Download Festival- Donington Park - June 2007 - Day 3

Reuben – Not too familiar with them at all, but they seemed decent, the guy was charismatic enough and had some good stage banter … plus their alternative indie type thing seemed to suit the grey skies. Can't really give them a rating, but I might check out some of their stuff

Papa Roach – They were slick, they rocked, they have songs it feels like you've known forever … Jacoby Shaddix's voice is great, although his stage manner is so astonishingly arrogant and overconfident that it begins to grate very quickly. But overall a good performance from a band who deserve to have survived the death of nu-metal. 4/5

Within Temptation – Intimate acoustic set in the Nokia Tent … the tent was virtually empty, and consequently I was only like a metre from the stage … they only played 3 songs, but it was still one of the coolest damn moments of the weekend, looked like they were having a blast. And even better, they were followed by an air guitar contest … why did I not discover the daytime joys of this tent earlier?! 4/5, even for just 3 songs

Stone Sour – Cool stuff. Corey Taylor does have a beast of a voice, and although the alternative rock / metal hybrid is a fairly well trodden path now, they managed to lift above it with some great songs, including Through Glass which has been one of my favourite songs since the end of last year and was great to see live. 4/5

Killswitch Engage – As much as I do love them, I wasn't really feeling this performance … there was something lacking since I saw them at Reading last year. Quite possibly it was Adam D, and definitely seeing them with him spouting filth left right and centre may have spoiled this performance without him, but I felt there was something else lacking too … may have been that they played so many songs I didn't know or wasn't as familiar with in the first part of their set. So I saw a few songs, then went to see Within Temptation, then came back for their last few songs. Which meant I got to see My Curse, The End Of Heartache and My Last Serenade, but (assuming they played it) missed Rose Of Sharyn. Grrrrrrr. I'll give a 3+/5 for what I saw

Within Temptation – Apparently they were having sound issues, which really showed … although they did manage to pull it off, it seemed in danger of falling apart at any second, and Sharon Den Adel just seemed completely confused during her between-song banter. Only saw a couple of songs so can't really rate them, but I enjoyed their acoustic performance earlier in the day more.

Lauren Harris – OK, admittedly I mainly went to see her cos she's hot … but she's also the daughter of Steve Harris from Maiden, and actually quite good, in a sort of "she is to classic rock what Avril Lavigne is to pop punk" sort of way. But it's OK, cos she seems to be the reason leather trousers were invented She can have a 3/5

Evanescence – Was only really half watching them from the top of the hill, so I couldn't see too much, but IMO they did a pretty good job of winning the crowd over … some fairly gutsy moves including not singing My Immortal (and telling the crowd they were pissed off with that song), doing Bring Me To Life without any of the male vocal parts, telling the crowd to "keep on throwing bottles, cos as far as we're concerned, we ****ing belong here" … I'd actually imagine they did win the respect of some of the crowd. I'll give them a 3+/5 …. Better than I expected, even though I did enjoy it when I saw them live a few years back.

Iron Maiden – Well what do you expect?! Third time seeing them, still one of the best live bands I've seen. And c'mon, does it get more legendary that seeing Maiden at Donington? 5 songs from A Matter Of Life And Death, some songs from Number Of The Beast (including the two big singles which they didn't play when I saw them last year), and some other classics (although the same classics that they played last year. The setlist was the only disappointing thing, only saw one song that I've never seen them do before (Children Of The Damned, and that's not even that amazing a song … in Kerrang, Bruce said they were going to do 22 Accacia Avenue! But they didn't). Bruce was the master showman he always is, cracking a (perhaps obvious, but still cool) Sharon Osbourne joke (I can't quite remember what it was though …), and confirming they'll be touring again next year (and he mentioned pyramids, so it seems quite possible they'll be touring their 5th to 8th albums, or at least resurrecting Powerslave in some way). And of course, I'll probably go see them again next year too. 5/5, no other score can be given. Oh yeah, and apparently it was being filmed for a DVD