Thank you for answering my question an yeah it would be a weird space for you to enter into gav i was thinking more thatd itd lessen costs as bands would be about more
Can totally relate to what James is saying about the QOTSA set - that's how I felt about Night Verses at ATG this year. Night Verses themselves were good and I had no complaints about the set list but it just didn't click/spark like I hoped. Not enough of a buzz in the crowd, not enough people going nuts to the heavier parts.
Love the podcast fellas. Great to hear your thoughts about the mechanics behind the scenes but also great to hear both your thoughts and observations. LOVE Gav's description of Polyphia.. ".. Guitar wankery... So.. That's how my day started." 😂😂
Aah, Polyphia. I kinda want to like them but just can't get into them. In some ways calls back to how I also didn't get on with the guitar-hero shred stuff back in the 80s. As a guitarist I can respect them massively, but just... no, not for me. Songs plz.
I'm always super impressed whenever I hear or see them. I don't really ever seek them out, and I wouldn't say I massively enjoy their songs, but they have hipster cred which I guess could be worse.
Last year they massively increased the capacity and got a TON of backlash for it, so I think reducing the capacity was definitely the right move from an overall weekend enjoyment. Interesting take about the hit to the atmosphere that resulted from it.
Another great one, interesting to hear about removing the very small stages from early 2ktrees. I’ve just come back from Isle of Wight Festival and before you get into your MainStage etc. they have a few very small themed stages (one had burlesque and DnB going on with a circus theme another was more of a cafe vibe playing folk music and the like) do you ever see you doing anything more like that in the future? the specific camp min stages are a really fun concept maybe developing that idea further?
QOTSA is a really weird pick to headline download. Very little overlap with pop punk fans, traditional metal fans or modern metalcore/nu metal fans which is the vast majority of the download audience. A download headliner needs to be a band that everyone in at least one of those three key demographics likes.
Family Values Tour Day Rammstein Headliner Limp Bizkit vs Korn (double support, working together, taking turns) Cypress Hill in 3rd spot to replace Ice Cubes normal spot on this tour Then could fill with acts from the rest of the tours/fests or friends of them like: Stone Sour, Coal Chamber, MudVayne, Method Man/RedMan, ICP, Staind
Great pod as always. Regarding headliners, people moan about Slipknot, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Rammstein etc. always headlining but I take the mentality that even if we've seen them a million times not every person in that crowd necessarily has, and the reality is these bands won't be around forever anyway - so you should milk it while you can. Every time I've seen Metallica I've thought, oh my god...I'm watching Metallica. On a much smaller level at Damnation - that was my thought seeing Electric Wizard for the first time last year! This year's Download had some decent bands in the undercard but no event headliners that made me immediately excited.
I'd honestly prefer to go see Morello if he were just doing a talk, like Henry Rollins or something, the dude seems like an interesting guy. Set him up with a laptop and some slides and we'd be well away. What do you guys think of stuff like that? Like the comedians they used to have at Bloodstock as well? Some of them were pretty fun but some of them just seemed very bemused that we would rather be standing listening to them rather than Motorhead 😂 (fair enough tbh)
The mud wasn’t that bad at Download. If that torrential shower and hail storm when Babymetal was on hadn’t happened there would have been loads less problems. Don’t think there were any sound issues on main this year other than when the sound dropped during Avenged. Completely agree with Gav on the drop out as that is what I would do too. The reason Barclays was dropped was because Shikari, Soft Play, Tom Morello and others were pushing behind the scenes. Rou put a tweet out about it. On the headliners, I would say Fall Out Boy were brilliant. Put on a set to rival Bring Me last year. They were a stand out performance this year and Download should continue booking someone like them - MCR/Paramore/Blink/Green Day etc. as a headliner. If they went Sleep Token/MCR/Slipknot or System next year it would sell like hot cakes.
James has completely forgotten about Polyphia playing ATG 2019 it seems 😂
Yeah...they played then, didn't they? Was there, but didn't go and see them.
Thank you for answering my question an yeah it would be a weird space for you to enter into gav i was thinking more thatd itd lessen costs as bands would be about more
Can totally relate to what James is saying about the QOTSA set - that's how I felt about Night Verses at ATG this year. Night Verses themselves were good and I had no complaints about the set list but it just didn't click/spark like I hoped. Not enough of a buzz in the crowd, not enough people going nuts to the heavier parts.
