Green Day, Nottingham Woolaton Park
As the clouds cleared, and the sun decided it was about time to emerge from wherever he had been hiding, and the tape in the player switched onto yet another fantastic punk rock emerald, it felt like a fantastic day to be going to a one day festival in a gargantuan field in deepest Nottinghamshire. Unfortunately, at this precise moment, my friends and I were stuck in a rather large traffic jam on the A52. Which pretty much sums up Distortion 2002. A day that was amazing yet disappointing, full of fantastic performances and high spirits, yet uninspiring bands and torrential rain. What more can you ask for?
By the time we entered the seemingly endless queue to enter the venue, the heat was getting close to, to coin a phrase, ‘bloody hot’. Cheered up no end by a rather bizarre chat with a man in a ridiculous green jacket sipping Robinson’s blackcurrant juice and mumbling to us about his bands exploits, we walked onto the site to be greeted by the ska core ramblings of CAPDOWN. If there’s a better way to start the day, I’d like to hear it. Despite the fact that we missed half their set, (well, we heard it, we just couldn’t see it) they made an early impression and got the day off to a fantastic start. They also started the first circle pit of the day, which is an honour i am sure they are very proud of. As I cant fully comment on their performance, scoring them out of 10 would be unfair, so I will just leave it as ‘pretty great’ and move on.
The first full set of the day was Snuff. Already soaking wet due to an impromptu water fight in the interval, I made my way to the back of ‘the pit’ to witness the veteran UK punks in action. I’ve always loved Snuff on record, but been unimpressed with their live show in recent years. They seem to have become jaded and disinterested in putting on a good show. Luckily, none of this was present this particular time and despite being far from spectacular, they got ‘the kids’ going and belted out some good, solid punk numbers, so who am I to complain? (5)
Moving the whole 30 yards or so over to the main stage and the very heart of the gathering masses, a seemingly over excited and exuberant [SPUNGE] bounded onto the stage. The first band to make a lasting impression on me during the day, the midlands based ska loving upstarts were in fine form and the likes of ‘Jump On Demand’ and ‘Kicking Pigeons’, as well as a rather subdued cover of ‘No Woman No Cry’ were welcomed with open arms by the adoring fans. Seemingly oblivious of the aural blind spot in the middle of the pit, which rendered the vocals almost inaudible, the people around me lapped it up. They still aren’t quite the finished article, but they still manage to entertain the troops. (7)
FACE TO FACE were up next on the smaller Rock City stage. Bizarrely, the sound on this support stage was twice as good as the main one, and Face To Face put on a perfect festival performance to stun the crowd, many of whom barely knew they were there. ‘Disconnected’ and ‘Bill Of Goods’ in particular sounded absolutely huge, and the set was short, sweet and perfectly balanced. A bit of audience participation here, a blisteringly fast two and a half minute punk song there. Fantastic. (9)
This meant that THE LEVELLERS were going to be even more disappointing than I had previously imagined. Granted, they can play their instruments like true professionals, and boy do they have many instruments. It’s just that the music they make is so bland. It reminds me of the drop out of the nineties indie scene, where bands like Cast and Menswear bastardised the whole thing and squeezed every drop of emotion from it. They got a great crowd response from the middle-aged contingent, and were certainly not the worst band on the bill, but they just didn’t do it for me. (2)
HUNDRED REASONS were up next and yet again, despite a fantastic stage presence, some monstrous songs and a huge following at the festival, the dodgy PA, which made the bass sound like a stampede of elephants, and the guitars and vocals sound like they were playing in a cardboard box, let them down. ‘Dissolve’ and ‘If I Could’ were particularly impressive, but not as impressive as I was hoping. (7)
To put it bluntly, RAGING SPEEDHORN should never be allowed to pick up instruments again. They were completely out of place on the bill, and despite having Satan himself on vocals (well, that’s what it sounded like from where I was) only served to win the award for ‘Most Bottles Thrown During A Very Short Set List’. (0)
‘A’ followed and, would you believe it, I could barely hear a thing Jason Perry was singing. They didn’t seem particularly interested, which led to some unrest in the crowd, and even after numerous chants of ‘Louder!’ from the gathering faithful, the sound still remained annoyingly low. ‘I Love Lake Tahoe’ and ‘Nothing’ redeemed them towards the end, and they were highly enjoyable, if not particularly astonishing. (7)
Over on the Rock City stage, it was the turn of post-hardcore luminaries RIVAL SCHOOLS to bring their unique brand of melody and searing guitar work to the throngs of salivating music lovers. They didn’t disappoint either. Last time I saw them live, they did nothing to dispel the feeling that they are very much a record band as opposed to a fantastic live act, but they were a lot tighter and played the majority of their ‘United By Fate’ record with passion by the bucket load. (7)
IDLEWILD have always been a guilty pleasure of mine. I know I shouldn’t like their music, but I do. It’s not particularly original or innovative, but there’s something about ‘When I Argue I See Shapes’ and ‘Little Discourage’ that I love. Which is why their frankly pitiful performance on Saturday was the biggest let down of the day. So it was raining, the majority of the crowd were tingling with anticipation due to two of the three bands on after them and they are generally miserable anyway, but there’s really no excuse for their halfhearted performance. Must try harder I’m afraid. (3)
Which leads me to THE WILDHEARTS. Unfortunately, I can’t write the 2000 word essay on how amazing this band are, or how much Ginger is a timeless reminder of all things great about Britain, or how Danny McCormack, after all his drug troubles, still manages to have a retro-tinged aura about him onstage. What I can say is that they were spotless. ‘I Wanna Go Where The People Go’, ’29 X The Pain’, the new single ‘Vanilla Radio’ and in particular, ‘Suckerpunch’ all sounded absolutely bloody huge. The crowd went absolutely mental, I for one didn’t stop jumping up and down for the entire set and the mini Elvis who introduced the set was a stroke of pure genius. A truly earth shattering performance from the self-destructing saviours of British rock. (10)
IGGY POP had no chance really. Sandwiched between two of the best live bands on the planet, the razor sharp riffs and snarling vocals on ‘Passenger’ and ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ seemed pale in comparison. As much as he annoys me generally, the music is still fantastic, but just couldn’t beat off the stiff competition. (6)
Headliners GREEN DAY emerged, after we, the money paying punters, had endured at least a half an hour wait in the cold for them, to rapturous applause, high pitched screams and the biggest cheers of the day. Due to the fact that they have been playing almost the same set for months and Ben has already reviewed their Wembley Arena performance on this very site, I won’t dwell too much on everybody’s favourite corporate punk rock trio. Needless to say, ‘Basket Case’, ‘King For A Day’, ‘Minority’ and ‘2000 Light Years Away’ blew everyone away, although I wish they’d think of another gimmick to replace the Operation Ivy cover with random crowd members idea. It’s getting very stale and very predictable now guys.
Despite this minor blip, Billie Joe, a born showman if ever I saw one, kept the crowd on their toes, Mike was his usual reliable self, and Tre was unusually quiet behind the sticks. Not a vintage performance from the Berkeley boys, but then after their seemingly endless touring schedule recently, what do you expect? Still, they didn’t disappoint and ‘When I Come Around’ and ‘Platypus’ finished the day’s proceedings off nicely. (9)
As I left the site cold, wet, but deliriously happy (saying hello to Alex from [spunge] on my way out) there was only one thing left to say. Bring on the Carling Weekend!
Ross
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