The Reading weekend closed festival season in truly awesome (and very muddy) style last week with the three day extravaganza embodying a whirlwind of amazing sets from a range of irrepressible bands, both classic and rising stars. Here then is Room Thirteen's top ten sets, in descending order, from the weekend including worried security men, mixing tower climbing bass players and a random appearance from Queen's Brian May.
10. Rise Against, Main Stage, Friday-With a powerful and vital political message still radiating brightly through their music twelve years after formation, Rise Against hit Reading's main stage hard with a trailblazing set. Sticking almost exclusively to newer material may be a frustrating fact for fans but the conviction with which they play is undeniable, the likes of 'Architects' and 'Help Is on the Way' sounding huge in the Friday sun. Rewarding fans with a raucous performance of 'Prayer of the Refugee' is a highlight, frontman Tim McIIrath's voice hitting with the force of fist made of steel, before an extended set closer of the killer 'Saviour' provides one of the highlights of the weekend.
9. Your Demise, Lock-up Stage, Sunday- A huge triumph for the band, Your Demise's first appearance at Reading allows the band's ever-present live fire to rage even more in the face of a huge crowd. Frontman Ed McRae is as magnetic as ever with his unassuming MC meets punk rock riot starter stage presence filling every inch of the stage. Anthems such as 'The Kids We Used To Be...', 'Life of Luxury' and the brutal 'Burnt Tongues' go down a storm as the circle pits get bigger and bigger. Much like at Download, Your Demise prove that they're up with the best of them in modern live music and with new album 'The Golden Age' coming very soon, big things are lining up for the quintet.
8. Muse, Main Stage, Sunday-Allegedly re-investing all the money they were paid to headline the festival into their stage set, Muse honour 2001's 'Origin of Symmetry' in the fashion it deserves, re-creating its esoteric front cover physically to surround them as they play. Playing the album in full is an incredible experience for any long-term Muse fan to witness and old classics like 'Citizen Erased' and 'Bliss' are dusted off wonderfully, not sounding dated at all. Inevitably the band return for a greatest hits encore as well, playing a slew of fan favourites like the hammering 'Stockholm Syndrome', complete with a great inclusion of Deftones' 'My Own Summer' riff, and the collective synchronised headbang of 'Knights of Cydonia'. They could have left out songs from the terrible 'The Resistance' album but overall this was a triumphant set that honoured a genuinely important album in admirable style. Wonderful stuff. They also pulled the biggest crowd of the weekend, to say it was absolutely bloody huge is an understatement.
7. My Chemical Romance, Main Stage, Friday-Hitting a debatable creative slump of late, the New Jersey heroes had a lot to prove with their headline performance on the first day of the festival. And prove they did, showing that they still have plenty to give with a huge performance that really drew you in comprising a perfect balance between irrepressible energy and enthusiasm and an immersive stage set consisting of thousands of lasers, sci-fi themed videos and giant cat heads on sticks (no joke). Opening with a giant 'Na Na Na (Na Na Na)' the band hit the ground with all pistols firing before descending into one of the loudest sing-a-longs of the weekend in the immortal 'I'm Not Okay (I Promise)', its 'trust me! line resounding around the arena like a deafening echo. Interestingly songs such as 'SING' and 'Planetary (Go!)' that sounded a little flat on record, stand up well in the live environment fitting well into the band's stage set and feeling genuinely massive. It is inevitably though old favourites like 'Famous Last Words' and 'Helena' that go down best with a nice reference from frontman Gerard Way to their amazing set at the festival back in 2006 that included an unforgettable arena-wide chant condemning a certain newspaper. The best moment though is also the strangest when Queen guitarist Brian May appears randomly onstage alongside the band as they return for their encore to perform a one-two punch of Queen's 'We Will Rock You' and a weekend highlight of MCR's massive hit 'Welcome To The Black Parade', the sheer and obvious glee on the bands faces in performing with one of their heroes really warming the hearts of those assembled. Let's hope they can get their act together in the studio and return to their best.
