i came, i saw, i was completely blown away

it happened. rage against the machine happened.
never have a i seen a band this good, or a performance this good, or anything this good. if i died today my life would be complete, fuck wives, fuck kids, i want to live the rest of my life with zack de la rocha.
actually, thats a lie. i did fall in love with a man this weekend and he wasnt in rage against the machine, it was brian fallon of the gaslight anthem. this man is not only in the second best band on the planet(after rage) but he is amazing on so many levels. he was clearly very very drunk, and talking about things like his mums birthday cake and generally being wicked. he had fucking cool clothes and a great face and never have i seen a man look like hes enjoying playing to a crowd more in the 8 years ive been watching live bands, i guess thats what a first show in the uk does to you. i could just tell he is everything i want in a best friend, or possibly a life partner. going to the show in nottingham tomorrow, without anywhere to stay except my car, so hopefully this dream may be realised.
so that was gaslight anthem coming in at number on the best bands i saw this weekend roster.
il save rage til last.
number 3- joint between henry rollins' spoken word on sunday and frank turner's saturday afternoon performance.
we arrived a little late for mr turner but the rest of the set was faultless, he played every song i wanted to hear to a packed out tent, which sang every word right back at him. my friend described the atmosphere as 'being in a tent surrounded of best friends that you had never met before', it really was.
henry rollins- i was looking forward to this. watching an angry legend talk about stuff in a funny way is amazing. and after spending a few sleepless nights in may watching you tube videos of the man whilst trying to finish my final major project gave me the impression it was going to be pretty special. lengend is a big claim, made by many when it comes to this man, but he really is. its so refeshing and inspiring to hear someone really intelligent and interesting talking about wanting to learn, educate and challenge themselves in any way possible, even at the age of 50. the idea of travelling to places that his country specifically tells him not to go, such as burma, iran etc to just to piss the government off, meet its people and see what the place is really like and not go on media coverage really excites me. for a day where my mind was feeling fried and i felt like a zombie this performance really made me work for the entertainment and got me thinking again.

and now to the big boys: rage against the machine.
like many people i didnt think seeing bands on such a massive scale could ever be as good, or better than seeing a band in a tiny basement. i also didnt think rage could ever live up to the hype that had been put on this show by myself and everyone else in the country. i wasnt sure if seeing the band that define so much of my teenage years could actually be as good as i hoped. in short i thought i might have left this part of reading feeling slightly disappointed. i questioned, rage answered. they came onstage, had no real props or laser shows, just a massive red star backdrop and white lights on the stage and completely fucking SMASHED it.all members entered the stage in guantamo bay outfits, orange jump suits and black sacks over thier heads and played the first song like this, not even needing to see their instruments, thats when i knew how good this was going to be. every single song was a classic, every single song was faultless, their set were perfection in musical form. the crowd loved every second. i cant put into words just how amazing and epic seeing this band and them living up and surpassing my expectation was, i was speechless, well actually all i could talk about was how fucking good rage were.so 8 years of seeing bands and dj's, 8 years of basement shows and tiny venues, as well a few arenas and festivals, 8 years that may as well not have happened, because none of it was as good as this. its a big claim, but rage against machine are the best band i have ever seen and therefore the best band in the world and probably the best band that will ever exist.

reading 2008, thankyou.

i dont really want to end this blog with a list of other stuff that happened, because i feel it will take focus of how amazing these 4 acts were but other stuff definately needs a mention.

editors were also something special. ive wanted to see them for a pretty long time and they lived up to everything. they played the right songs and i was standing with all the right people. perfect late afternoon band. i really really enjoyed them.
justice were really fun, but it starts to get a bit hazy during their set.
digitalism on the last night were fucking wicked, i didnt know what to expect, but it was really fucking good. again i was with everyone i wanted to be with, all my best friends that were at reading, i was with and we danced far too much, i did madonnas vogue to everyone and had ben on my shoulders for a bit.
the cribs provided the perfect end to the festival, with the above mentioned group sitting outside the tent all cuddled up together and just generally loving life.we got described as 'something out of a GAP advert'.
we saw an australian comedian whos name has lost me at the moment, but he is the single funniest man i have ever seen. describing princess diana as a soggy jizz biscuit who still sucks cock from the grave was a little harsh but fucking funny.
alo really enjoyed late of the pier but that was more to do with the hammered state i was in.
thumbs down go to these new puritans. i dont get them, im not scene enough, end of.

the last night was wicked. we formed team human pyramid and went round all the campsites forming human pyramids and being watched by loads of people, and if ayone fucked it up and ruined it we labelled them 'busy boys' and created the rule all busy boys get bundled, so a lot of bundling went down. best night ive ever had at reading, which was ended by my brother beign part of a scheme to steal bread rolls from a fast food place. someone placed a fake order, my brother grabbed the rolls, got chased by a fat man shouting 'PUT THEM DOWN', whilst the blokes behind the counter shouted 'NO, DONT DO IT YOU FUCKING CUNT'. the fat man was scary so he dropped the rolls.

amazing weekend.