I'm still alive.

I've been to my first ever festival.

Sort of, anyway. I saw one band. But I was there.

Hard Rock Calling at Hyde Park on June 25th; the line-up wasn't too great overall; the Gaslight Anthem and loads of people you wouldn't have heard of. But Pearl Jam were headlining, and, since I've been a fan of them for nigh on 18 years, it was about time I saw them.

So, festivals, then. My wife and I turned up fashionably late, as we only wanted to see Pearl Jam, after enduring weeks of her inappropriate comments about Eddie Vedder. We narrowly missed the opportunity to throw bottles of piss at Gomez, unfortunately, but there's always time for that. Following a lengthy trek from Cardiff, we were a bit peckish. I'd heard the stories, but decided to buy a festival burger and some drinks. Approximately twenty five quid down, we made our way towards the stage. Well, sort of.

There were thousands of people there. Thousands. I completely forgot to factor in the General Public. Bah. How dare these people come along and get in my way, damn them?

My wife was determined to get as close to the front as possible, which meant pushing through. We got as far as the midway point, and I got the full festival effect. People taller than I directly in front of me and unwilling to move, and a gentleman stood directly behind me shouting half-remembered lyrics which were louder than the gargantuan speakers. Yes, I paid all that money to listen to a drunk, tone-deaf man. 

I don't know what happened, but he was finally silenced. I could hear the band. And they were amazing. Here's some clips I found on YouTube:

I've seen hundreds of live bands over the past 15 years. Sepultura (with Benji from Dub War/Skindred on tribal drums), Marilyn Manson (believe it or not, in a thoroughly disappointing less-than-half-an-hour set), Queens of the Stone Age, Therapy? (three times, no less), Mike Flowers Pops... All paled in comparison to Bad Religion at the Astoria in 2004. Pearl Jam have just joined my favourite band at the very top of the list. They were flawless, sounding equally as good as, if not better than, they do in the studio. Eddie Vedder remains an extremely charismatic, energetic frontman, and Stone Gossard, Mike McCready, Jeff Ament and Matt Cameron work together perfectly. In fact, Matt Cameron's presence is probably the closest I'll ever get to Soundgarden, since each time I was due to see them, Chris Cornell cancelled with a sore throat. Bugger.

Pearl Jam have hundreds of songs, so it was inevitable that some of the stuff I was looking forward to was omitted; no Rearviewmirror, Animal, Leash or, bizarrely, Jeremy, but we did get fantastic renditions of Once, Black, Do The Evolution, Even Flow, and, within the two encores, Alive (of course) and Yellow Ledbetter. It was heartwarming to hear their tribute to Joe Strummer with a cover of Arms Aloft in Aberdeen from his final album with the Mescaleros. Ben Harper joined them on stage for Red Mosquito, and I now wish I'd arrived earlier so I could see him too. Great musician.

I only wish I hadn't been as far back as I was. I kept wondering who the children were on stage. Thank Christ for the big monitors, eh?

Then came the fun of actually getting out of Hyde Park, since the police decided to block off most of the exits whilst their horses shat everywhere. Hurrah! Whilst watching a drunk man having a disagreement with a tree (he lost), I couldn't help noticing the hundreds of identical (and very brand-new looking) Stickman Alive t-shirts. I'm glad I wore my United Federation of Planets t-shirt so I don't look like some sort of loser. 

My vintage Alive t-shirt was folded up in my drawer at home.

Anyway, it was a great experience. I urge you to watch some of the better quality clips on YouTube. 18 years is a long time to wait to see a band. Most bands I like don't tend to last that long (apart from Bad Religion - 30 years now).

And if you ever do go to a festival, don't buy anything. Starve if you have to. It'll be the best money you'll never have spent.