6. Twin Atlantic, Festival Republic Stage, Sunday-Wow, just wow. The Glasgow rockers have been rising quickly over the past twelve months, accelerated by May's release of their brilliant debut 'Free', and based on live performances such as this one, this isn't going to stop anytime soon, putting a furious huge stage showing on one of the festivals' smallest stages. The quartet pull a huge crowd and the anticipation is thick in the air and in opening with a rip-roaring 'The Ghost of Eddie' this anticipation becomes a wonderful collision of a band performing with all their heart, completely at one with each other, and a crashing wave-like sing-a-long that doesn't relent for the entirety of the set. Each individual member is magnetic and the sound is perfect, tight as a nut, while songs such as the giant 'Free' and older stunners 'You're Turning into John Wayne' and 'What Is Light? Where Is Laughter?' are just undeniable anthems. This band are at the front of the pack, no doubt about it, you'll be seeing these guys on far bigger stages in no time at all.
5. Deftones, Main Stage, Friday-A classic and hugely influential band who have undergone a complete and energising re-invigoration over the past eighteen months, the Sacramento quintet are just on absolute fire at the moment and show absolutely no signs of stopping. Flying onto stage with the sledge-hammer heavy 'Diamond Eyes', they were always going to be one of the highlights of the weekend and their set continued to fire by like the Tasmanian devil. Newer cuts like 'Rocket Skates' and 'You've Seen The Butcher' garner the same crowd reactions as old classics 'My Own Summer' and 'Change (In The House Of Flies)' while frontman Chino Moreno stalks the stage like a hungry lion with the dexterity of a fireball, his terrifying pterodactyl scream sounding more ferocious than ever. There are wonderful individual moments as well with a sweeping 'Minerva' dedicated to still tragically coma-ridden and much-missed bassist Chi Cheng and a surprise brutal inclusion in the rap-metal glory of fan favourite 'Back To School (Mini Maggit)', it's vital stuff. The forever explosive '7 Words' brings proceedings to a close with Moreno even cheekily adding a screamed chorus of Katy Perry's 'Firework' into its bridge before launching into an extended scream following his actual song's 'squeal like a pig' line, proving he has more air in his lungs than most. Amazing band, amazing set.
4. Rival Schools, Festival Republic Stage, Saturday-After their sudden disbandenment back in 2003, Rival Schools became post-hardcore icons with their debut 'United By Fate' seen rightly as a classic and influencing countless bands as a result. Their 2008 reformation has subsequently been a steady success with the NY quartet finally releasing songs that never saw the light of day on second album 'Pedals' and gradually touring the world, coming back together as a collective. The tent is predictably packed and opening with a shimmering 'Wring It Out' the crowd is sent into a frenzy that doesn't relent until the final notes resound around the tent forty-five minutes later. New songs such as their opener or the ethereal 'A Parts For B Actors' go down a storm which is a great sight to see but it's inevitably the classic tunes, now ten years old, that turn the tent into bedlam. 'Travel By Telephone' and 'High Acetate' still sound absolutely significant in the 21st century with their perfect blend of weathered melody and old-school mosh, 'Everything Has Its Point' is a gargantuan arm-in-arm sing-a-long before the top ten mosh-pit anthem 'Used For Glue' proves why itself and its creators shall never die. But it's not over yet as frontman Walter Schreifels drops his guitar to come to the audience for a final rendition of the heartbreaking 'Undercovers On', a special moment that ends their set on a skyscraper high.
3. Bring Me The Horizon, Main Stage, Friday-Holding their status as one of the best live metal bands on the planet high above their heads, Bring Me The Horizon absolutely destroy Reading with their main stage slot that proved that they can take on pretty much any band with serious conviction. Opening with the brutal sing-a-long of 'It Never Ends', the crowd is instantly sent utterly nuts with mud flying through the sky like missiles, frontman Oli Sykes' roar of 'what's up Reading?!' being greeted with sheer euphoria, proving seconds into their performance just how hard they've worked to get people on their side. The set from then on is simply one of the best 2011 festival season has seen, even surpassing their Download performance by miles, with 'Diamonds Aren't Forever' seeing mass crowd-surfers all over the muddy shop (even with the weather briefly cutting out the song's breakdown!), 'Blessed With A Curse' spurs a completely unorthodox yet absolutely raging sing-a-long and a monstrous 'Pray For Plagues' proves that a band can still perform an incredible set while paying the respect deserved to older material. Best of all is saved for last however with both bassist Matt Kean and guitarist Jona Weinhofen jumping into the crowd as 'Chelsea Smile' kicks in and spending the majority of the song engulfed within it before Weinhofen climbs back on stage to perform the song's epic ending atop one of the big screens and Kean scales the mixing tower, it's both an amazing musical experience and an unforgettable spectacle.
