Slam Dunk

On Sunday I headed to Hatfield for Slam Dunk South, with the glorious sunshine the U.K has been blessed with lately, the hour queue didn't bother me.Once we got our lovely wrist bands we sat down near the main stage and Zebrahead were playing, I'm not a fan i've always thought thier music was great but the lyrics and vocals let them down. Zebrahead were so weird on stage shouting 'show us your d**k' and other eyebrow raising comments to the crowd.

I was truely gutted I missed The Jellycats performance I got my times mixed up, I've seen some of the photographs Jack Ford took and they look amazing thou.

Lower Than Atlantis were on the main stage next which pleased me greatly, their set list was perfect! They opened with '(Motor)Way Of Life', 'Beech Like The Tree' (which is a favourite of mine!), If The World Was To End', 'High At Five', 'Marilyn's Mansion', 'Far Q', 'Foo Fighters Medley' and of course they ended with 'Deadliest Catch' I think Lower Than Atlantis set the tone for the rest of the day!

After an agonisingly long wait in the toilet queue I missed the first six minutes of The Word Alive's Set, they're who i'd been most excited to see. In march Luke Holland became The Word Alive's new drummer, i've been watching his drum covers on YouTube for over a year now and have been desperate to see him live, so I was stoked to hear The Word Alive were playing Slam Dunk. After standing on the stairs to get a few videos, I had to join the crowd and wormed my way to the front, the atmosphere in the room was amazing, The Word Alive really knew how to get the crowd going! And of course Luke Holland didn't disappoint still managing a few of his famous stick tricks!! I tried to get some video's but the sound quality has come out awful;

I went back to find my friends who were watching Say Anything, I haven't really listened to them since 2009, from the little I heard they sounded pretty good.

We then headed to catch Of Mice & Men, they opened with 'Second & Sebring' followed by 'Ben Threw' i'm not sure of the set list after that. It was ridiculously packed with hideously rude people so after the first few songs and barely being able to see I'd had enough. 

We went over to the main stage to see Motion City Soundtrack who were just as good as expected! Their keyboard player Jesse Johnson was amusing to watch it's usually the guitar players that give an energetic performance but i've never seen a keyboard player get so into it. Another band with a great set list!


Next on the same stage were Funeral For A Friend I Half heartedly listened to their set, they're not really my kind of thing.

Then we headed over to the Redbull Bedroom Jam Stage to see Cartel  a pop/rock band, who I'd never heard of before but i really liked their set it was energetic and the vocalist's voice reminded me of Joel from Good Charlotte's a little bit.

On the way to see Cartel I met Luke Holland from The Word Alive, anyone that knows me knows how much I love him so that was my day made. I got a photo with him too (swoon). 


I've have always wanted to see Forever Sickest Kids live but never got round to it, they were amazing although the lead singer Jonathan Cook was wearing an awful red and white striped tracksuit!

The head liners this year were really hard to choose from, Taking Back Sunday, Architects, Gallows, Mayday Parade, Charlie Simpson, Hit The Lights and Hadouken's DJ set.

Taking Back Sunday I was really looking forward to their performance the sound really let them down, you could barely hear the vocals and the lead singer Adam Lazzara seemed distracted and distant. 

Gallows were amazing! I saw them in 2008 at Underage Festival when Frank Carter was still their singer. They opened with 'Misery' which has an annoyingly long intro so i'm glad it was first, Then they played 'London Is The Reason' which was a little odd to hear Wade (former Alexisonfire singer) and not Frank singing but was a crowd pleaser with Wade getting into the crowd! Then they performed 'Leeches' and after Laurent (guitarist) crowd surfing things got a bit crazy so i put the camera away! I left after 'In The Belly Of a Shark' which was the 8th song into their set. So glad i got to see them again and i have to say Wade is on Par with Frank they've both got great stage presence and interaction with the crowd. 

Mayday Parade i wasn't too worried about seeing Mayday Parade as they always put on a fantastic performance and i saw them earlier this year, when they played with You Me At Six. I did catch the last of their set after I left Gallows and as always another great performance! 

I was pretty gutted i didn't see Charlie Simpson but an acoustic set was not how i felt the night needed to end. It was such a good day I think I prefer intimate festivals like that, compared to the larger V festival and Reading. Plus the sun held out so that makes anyone in the UK that bit more happy. I quite like the DJ booth every time i went past it they had some great songs that we just had to dance too.

Did you go Slam Dunk? Who did you watch? and What did you think?

Geekinthepinkk x