Feed Me Now!
There's a big crowd in front of the main stage for Feeder's early evening slot and it's hardly surprising. Feeder are probably the ultimate festival band, as this year's 'Singles' album proved, they have a knack for writing great sing along tunes and there can't be anyone here that doesn't know at least a handful of their songs.
They are joined on stage by habitual touring guitarist Dean Tidey, which gives them a bigger live sound, although for those further back than the mixing desk the sound does swoosh quite badly at sporadic intervals. As you'd expect it's a strong set that draws heavily from their singles, beginning with 'Pushing the Senses' and 'Come Back Around' before a great version of 'Insomnia'. 'Feeling a Moment' follows before one of the moments of the weekend when they go into 'Buck Rogers'. It seems like the whole crowd is bouncing and singing along and watching several thousand people jumping in unison is some site!
Visually it's not the most exciting performance but the consistent quality of the songs probably hasn't been bettered on this or any other stage over the whole weekend (with the possible exception of Muse). The hits just keep coming, 'Just The Way I'm Feeling', 'Lost and Found' and 'Seven Days in the Sun' all keep up the momentum. There's an amusing moment before 'Just A Day' when Grant Nicholas teases the crowd with short snippets of AC/DC's 'Back in Black' and Sabbath's 'Paranoid'. It's a great end to the set and the crowd erupts once again.
Last year at Download Feeder were in danger of becoming something of an institution, one year on and there can be few who would argue that they've achieved that honour. Excellent stuff. Again!