Seeing as I did'nt get to update my blog at GS about my trip to the Oxegen music festival 2008, I thought I might as well do it at Giant Bomb for anyone interested at all.This festival is held in Ireland every year, and has become one of the biggest European music festivals in recent years, with bands such as The Who headlining only last year.Sadly, I missed out on them last year, but I made up for it this year by going down to see what was up.

It was a 3 day festival that started on a Friday and ended on a Sunday, so there was plenty of times for plenty of good bands to show off.However, I missed the Friday as I was'nt sure as to when to go down, but I changed my mind on Saturday morning, and went to the festival anyway with a few buddies.With no tickets to get in.So we were in a dilemma as to how we were going to blag our way in.It was Saturday afternoon and there was only a couple of hours left to get in to see the good bands of that night.

In desperation I tried going under a fence through one of the campsites, but one of the security men caught me.A blessing came around though.We met a few girls from the North who had a couple of spare (But snapped) wristbands to get by security and into the festival.We thanked them and took them off them greatfully.They were no good to us snapped however, we needed them securely around our wrists to get by security.Cue another blessing.A caravan with more people from the north.They had superglue ... so they let us use their superglue, to fasten the bands around our wrists and we were good to go.Everything worked out fine, we all got in and I saved myself €250 of a ticket to the place.The most I spent was around €50 on my alcohol for the weekend.

So when in, we decided to see a couple of bands while we could (Seen the Counting Crows, Stereophonics, R.E.M and The Verve) that night.All of them were good, but none of them were bands I'd be a really big fan of.The next day was better though.It was a really hot and nice day (Though I got a bit burned), and it stayed like that all through the day.By the time I got to see The Pogues, I was pretty drunk, and after that anything would have sounded good.The Pogues were exellent, I did'nt expect them to play that well.Next band up was the Raconteurs who for anyone un-familiar with them, are an alternative rock  band from Detriot.Their style sounds influenced by Led Zeppelin somewhat, and they have a very talented songwriter in Jack White (Also of the White Stripes).They were very loud, and they played stuff  off of their new album which I really enjoyed.I had been looking to see them play for a while, and I was glad I got the chance to see them here.

Next were the headliners of Sunday and last night of the festival : Rage Against The Machine.Now THESE were a band I had been looking to see for a long long while.And there was no way I was missing out on them.As we were approaching the stage, they were already on, so I hurried on a head and eventually got lost in the crowd and made my way into the pit.Zachs voice and the rest of the band were ear splittingly loud, and to go with it, the pit was immense fun.The crowd went nuts with certain songs (Sleep Now In The Fire, Killing In The Name Of, Bulls On Parade etc).They were worthy headliners, and put on a brilliant show.They were amazing and some people were saying it was the best Rage gig they were ever at.It certainly was the best one I was at, because it was the only one! But after this, I definitly want to see them again, they blew me away ...

Anyway ... that was my trip to a music festival this summer, probably the highlight of my summer so far anyway.

Cheers,
Whight_Knight.