Skip to content
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Derek
    • Gary
    • Halley/Celeste
    • Paul
    • Ricky
    • Vik
  • Concerts
  • Reviews
    • Albums
    • Venue
    • Movies
    • Year End Reviews
  • Festivals
    • Canadian Music Week
    • Hot Docs
    • North By Northeast
    • Planet in Focus
    • Primavera
    • South By Southwest
  • Contact Us
Menu
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Derek
    • Gary
    • Halley/Celeste
    • Paul
    • Ricky
    • Vik
  • Concerts
  • Reviews
    • Albums
    • Venue
    • Movies
    • Year End Reviews
  • Festivals
    • Canadian Music Week
    • Hot Docs
    • North By Northeast
    • Planet in Focus
    • Primavera
    • South By Southwest
  • Contact Us

Download Festival Review: Linkin Park, Gojira, Lizzies, Touche Amore, House Of Pain, June 22, Caja Magica, Madrid

Posted on
23 Jun 2017
by
Paul

IMG_20170622_161524 (2)

Midway through their set at Madrid’s Download Festival, Gojira frontman Joe Duplantier told the crowd that we were all here to forget about the bullshit and be in the moment together. In saying this he essentially articulated what festivals can be at their best. It’s about community, about coming together and enjoying yourselves in a weird little shared made up world that lasts for a weekend or so. And as weird little made up worlds go, the first day of the Madrid edition of the Download Festival had a few things going for it despite taking place in a city currently in a bit of a stifling heat wave.

Aside from Gojira’s high energy, passionate set of tech-metal, other highlights of the day included LA post-hardcore crew Touché Amoré and some ’90s nostalgia in the form of Irish-American hip hop dudes House of Pain, who brought out special guest Sick Jack to do his thing on several of their numbers and to add a bit of Spanish stage banter while also hyping up his new project Warporn, which may or may not involve someone from Cypress Hill – I’m not sure; I don’t speak Spanish. The best thing I saw all day though were locals Lizzies, who added a much needed touch of estrogen to the male-heavy lineup while also putting on an impressive performance of their ’80s-style heavy metal/rock n’ roll tunes, even making time for a revved up cover of “House Of The Rising Sun.” With a dynamic frontwoman and a visual aesthetic that brought to mind the Runaways and Girlschool, they put on an engaging performance.

IMG_20170622_154313

Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington made some waves a little while back when he said that fans who were griping about the bands new sound needed to “move the fuck on” from their debut album Hybrid Theory. I’ve got to say I agree with him 100% – I moved on from the album almost immediately after it was released and in fact I’m fairly certain that I’ve never even heard the whole thing all the way through. No, I’m not a fan, though I’ve been known to join in whenever someone picks “In The End” at the karaoke bar, and for the record, I think new single “Heavy” is fine as those things go, but the band’s not really my cup of tea. That said, I happened to be in Madrid, the band happened to be headlining a night at the festival and since I was there anyways, I figured why not give them a shot? As it turns out, my tolerance for Linkin Park is pretty low as I lasted about one and a half songs before ultimately deciding that, nope, I have no desire to hear any more, nor did I have the stamina to stick around any longer to hear later sets from Dark Tranquillity (OK band, terrible spellers), Monster Magnet, and, for some reason, an AC/DC cover band, so I made it an early night and headed back to some much needed air conditioning.

PrevPreviousConcert Review: Mary Timony, June 12, Horseshoe Tavern
NextThe Slow, Painful Death of NXNENext

SEARCH

FOLLOW US

Facebook Twitter Flickr Foursquare Rss Inbox

THE PAST

Archives

TAGS

Tags
British Music Embassy (10) Canadian Music Fest (11) canadian music week (20) cmf (10) cmw (42) concert (9) el mocambo (9) fringe (26) Great Lake Swimmers (10) guelph (9) horseshoe tavern (23) hot docs (103) jazz (12) Joel Plaskett (10) jukebox the ghost (15) lee's palace (27) marina and the diamonds (10) Massive Attack (10) mod club (12) NXNE (94) of monsters and men (11) Phoenix (15) play reviews (11) Pulp (11) Roskilde Festival (16) rural alberta advantage (10) sharon van etten (10) suede (12) summerworks (34) SXSW (479) SXSW 2022 (11) SXSW 2024 (11) SXSW Online (18) the antlers (11) the cure (9) the national (10) the xx (11) Tokyo Police Club (9) Toronto (25) toronto fringe (14) Toronto Jazz Festival (55) turf (13) tweeview (10) Video (9) zeus (10)
The Panic Manual

We are a collective of individuals bringing you the latest in concert reviews, indie, britpop, Canadian, twee and all sorts of other music, movies, tv and everything else you like. Follow the manual to live a pleasant and fulfilling life.

All rights reserved