2. Enter Shikari, Main Stage, Sunday-This band are going massive places, there's no doubt about it now and if there was anyone hint of it before their main stage slot it was utterly obliterated by the time they'd finished playing. With a strangely ominous intro tape of Charlie Chaplin gradually growing louder and louder, the huge crowd that the band summon swells in its roars before the quartet run on stage, invincible energy and confidence in tact and dive straight into a swaggering and stomping 'Destabilise', each member taking every opportunity to jump off any piece of equipment, dance in all manner of ways or do battle with their instruments to create a dazzling spectacle while the sound remains absolutely Godzilla-like. Forming a set that spans the band's still young career, 'Mothership' gets the whole field jumping and shaking, 'Juggernauts' causes crowd-surfers and human pyramids to appear everywhere you look and the mighty 'Sorry You're Not A Winner' is an undeniable moment with its 'three clap' refrain genuinely causing the ears to ring alone. Equally recent single 'Quelle Surprise' sounds brilliant on the big stage and fits in seamlessly, it's a clear indicator that the band are only getting better. Ending on a sublime 'OK Time For Plan B', frontman Rou Reynolds is climbed atop a giant speaker stack one minute while bashing a cymbal in the audience the next and ebullient guitarist Rory Clewlow simply throws his guitar away to dance along to the song's crushing extended outro, it's an incredible display of a band having truly come into their own and smashing challenges with boxing gloves on. This is the start of a huge new era for Enter Shikari, when their new album drops the world's in trouble.
1. Letlive, Lock-up Stage, Saturday-It was always going to be them wasn't it? Quite predictably, the band of the weekend award was taken by the mighty Letlive, the most exciting band in the world today, and just like everywhere else they've played this year, they utterly slayed the place. With the band arriving to a packed tent, there isn't a hint of nerves to any of the five members, all there is is a fire in their eyes and you just know that they're going to take the place by storm. Kicking off with frontman Jason Aalon Butler speaking of the London riots and the feeling of uncertainty that fell upon the city last month, his fellow bandmates begin to kick their instruments into life as his voice slowly rises into a roar, screaming 'This is Us vs. Them, no, there is no such thing as Us vs. Them!' before launching into a feral 'Le Prologue', the vocalist playing a marching drum in rhythm with drummer Anthony Rivera's point-perfect drum-work from within the crowd, bassist RJ Johnson's shaker tones growing louder and more manic at the song's core. Then, of course, all hell breaks loose as they dive into 'The Sick, Sick 6.8 Billion', the band are unstoppable, even potentially severe technical issues being no problem for them with Butler screaming into a collection of broken microphones, throwing each one in sequence, until he acquires one that works while guitarist Jean Nascimento tapes up his cutting-out guitar so seamlessly you hardly notice there was an issue in the first place, the band never missing a note or losing any momentum whatsoever. The rest of the set is a whirlwind of spontaneity, bruising brutality and delicate melody, every song a hit that catches fire and spreads its wings. Particularly stand-out moments include Butler tapping a security member on the shoulder only to scream in his face as he turns round with a shocked but equally entertained expression, throwing his microphone like a lasso in one shot into the lighting rig so it looks like a climbing rope and the finale of him being carried outside of the tent by the audience while guitarist Jeff Sahyoun makes one of the coolest noises we've heard in quite a while by grating a microphone across the strings of his guitar, sounding like a cross between a police siren and the bridge of Refused's 'New Noise', it's a killer end to an always killer and significantly always different and ever-changing set from the Californians. Watch out world, they're just getting started.
An incredible end to an incredible summer, one that'll hold home to plenty of amazing musical memories and mark important turning points within the live music scene. To all the bands and everyone who attended Reading, Download, Sonisphere, Hevy and everywhere else in between, we salute you.