Fighting With Wire - Sonisphere 2009
I was always concerned that Fighting With Wire, as rocky as they are, would not go down well with a more predominant metal crowd at Sonisphere and was made even worse when the person next to me said “It’s not working for them, is it?” After taking a deep breath, I politely pointed out that it was only the sound check and they had not started yet. Unbeknown to me then that the 30 minute set was actually going to be riddled with technical problems, which meant this chap had a point.
For the opening song and a half there was no vocals coming through from lead singer Cahir O’Doherty, thankfully there were enough people in the crowd who knew when to sing 'Precious Little Girl, Precious Little Girl' and so on. There was a large cheer when half way through 'All For Nothing' when the vocals magically appeared. Cahir, in his usual light hearted mood, which later included mocking the typical metal front man, took it all in his stride. Although that mood was severely put to the test when with two songs remaining his guitar decided to have technical problems. After a painful few minutes and some help from friend Bruce, who was more helpful than drummer Craig McKean, who decided that throwing a bottle of water at Cahir was the best help.
Technical problems aside, this was yet again another storming set from the Derry band, who have been fairly quiet on the gig front recently as they prepare a follow up to their awesome debut album 'Man Vs Monster'. The crowd did get treated to one new song in the set and on this evidence the second album will be just as great as the first.
Fighting With Wire may not have been the biggest draw to play Sonisphere or even the Bohemia tent but there were plenty of fans here judging by how many were singing, including someone who looked like an extra from Clockwork Orange. The crowd size steadily grew as people passing were sucked in, such is the lure of Fighting With Wire.