading this by some wicked twist of fate Jerry, I apologise, and you look very healthy and full of life. Nice guitar playing btw...
But anyway, the new singer looked like a Lenny Kravitz lookalike, but if you shut your eyes you wouldn't have been able to tell the difference between the past and present singers.. he was amazing! The set itself included new and old material.. and the new material sounds brilliant and very very promising, Roll on september for the release of the new album, have a feeling it's going to be a good'un! The old material was mindblowing, with classics such as Them bones and Angry chair.. I've never seen AIC live... but I'm SO glad I did.. they're just brilliant and I really hope they tour locally when the new album is released. If so, I'm there.

Nine Inch Nails
Sonisphere was apparently NIN's last ever UK show. Now that Trent's gone and gotten himself loved up and gained a sense of morality and concience *rolls eyes*. It still didn't stop them being breathtaking at sonisphere, although sadly they didn't play some of the more well known tracks, such as Closer or Starfuckers Inc.. but of course this is Trent Reznor we're talking about, and when did he EVER do anything people wanted or expected? Exactly.. We were quite frankly just happy that he didn't have a hissy fit like he had on his twitter escapades and actually turned up for the show.. However the set itself was simply astounding and they played my 2 favourite tracks in succession, the frail and the wretched... Sar was one very very happy bunny. So glad to have seen them live but very sad they are unlikely to ever to return to the UK, if they don't split up altogether soon what with Reznor's new found self. *sigh*

Avenged Sevenfold
I managed to catch about 1/2 of Avenged's set while Cel was off getting stuff from their camp. I've seen avenged a couple of times before, the first being great, the 2nd being shite, so I was a bit unsure as to how it was going to turn out. BUT...they..were..brilliant :D They played the gems that are critical acclaim and scream, and afterlife...and gunslinger...and..and... they were just great. Totally back on form and well worth seeing if you haven't before. Although I do now have a small crush on Synister Gates... he's got a very Bam Margera look about him and oh HELL yea... *ahem*.. uh.. I mean... he's a very talented guitarist.... yes. That's the one...

Metallica
Headlining the main stage were Metallica. Signing off the main stage of Sonisphere 09. I only saw half the set, as by that point I was on the verge of falling asleep at the wheel on the 2-3 hr drive home back to sunny (or not so sunny considering it was night!) Staffordshire, so to protect the neccessity that was me actually making it home alive I left early. I'd have loved to have stayed til the end, because considering how spectacular the first half was I could only imagine the end was a million times better. The first time I saw Metallica wasn't a nice experience because of ticket trouble, and it completely spoiled the whole evening, so to be able to see them and enjoy them this time round made up for it. They opened with Blackened, my favourite 'tallica song, and went on to play One and fuel; complete with pyrotechnics, Cyanide, and broken beaten scarred, more of my favourites before I eventually left. There are no words for their performance really. They were just Metallica. They were everything that is Metallica. Anyone who's seen them before will understand. A fitting end for a perfect day of metal.

And so I left, and began the mile long walk to the car park. That was an experience in itself, a fenced off path, on the edge of the site, lit only by a string of dimly lit bulbs high up... I'm not a generally scaredy cat type person, but when you're a lone female walking in the dark alone you start to feel a bit vulnerable! Thankfully I eventually (after about 10 minutes of searching and wandering round a pitch black car park) managed to find the car and set off home, praying that the stingy tired eyes stayed at stingy tired eyes and didn't progress into further 'I'm just going...to....rest.....my........ey..zzzzzzz' while on the M1. Me and motorways don't mix. For reasons explained previously. However... me and night driving don't mix either. So.. to drive for 2 hours on nothing but motorway...at night.... and tired.... eventually led to a massive panic attack in which I actually thought I was going to pass out doing 70MPH on her majesty's motorway... normally I would've pulled over and had a freak out, but on this occasion I just forced myself through it and carried on, using lorries as focus points by following them. Eventually it passed with no ill effects and I made it back to Watford Gap services, at which I had the smallest, but most blindingly powerfully coffee I think I've ever had, washed down with full caffeine coke. Note to self....Double espresso's = sleepy -> wired in approximately 10 seconds flat. That wired effect managed to last until I got to spaghetti junction at which point I started to flag again. Luckily I wasn't far from home so that managed to keep me focused and I stumbled in at about 1am, to be greeted by Mr false sympathy boyfriend.. 'awwwww so tired after going out and having fun all day.. there there..'. Remind me why I'm with him someone?? Git... On a serious note though, I wouldn't have been able to go if it weren't for him, as I hadn't been able to get another babysitter, and being the best beef in the world that he is, he offered to babysit. So thank you beef, again! I did buy him a little something though as a thank you. Admittedly it wasn't much, but it's the thought that counts right?

RIGHT???

Stop rolling your eyes at me damn it...

Anyway.. it's 11am... and I've not yet had breakfast! I'm still in bed having earlier dropped the kids off at nursery after which I crawled back into bed. And if anyone is thinking I'm being lazy you can bog off.. I didn't actually to to sleep til about 2 after succumbing to the temptation that was looking at the photos I'd taken. And then I was woken this morning by a half eaten gingerbread man 2 inches from my face and MUMMYMUMMYIGOTYOUASPESHULPRESENTANDACARDANDMUMMYMUMMY!!!

Bless em. As much as I moan it's still a great way to wake up in the morning. Just.. maybe a little later than 7am when you've had approx 4 hours sleep..

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....