At Summer Sonic last weekend, you could be excused for thinking that you'd mistakenly wandered into the dinosaur exhibition taking place nearby rather than a music festival. The Jurassic Park of musical talent on display included Guns 'N Roses, Hanoi Rocks, Siouxsie & the Banshees and Morrissey, and one could argue that they all just might have seen better days. Add to this a bunch of aging or just plain average punk and metal bands (NOFX, The Offspring, A, The Wildhearts and tons more), no major dance act and the lack of black artists, and the whole thing -- on paper -- did not look very promising.
The thing is, unlike Fuji Rock, where there's streams to splash about in, bushes to shag in and all-night parties to lose one's head at, at Summer Sonic there's nothing to do apart from, errr, watch band after band, from 10:30 a.m. until about 10 p.m. And then everyone goes home. For two days running.
With the Outdoor Stage at Chiba Marine Stadium and the other two stages, the Indoor and the Factory, about 10 minutes away on foot at Makahari Messe and with bands playing simultaneously on all three, there were some tough decisions to be made. Morrissey or Rival Schools? Guns 'N Roses or Suede?