INDEPENDENTS DAY 2000

03 September 2000

Great day out, just to celebrate the end of Summer Holidays (and, goodness, for me this year they ended even sooner than I was hoping for... but I'll spare you my personal problems...!). So, there were bunches of good bands playing, the only two bad things being Verdena (from Italy, they suck too much and smell of fake) and the strange bill, which saw Blink 182 as the headliners over Limp Bizkit and Deftones. This had to end in tears... and indeed it did! Blink were forced off the stage after 6 songs (yeah, luckily they had played "All the small things"!) due to too many shit being thrown onstage. I don't like Blink, but this is a very stupid way of acting, especially considering that if some "cooler-than-thou-metalhead" didn't want to see the band, he'd just have to leave after Limp Bizkit had played. But as usual some people had to show that idiots are everywhere, even in the kind of music that we think it's "the best".
Anyway, sorry for the lack of actual live pics but...er...I was stuck backstage for some interviews! I managed to enjoy most of the shows anyway, but was in no position to take pics. Muse were amazing, as were No Use for a Name, Punkreas and Millencolin. PUNKS NOT DEAD!


(click on the thumbnail to get the bigger image)

The first backstage pass I have ever got!!! Wow I could go backstage and see all the bands... er, the bands backstage are actually not up to really much..., but I was overexcited anyway. I STILL am!

Blink and you'll miss them! :-)
Here they are, during the shooting of a Tv interview. FUNNY STORY: Their bodyguard wanted everyone get away from behind them, cause they wanted to be the only ones in the shot. Funny thing that behind them stood the Deftones Tourbus, and at a certain point the band opened the door and came off. The bodyguard rushed to them telling to go immediately away. Deftones didn't want to move, and THEIR bodyguard came out of the bus asking if there was any trouble. Now, In the pic here you see the Blink guard, who's the one in black behind them. The Deftones guard was twice his size, and suddenly it was ok to have some people in the same shot as Blink 182... ahaha! They were coming to a fistfight, I would have loved that... (Bet other homepages don't tell you these little tidbits, eh? Always chanting the glamour of a backstage...)
Matt, bass player from No Use For A Name, and all-round nice guy. He was a bit pissed off cause their setlist was cut short of SIX songs, to make space to the late-comers Verdena... grrr....
But in the end, he cheered up and managed to squeeze in the pic with me and my Wildhearts t-shirt.
Limp Bizkit press conference. Very informal actually... I liked that! But I was a bit spooked out by the fact that Wes Borland, guitarist of the band, at a certain point kept staring at me. Look, I took a pic of him. How freaky was that??????
By the way, have you noticed the fact that there are only girls in the pic, apart from the band...
Keeping on with the interview... Now, I don't wanna ruin Fred Durst's "badass" image, but he was a very clever and soft-spoken person for the most part of the interview. Then he remembered he's in the "most fucking hated band in the motherfucking world" (his words) and started cussing like a sailor. Talk of personality crisis...
Took a pic with Fred anyway. He's actually a nice guy, when he is not "Fred Durst, Motherfucking leader of Motherfucking Limp Bizkit". And his eyes put mine to shame!
Ok, time for some LIVE PICS now! Deftones here. They played a good set, even if it took them some time to warm up. But once they got in the mood, the crowd was theirs!
I wonder what that white pony means in the background? (Kidding... I may not be a big fan of them, but I know their albums at least!)
Chino Moreno having a crowd-bath. Lucky me was just in front of him, but sadly the evil-guy-with-devils-horn pulled his hand up just as I was shooting...
Very warm reaction for Limp Bizkit... NOT!
All these nice middle fingers were invited to be pointed at the sky during the "fuck you" song... Good way to relieve anger, screaming "Fuck You Fuck You!" along with other 35,000 people...
Frontal shot now... so you can see Fred Durst and Wes Borland better. Wes was wearing just a little makeup... blood-red all across his body, and pale white on his face, including hair and eyelids. Glamsters would have surely appreciated...!
The end of the Limp show... and they ended with a bang, with fireworks and silver confetti all the while the Mission:Impossible soundtrack was being played. There is no doubt that their set was the best of the day, and this comes from a guy who doesn't particularly appreciate their kind of music. I guess it means that as a live band they are actually really good and entertaining, then? YES!
(Ps: sorry for no Blink 182 pics, but those accidents happened, and I had no time to take even one photo! You're not losing much anyway...)


Some Thank-yous: Musicboom (for giving me the job, LOL!), Luca Trambusti of White'n'Black (for always being helpful!) and Deka, he knows why! Hey, visit his punkrock site RIGHT NOW, ok? :-)
PUNKADEKA ...Tutto sulla musica punk!


For any comment,suggestion,or whatever you might want to tell me,my email is: thepunisher@antisocial.com

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