First up was a secret club show in Dublin at the Academy which holds 700 people. There was a huge line outside the venue as early as 3pm with some of the fanclub members from all over europe arriving as early as 7am to claim a front row spot for the bands smallest show in Europe in 5 years.
A good night was had by all with a very loud audience and a great performance by the band watched by Tenacious D who sped down to the club from theyre own show opening for Metallica. Unfortunately i couldnt hang around for the aftershow party as it was straight to site for the next show so i could program the lights while there was some darkness instead of trying to do it during daylight.
Next day was the proper Dublin show in front of 32,000 people at Marley Park, which is a public park bout a half hour outside the city. its also about 10 mins from my house.
It was a great show with Louis Xiv and Bloc Party on the bill and luckily the weather stayed pretty good considering the rain that we had the night before while i was programming.
After a long night at the aftershow party it was off to England for the Reading Festival and after a 4 hour ferry and 7 drive we got to the hotel in time for a bit of food and then off to site for some overnight programming again, but not before watching possibly the only band i was interested in seeing on this whole summer of festivals.
RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE
I had managed to blag my way up onto the stage and watched the show from side stage.
The band made their entrance onto the stage with their hands cuffed, wearing orange guantanamo bay prisoner jumpsuits with bags over there heads as a political statement against the current U.S. administration.
Before launching into a note perfect rendition of Bombtrack complete with the bags still over their heads which doesn't allow them to see anything.
After shedding the boilersuits they continued the show in regular clothes. It was just amazing to see a band with no fancy production tricks, no light show. Just a pure performance show by musicians who believe in what they are doing. Agree or disagree with the politics they present( Frontman Zach De La Rocha called for George Bush and Tony Blair to both be tried as war criminals from stage), you cant deny the level of performance they provide.
Its very rare that a band and audience connect completely on a level that makes it all seem as if its all on the same wavelength and this was definitely one of those occasions where that happened. The fact that people were cramming the side of stage to watch it including Matt Bellamy from Muse who had to resort to climbing scaffolding to see should sum up the interest in this show. I think what i loved most was that it was the first time in a long time i felt like a fan. it reminded me of the power that music can have over you. For once it wasnt about the cool new video screen or latest lighting technology, it was purely an emotional response to music. Thats a very rare thing for me nowadays as working in this business you can get a little spoiled in how much you get to see and experience and can become very blase about it, but this was something different for sure!
So off to work i went with screaming music and passion coursing through my veins. A good night was had by all. We and everyone else have there work cut out for themselves this weekend!!
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