Leeds Festival 2005: NOFX 26th August 2005
Before moving on to Iggy, a quick word about NOFX...
I’m not sure what NOFX were doing on this bill, anymore than I have a clue why Maiden was. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed this crazy bunch of surf punks. The majority of the crowd didn’t understand anything that was going on during their set, and had there been somewhere to go to escape the rain, it would have been a token audience of people too lazy to move. For me, this was the best set of the day from any band. Come on, you can’t go wrong when one of your songs is called ‘Idiot Son of an Asshole’! Still, I think much of NOFX political jibes went well over the heads of these disposable teens.
I’m not sure what NOFX were doing on this bill, anymore than I have a clue why Maiden was. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed this crazy bunch of surf punks. The majority of the crowd didn’t understand anything that was going on during their set, and had there been somewhere to go to escape the rain, it would have been a token audience of people too lazy to move. For me, this was the best set of the day from any band. Come on, you can’t go wrong when one of your songs is called ‘Idiot Son of an Asshole’! Still, I think much of NOFX political jibes went well over the heads of these disposable teens.
Leeds Festival 2005: Iggy Pop 26th August 2005
If you have to explain the point of James Osterberg to anyone, then there’s no point; they will never understand his role in society, or the history of music. I have always been a fan of the Detroit music scene be it the Iggy and the Stooges, The MC5, Ted ‘all-the-squirrel-you-can-eat’ Nugent, Frijid Pink, or the Motown sound. There is just something raw and immediate about the blue-collar music that is addictive. It’s about as subtle as a 20lb sledgehammer to the soft parts but, then again, Detroit is not a city for the weak and worthless, and Iggy Pop is as much a part of that as anyone. His anarchic punk/rock style pre-dates UK punk by a good ten years and his set was just a frantic run through of back catalogue tunes that was lost on these young ‘uns. Semi-naked, Iggy cavorted around on-stage as manically as ever, looking very upset when his attempts to incite a riot failed because of the security, whilst the audience looked on like a dog that has just been shown a card trick. The organisers of these events really should give some extra thought to who appears where on these festival bills. If they’re going to have acts like Iggy, Maiden and Manson, then why put FFAF, Incubus and NOFX on the same day? It just does not make any sense to me.
Mark L. Potts
The God of ThunderSeptember 1st 2005
Mark L. Potts
The God of ThunderSeptember 1st 2005