Exploding Panthers

Yeah yeah, I know I have been slack at updating Whereismal in a while but I've been spending too much time in front of my new computer as it is without having to spend more time updating this! But that's not to say I haven't been busy...

Last Monday was also a Bank Holiday here in the Netherlands and I spent the day at the Pinkpop festival. A 3 day festival in the south east corner of the Netherlands. The line up on Sunday was also good but I only got a Monday ticket. However, a couple of my friends went for the whole weekend. To be honest tho. I'm glad I didn't go for the whole weekend cos there was a touch of rain.

I saw the following sign when I queued up to get through security and it made me laugh. My initial thoughts were "Wow this is going to be an awesome festival if people crowd surf the entrance gates!!!"

But alas, there was a lot less carnage than that image portrayed :-( For starters the main stage had a double barrier system to prevent crushing. But it was stupid - there was a huge queue to get in the front area and then when you were in there it was full of people complaining of being crowded. DON'T STAND THERE THEN!!!

Then cos there was not that many acts, once one band finished on the main stage, there was a mass exodus of people to the other 2 stages. Crowd control was daft - there should've been more overlap then everyone would not all be moving at the same time.

But enough winging, I did have a good time even in the rain. The bands I saw full sets of were The Fratellis, The Magic Numbers, Wolfmother, Artic Monkeys and The Kooks. Fratellis and Artic Monkeys were both the same really, took quite a while to get going but when they got there they were pretty good. The crowd enjoyed them too and everyone was humming the Chelsea Dagger theme waiting for the Fratellis to come on and were disappointed when the Artic Monkeys had to come off the stage for Linkin Park. The Magic Numbers again put on a great crowd pleasing show - they are good at interacting with the crowd.

Wolfmother was a surprise for me as I had never heard any of their work before - he's quite a character with a great unique voice. I will be finding some of his work at some point. The Kooks were probably the best tho. Again took a little while to get going but as they were the last band on that particular stage, they were able to keep going as the crowd kept cheering. No band following them so no need to get kicked off stage.

I also caught bits of The Dave Matthews Band, Scissor Sisters, Linkin Park and the closing ceremony of Smashing Pumpkins. I say bits of cos there was nothing there worth staying a long time for! I mean who chose the Smashing Pumpkins to close?!