Words by Tom Donno & Marta Tavares
We kicked off our festival by checking out the proper aggro Punk duo The Meffs (9/13) in the very busy Avalanche Stage. The band were helped by some great sound (you'll find this is a consistent theme in most areas across the weekend) alongside a hugely energetic crowd in pockets. Their style of music suits an early slot at a festival as they took advantage of an excitable rabble of people. A brief cover of The Prodigy's Breathe served as the set highlight.
Looping round and up to the Dogtooth, next up were Windhand (8/13). Windhand's Doom laden performance was lively enough and the truly heavy moments did whip the slightly small crowd into a rather large pit. There was a sense though that performance wise things needed a bit of a lift in the earlier stages - they hit their stride immensely when they only had about two or so minutes left of their very short set-time.
Heading back to the Avalanche, in one of many "wait, what year is it?" moments at Download 2025, Crossfaith (7/13) aimed to kick their comeback into a new gear. Late on in the set, the band proclaimed this was a new era as part of an unnecessarily long speech; the reality however was more one of familiarity. Energetic? Yes. Frantic? Yes. A struggle to maintain any long-standing effect on people? Yes.
Taking advantage of the still fabulous cut-through built between the Dogtooth and Opus stage, next up for us was the far more imperious Opeth (10/13). Unfortunately, whilst we waxed lyrical in our preview feature about how fantastic the sound was the last time Opeth donned this stage, we fear we may have jinxed everything (sorry chaps). Hitting the stage 15/20 minutes late before then being plagued by problems with their sound monitors throughout, the Swedish Prog Metal titans still managed to pull out a string of perfectly performed tracks. Ghost Of Perdition at the end of the set was, as it always is, magnificent.
For our first foray at the Apex Stage this year, Weezer (11/13) made their debut performance at Download Festival, and judging by both the size of the crowd and their enthusiasm, that is as bonkers as it sounds. Opening with Hash Pipe, Weezer chose simply to run with hit after hit after hit after hit from there to positive result. Their crowd interaction and lack of anything production wise will draw some criticism for a band in the sub-headline slot but this is Weezer. If you expected brash confidence from the geekiest band around then you've got the wrong idea. We already can't wait to see them as the main support for Deftones at Crystal Palace Park in the coming weeks.
Closing out day one, another debutant for Download Festival and this time it was the turn of Green Day (12/13). By some distance attracting the biggest crowd of the weekend, the enthusiasm across the field rumbled as the band's intro tape taking us through the years played out across the screens. From the very first note of the opening American Idiot it was impossible not to think "finally" as Billie Joe Armstrong and crew confidently strode around the stage. The fan favourites included the likes of Brain Stew, Welcome To Paradise and Hitchin' A Ride dotted amongst an American Idiot heavy set as the band continue to celebrate the legendary record's anniversary. The latter of these tunes included a long-standing UK tradition for Green Day in which about 60,000 people were encouraged to chant (by himself) "you fat bastard" at Billie Joe. A real "moment" shared by all of those in the field came during Wake Me Up When September Ends as the heavens opened up absolutely out of nowhere completely in sync with the lyric "here comes the rain again...".
Green Day's first show at Donington, and given the success and reception it's had, it almost certainly cannot be their last. Love or hate them, you couldn't possibly have stood watching that show scratching your chin trying to understand why they're a Download headliner - a legendary band firing at all cylinders to show exactly why their longevity shows no sign of letting up.