Festival season: Reading 2010

Us DMD girls are busy bees. While Belle and Mireia went on their US adventure I stayed here, working like crazy… and partying a little like crazy too.

 

Threatening Reading skies

Reading was a bit of a funny one, as Mar and I got Surfer Blood‘s guest tickets pretty much the day before the festival started (long story…). I got there on the Friday evening, taking the train straight after work, and after setting my tent I went to see Warpaint. They were alright, but nothing too special. While they were playing we bumped into the Surfer Blood lovelies and pretty much hang out with them for the rest of the night. They really are lovely. They even let us crash at the Hilton -where they were staying- so that we wouldn’t freeze in the mud (the weather was pretty horrible that weekend).

 

Mar and the Surfer Blood team

 

We saw a little bit of Phoenix (who were surprisingly good), a lot of Guns’n’Roses (who were boooorrrring…) and a bit of LCD Soundsystem too (who, as always, were fantastic). On the Saturday we stayed in our tents sunbathing and gossiping forever and then saw Dizzy Rascal (entertaining), Crystal Castles (extra-entertaining), Arcade Fire (VERY good) and a bit of Ash (we were just in time for Oh Yeah… sweet!). We were pretty tired from Friday’s all-night partying, so went to sleep early. Not that we got much of it, as it was so cold…

Sunday was the main day for me, the one that had the most bands that I wanted to see. We started with HEALTH, whom I love, and then Holy Fuck (who bore me every time I see them). We also saw The Drums (who I don’t really like live… mostly because I don’t like it when pop bands have pre-recorded tracks), The Like (who were horrible… I hate FAKE bands), Tame Impala (they were ok), Metronomy (I hadn’t seen them in ages… and they’re a lot better now that they have a proper band) and then… yes, it was time for Weezer. Everybody knows that I *love* Weezer, and that I had never seen them before, so I was VERY excited (and scared, as I thought they’d be rubbish).

 

WEEZER

Luckily for me, they were great, even if they didn’t play my favourite song (Tired Of Sex). Their set was focused on Blue and Green and a couple of newer tracks, but all quite balanced. They were pretty tight music-wise (phew!) and Rivers Cuomo really is a great frontman. And a crazy person too. As for Brian Bell… what can I say, he really is THE MAN ♥

After Weezer we saw a bit of We Are Scientists, Blink 182 (What’s My Age Again really was special) and Klaxons (who were surprisingly good). And that was it! We packed our tents and took the 2am train back to London so that we wouldn’t have to sleep in the cold.

Generally I must say that I was expecting Reading to be horrible… and it was a lot of fun! Yes, it’s true that there are millions of annoying drunk teenagers and that the food is bad, but there were also some good bands and the guest area and so many friends (the lovely people from Scene Not Heard, Bitches,…).