Download 2010
It's left to Californians to pick up the pace, and they do so with typical aplomb.
Step into Donington during the Download Festival weekend and you’re tip-toeing into a river of black. There are band t-shirts everywhere, from dated classic rock emblems to twisted death metal logos - but the first few days of this year's Download Festival have a slightly more scarlet hue, as intense sun rays lobsterify a few of the less well protected souls.
Weather aside, the weekend gets off to a sluggish start as Unearth take to the mainstage, but Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders - somehow stowed away in the tiny Red Bull tent - pick it up with classic rock bombast. They're watched by each of Them Crooked Vultures from the side of the stage, but their groove-based blues noodling just isn't festival friendly. It's up to AC/DC then to salvage spirits - and they do so in bucketloads. In an act of supreme rock 'n' roll tenacity, the Australians have brought with them their own stage - resplendent in a chugging train, a gargantuan blow-up woman and an ego-exploding walkway out into the crowd. Tracks like 'Highway To Hell' transmit hip-swinging syndrome to everyone in the massive audience, but with fireworks rounding off their set, there's a distinct cheesy taste left in the mouth.
Rolo Tomassi however are instant Saturday morning hangover relievers - or hangover inducers, depending on your sensitivity - with their British take on spasmodic alt-metal before Flyleaf take to the mainstage. Like a triumphant Monopoly player, the band own each square of the stage, ambling upon amps and jogging about to serenade the crowd. This female fronted rock band are no Paramore - but they don't claim to be, and are one of the weekend's better mainstage acts. Back on the second stage Cancer Bats slay, before a double whammy of Lamb Of God and Megadeth temporarily perforates eardrums under the baking sun over on the mainstage. Deftones have the unenviable task of playing before the night's headliners Rage Against The Machine, but they trudge rather than triumph, so it's left to the Californians to pick up the pace. They do so with typical aplomb - so much so they're asked to stop their third song due to danger in the crowd - but a frenzied 'Killing In The Name' tears up all thoughts of Heath and Safety.
And so to Sunday, where the day tickets have been snapped up by eager Dads here to see Saxon and Cinderella, who end up floundering 15 years past their sell-by-date. The second stage however is brimming with contemporary gusto, as new supergroup The Damned Things, The Dillinger Escape Plan and Porcupine Tree perform with panache. The clouds are opening though, and torrential rain flummoxes the crowd who were only just getting doused in amber sun. Motorhead, caked in leathered skin, obviously don't care about the rain, and by the time Aerosmith take to the stage as the final band of the festival, things are finally starting to dry up - there's still mud and water everywhere, but hey, isn’t that what a festival is all about?
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