The Download Festival

The Download Festival was an awesome experience. Basically, I went on behalf of AFI and the Cure, but I was pleasantly surprised by She Wants Revenge. I had kind of written them off as "just a garage band with slightly gothic overtones." However, they were frickin' great. Totally danceable and bouncy. I LOVED it! I will definitely be checking out their music.
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club was up next. They were really bluesy, but pretty boring. I didn't really pay attention to them. When I did, though, it definitely sounded like some good music. Just not my thing.
AFI is amazing. They have a lot of energy on stage. They are all constantly running around, jumping, and look like they have a good time up there. They had some weird technical difficulties at first, but once those were through, they sounded great. All of their songs translate really well from disc to the stage, which is really cool. The diversity of the crowd made for some interesting dancing/moshing. It was really funny. They only played for an hour, which was WAY too short, but their time on stage was incredible.
The Cure: amazing band on record, kind of boring live. At least, they are when they start by playing a bunch of material that thousands of people DON'T know. When they started to finally play some hits, the energy at Shoreline really kicked up. People were dancing and having a good time. I did enjoy them a lot. It was just a bit disconcerting that they started off with a bunch of material that no one knew, and then kept drawing on material that I certainly didn't know, without introducing it. I would love to see them again someday, but not at a festival show. They need to play to their own specific audience. I want to feel the good vibes from their fans when I see them again, not the weird, drunken confusing vibes everyone gave off on Saturday night.
All in all, it was a good show. I wish I hadn't been sick during it, but it certainly didn't take anything away from it for me. I wonder what show I'll see next?