RBC Leon: Reading, you won't be disappointed today!

Saturday’s Leeds Festival was pretty awesome. Firstly, a huge thank you to the Geldards Coaches who got us from our home to the festival grounds much much quicker than expected – we’d heard all the rumours about terrible traffic jams and long waits! The weather was pretty hit or miss all day… despite this, each of the bands we watched did not disappoint.

First band of the morning was Motion City Soundtrack.  I’m not particularly a fan but, I have to give them credit for being an early band with a relatively good audience turn out.  The guys around us all had a good sing along – thumbs up to MCS!

We discovered quite early on that, whilst flags were banned from the arena (hoorah!)… people sitting on their friends’ shoulders was the ultimate replacement.  Pretty much every performance was blocked by some dude wanting to be 8ft tall.  It’s not cool, it’s not clever, they just piss lots of people (such as me) off!

Next performance was by Thrice.  They put on a pretty flawfless set!  As much as I love Thrice, this was such a sobering experience…  They played many of their new songs which, as much as they are of technical genius, are really not crowd pleasers.  Lots of standing around for these boys!

Where’s Wally?

In need of a pick me up and to hide from the Leeds weather we headed towards the guest area.  We were surprised about how nice it was!  Not only did they have real toilets with toilet paper; but a bar/cafe AND it was all sheltered from the wind… and the rain!!

We reappeared into the arena for Limp Bizkit.  We saw them last year at Download Festival and their set was electric: the audience were totally fired up and fuelled by LB’s hit-by-hit set list.  We were unsure whether this would be a repeat of that or if they would try and introduce new tunes into the mix.  I guess the short play time was a factor… whilst sticking to the hits like Break Stuff and Rollin’, they missed out the classic Nookie.  And what on earth was Wes Boreland dressed as? Hmmm….

Cypress Hill were up next, bringing us hits like Dr Greenthumb and Insane in the Membrane.  Earlier in the set, B-Real asked the crowd if they were having a good time & getting High, which he promptly followed with lighting the BIGGEST ‘Strong’ Cigarette (as described by NME!).  An overall crowd pleaser and fun set to watch!

Weezer!!  Thanks to Rivers’ (lead singer) stage persona, Weezer’s show was a hit.  He spent most of his time interacting with the crowd and acting like a kid on a sugar rush – climbing the barriers and hugging crowdsurfers – his enthusiasm diffused through to the audience and made it incredibly enjoyable to be part of.

Watching Blink 182 last night was like a dream come true!!  These guys helped mould my crazy teenage life where I was rebellious and finding fun in the most random of places.  Every single one of their sing-a-long hits has a special place and despite the freezing weather it felt amazing to be sharing the experience amongst such a massive crowd.  Highlights include Travis Barker “the talented one” and his gravity-defying solo drumming session, reserved for the likes of Slipknot’s Joey Jordison.  Blink 182′s live performance really left a positive impression on me – I walked away with the biggest smile on my face; not only thanks to the memories attached to songs but also, it was fantastic to see Mark, Tom & Travis on stage looking like they were genuinely having fun and enjoying playing together.  Let’s hope we get to see more of this in the future!

All in all, a fantastic Saturday.  Reading, your Sunday is going to be THE BEST!