Love the podcast fellas. Great to hear your thoughts about the mechanics behind the scenes but also great to hear both your thoughts and observations.
LOVE Gav's description of Polyphia.. ".. Guitar wankery... So.. That's how my day started." 😂😂
Aah, Polyphia. I kinda want to like them but just can't get into them. In some ways calls back to how I also didn't get on with the guitar-hero shred stuff back in the 80s.
As a guitarist I can respect them massively, but just... no, not for me. Songs plz.
I'm always super impressed whenever I hear or see them. I don't really ever seek them out, and I wouldn't say I massively enjoy their songs, but they have hipster cred which I guess could be worse.
Last year they massively increased the capacity and got a TON of backlash for it, so I think reducing the capacity was definitely the right move from an overall weekend enjoyment. Interesting take about the hit to the atmosphere that resulted from it.
Another great one, interesting to hear about removing the very small stages from early 2ktrees. I’ve just come back from Isle of Wight Festival and before you get into your MainStage etc. they have a few very small themed stages (one had burlesque and DnB going on with a circus theme another was more of a cafe vibe playing folk music and the like) do you ever see you doing anything more like that in the future? the specific camp min stages are a really fun concept maybe developing that idea further?
Less than 4 minutes until we get a Julie Christmas shout out 😂😂😂
I'm trying to figure out a way to get it in before "We Go Again"
Gav
I know you said Download didn't seem sold out, I wonder how much of a difference the weather made to the turnout
QOTSA is a really weird pick to headline download. Very little overlap with pop punk fans, traditional metal fans or modern metalcore/nu metal fans which is the vast majority of the download audience.
A download headliner needs to be a band that everyone in at least one of those three key demographics likes.
Family Values Tour Day
Rammstein Headliner
Limp Bizkit vs Korn (double support, working together, taking turns)
Cypress Hill in 3rd spot to replace Ice Cubes normal spot on this tour
Then could fill with acts from the rest of the tours/fests or friends of them like:
Stone Sour, Coal Chamber, MudVayne, Method Man/RedMan, ICP, Staind
Great pod as always. Regarding headliners, people moan about Slipknot, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Rammstein etc. always headlining but I take the mentality that even if we've seen them a million times not every person in that crowd necessarily has, and the reality is these bands won't be around forever anyway - so you should milk it while you can. Every time I've seen Metallica I've thought, oh my god...I'm watching Metallica. On a much smaller level at Damnation - that was my thought seeing Electric Wizard for the first time last year! This year's Download had some decent bands in the undercard but no event headliners that made me immediately excited.
I'd honestly prefer to go see Morello if he were just doing a talk, like Henry Rollins or something, the dude seems like an interesting guy. Set him up with a laptop and some slides and we'd be well away. What do you guys think of stuff like that? Like the comedians they used to have at Bloodstock as well? Some of them were pretty fun but some of them just seemed very bemused that we would rather be standing listening to them rather than Motorhead 😂 (fair enough tbh)
Love the pod fellas but please please please get some microphones!
12 x Trees, 5 x ATGs, and counting.
We're both using a £120 mic we each bought four months ago.
How expensive do we need to go to get decent sound?
Appreciate the reply, I take it back! I'll drop a DM.
Tom Morello: watching someone play 1/4 of a bands music was dull
The mud wasn’t that bad at Download. If that torrential shower and hail storm when Babymetal was on hadn’t happened there would have been loads less problems.
Don’t think there were any sound issues on main this year other than when the sound dropped during Avenged.
Completely agree with Gav on the drop out as that is what I would do too. The reason Barclays was dropped was because Shikari, Soft Play, Tom Morello and others were pushing behind the scenes. Rou put a tweet out about it.
On the headliners, I would say Fall Out Boy were brilliant. Put on a set to rival Bring Me last year. They were a stand out performance this year and Download should continue booking someone like them - MCR/Paramore/Blink/Green Day etc. as a headliner.
If they went Sleep Token/MCR/Slipknot or System next year it would sell like hot cakes.