Taking my son to his first Metal Festival

When the line up for the Finsbury Park festival in July was announced, there wasn’t a doubt in my mind I had to be there and I had to take my son Mik too.

Two of my favourite bands (Amon Amarth & Anthrax) playing on one day and a chance to see a few others I really liked and hadn’t seen in years in Hatebreed & Slayer.

I offered my lovely wife the chance of a ticket to join us as a birthday teat, but she politely declined!   

 

Having taken Mik to the Crypta show the previous September at The Underworld, this was at the other end of the scale as far as size and profile. We had the tickets bought months in advance and I’d put it at the back of my mind until it was suddenly July and time for the show. Six bands and eight hours of music spanning many sub genres in the metal spectrum, would the wee man’s 14 year old ears be ready for this?

 

We chatted all the way up to Finsbury Park, ‘I’ve got a list of things I want to see today Dad’:

These included, someone with a proper Mohican, a t-shirt with the name of a band where you can’t read the logo, someone wearing tartan trousers,  a proper mullet haircut and there were a few more.  

By the end of the day the list was complete and we’d seen even more than  he had expected!             

 

The journey up from Bromley South to North London was really easy, getting there is less than an hour and we met our friend and fellow Bromley FC Metal Head Nige at the station. As we walked up out of Finsbury Park the TFL staff were giving people directions to the venue and also getting into the spirit of things with one lady member of staff screaming ‘Slaaaayeeeerrrr’ over the megaphone and throwing up the horns!

 

We got up there for 1pm with the first band Neckbreaker due on soon after and it was already really busy. The shear scale of the set up was so  impressive and well organised, the sound was spot on, view superb, no matter where you stood and aside from that there were food stalls selling cuisine from all over the world at fairly decent prices, merch stands (not so fairly priced) and even toilet the facilities that were almost civilised. I’d seen The Pogues play here maybe 20 odd years ago and also a festival that featured New Model Army, The Mission and Henry Rollins a few years before that, but neither seemed quite as big as this.   

 

Neckbreaker were in full flow once we found our spot and from what I heard they were pretty good, they had a more hardcore sound with heavy breakdowns and they certainly gave it all. One I’d like to see again for sure. Mik’s verdict ‘I wish I’d have seen more of them’. 

 

Hatebreed soon followed with their aggressive brand of Connecticut hardcore, I’d seen them 20 odd years ago and they were even better this time around, the stand out song still being ‘I Wil be Heard’. They had an impressive stage set and also let out two massive ‘balls of death’, which were actually just massive beach balls, which the crowd had a lot of fun bouncing around, no one taking themselves too seriously which is so great about the whole scene really. Mik’s verdict, ‘Yeah liked that’.     

 

Mastadon were next up and to be honest they weren’t really for me. Lots of very extravagant and technical guitar playing, but I couldn’t tell one song from another. When Mik said should we go and look at the merch and get some food three songs in I happily agreed. Mik’s verdict: ‘I don’t get it’.  

 

We had a good walk around the place while Mastadon continued to play, Mik picked up a cream coloured Anthrax T Shirt with the ‘NOT Man’ on the front and tour dates on the back, all T shirts were priced at £45 (this was the only shirt that wasn’t black), but the item that was slightly unusual were the Slayer red ‘booty shorts’ selling at £40! These seemed popular with both men and women at the show, with a few people choosing to put them straight on after buying them.  

 

We were back in place for Anthrax who had played the Black Sabbath farewell concert the night before in Birmingham. Given that the majority band must be close to ten years old than me, their energy, enthusiasm and love for what they do is as infectious as ever. I don’t think ‘thrax ever do a poor show, Scott Ian, Frank Belo, Charlie Benate and Joey Belladonna had all played the show when I’d first seem them at Hammersmith Odeon back in 1988! They ripped through all the classics you’d want to hear, Among The Living, I am The Law, Indians, Madhouse etc. Mik’s verdict: ‘They were nowhere near as heavy as the other bands, but I really liked them. I couldn’t believe how little the lead singer was when he walked up to the crowd’     

 

After a brush with a wasp that decided it would like to go up my son’s t-shirt, thanks to Nige for spotting this, we sent the yellow & black devil on it’s way and had another walk around the place. Plus a sit down on the grass to rest my 54 year old legs, given the demographic of the fans, some chairs might have been a nice idea. It was also nice to get some fresher air as the smell of vapes other substances being smoked got a bit much after a while! We were back in time for Amon Amarth, to be honest the band I had most looked forward to seeing.

 

Amon Amarth started as they meant to go on, the full stage set was up and the Viking horns sounded as the Swedish Death Metal supremos got down to business. Twilight of the Thunder Gods, Deceiver of The Gods, Guardians of Asgard, Raise Your Horns all hit the spot, the crowd participation for ‘Put Your Back into The Oars’ didn’t quite work out with people reluctant to sit on the wet floor and row! Mik’s verdict: ‘I was impressive but I couldn’t work how just how the singer (Johan Hegg) sang like that. Drummer Jocke Wallgren made the biggest impression, ‘He’s really good’.        

 

And so to Slayer, there were so many people really super charged for this. Having said farewell a couple of years back, the band had reunited again. The two original members Tom Araya and Kerry King joined by Gary Holt & Paul Bostaph. There were a couple in front of us wearing matching Cradle of Filth T Shirts with 'Jesus is a c****' on the back. The wee man seemed genuinely shocked by this, it's a good job he didn't see the front!     

The stage set was ready with two giant inverted crosses and a massive logo back drop, ‘South of Heaven’ was a good opener, it was also good to hear ‘Die by The Sword’ & ‘Chemical Warfare’. When they burst into ‘Born of Fire’ and set the crosses on fire, Mik’s comment of ‘Ah that’s a bit too much’ made me laugh. In truth over the hour we saw, Slayer didn’t really hit the spot for me, they had been much better on the previous occasions I had seen them with the original line up. This is the band responsible for the bench mark of Thrash in ‘Reign in Blood’ and the two albums that followed were master pieces, but on this night something was missing. Mik’s verdict ‘I don’t know, it was all over hyped.’          

 

As we headed off slightly early to miss the crowds and sat down on the tube heading south, we reflected on what had been an enjoyable and eventful day. He’d seen all he wanted to see, had his first festival experience, we’d heard some great bands and had a good time. Mik’s final verdict, ‘I did prefer Crypta at The Underworld, this was all a bit big’. I got what he meant, it’s probably why we also prefer to watch Non-League Football than got to a professional game.  

 

I never under estimate just how lucky I am to be able to this stuff all over again with my son, whether it’s going to football on a Saturday or heading into central London to see band, to share this with him is priceless and you get to see it all with new eyes again.   

 

Cheers,      

 

Col.