Fox Reviews Rock

Today we are off to Leeds with Mr Fox to Slam Dunk Festival North, for the first time for all 3 of us. We drove up and got into the car park fairly easily although we thought we’d gone the wrong way due to minimal signage. We booked in advance for only £10 which we thought was a great deal, especially with It being a short walk into the venue.

Once we made our way in we had to wait for the main arena to open in a sort of waiting area there was plenty of facilities around and we managed to get the merchandise that we wanted, there was even a Monster car where they gave away free cans of the energy drink to everyone which was well received. Once in the main arena, we wandered around and noticed what a great set up it was, there was a big variety of food vendors and it was very easy to move around to get to the 5 stages.

At this point we split up from Mr. Fox and we made our way to the Monster Stage to see The Meffs, we saw them support Alice Cooper which you can read here. The punk duo opened up with ‘Fight’ & ‘So Modern’ which provided a great start to the day with their high energy performance.

They played 8 songs in total including a cover of The Prodigy’s ‘Breathe’, finishing with our favourite  ‘Broken Brains Broken Britain’ and ‘Clowns’. The crowd loved their performance and we wish they could’ve stayed on for longer, luckily we will be seeing them at the Hairy Dog in Derby later this year and can’t wait!

If you would like to know more about The Meffs, you can read our exclusive interview here.

We made our way to Main Stage West to see Hit The Lights, they opened up with ‘Stay Out’ & Three ‘Oh Nine’ this is where the rain started coming down but the crowd stayed put to enjoy the set. They put on a high performance show finishing with ‘Body Bag’ getting everyone pumped for the rest of the day.

We had a bit of time spare so decided to walk around and check out the stores, there were a big variety of food vendors and even a vinyl stall which was awesome. We got ourselves some amazing donuts and headed to the Kerrang stage for Point North. We saw them earlier this year in Leeds supporting Set It Off, we really enjoyed them and were happy we had the opportunity to see them again so soon. They performed ‘Safe And Sound’ & ‘Ghost In My Hole’ and put on a fantastic show full of bouncing and energy. We think this band will grow bigger with time and can’t wait to see them live again.

The next band on our list was The Ataris so we made our way back to the Monster Stage and caught a bit of Home Grown, we’ve never heard of them before but really enjoyed them with the small amount we saw. They played a cover Of Aqua’s ‘Barbie Girl’ which we really enjoyed, this is a band  we’re definitely going to listen to more.

During the break we were talking to a The Ataris megafan, he said that they released a vinyl which had part of one band member father’s ashes in, which we thought was very interesting. The Ataris brought a big crowd to the tent and we’re good live. We don’t know much about them but it was worth it when they played their hit cover of ‘Boys of Summer’ as it got the place rocking!

Next back on our list was Noahfinnce so we headed near the Kerrang stage and had a sit down and listened to Rain City Drive who was another band we didn’t know but really enjoyed. We really enjoy discovering new bands we enjoy at gigs and festivals, this is a band we will definitely look more into in the future. After they finished we got ourselves to the front waiting for Noahfinnce.

The stage was set up with pink TVs from his previous tour, this is the 4th time we’ve seen him in a year and once again he didn’t disappoint as he always gives 110% on stage. He played some of our favourites including ‘I Know Better’ & ‘Scumbag’ with his usual high energy and fun performance. We always love seeing Noah live, he is one of those performers who you prefer to see live that listen to the record which is what we love. Toward the end of the set Mr. Fox came and found us after luckily getting to meet Lily from The Meffs during this set.

After Noahfinnce finished we headed back to the monster stage to catch Zebrahead who unfortunately we had to miss a bit of the beginning due to clashes. We love Zebrahead, they are crazy fun and also full of energy which seemed to be the theme of the day. This was the third time weve seen over the past few years all at festivals, including When We Were Young and Download. They never disappoint and played our favourites ‘Rescue Me’ & ‘Anthem’.

We made our way back to Main Stage West to see New Found Glory who we last saw at When We Were Young Festival, We sat down with Mr Fox and watched the full 17 song set from a distance, we were all happy for the rest. They played a New song ‘100%’ which was originally called 99 and half percent, but they changed it as they always give 100% when performing. They definitely gave 100% when they played their covers of ‘Kiss Me’ & ‘Part of Your World’ and finished the set off with ‘My Friends Over You’.

The rain came down again for the second time so we headed to the Monster Stage tent and caught the end of Less Than Jake who was really fun especially with a saxophone and trumpet player.

We stayed put and watched the Alkaline Trio, We started to get a bit tired at this point and wanted to enjoy their set but this was the worst crowd we had from a very good day. A lot of people were pushing others out of their way to get to the front. We watched a bit of them and decided to move around stages for the last part of the night to catch a bit of everyone.

The sun came out again and we went to watch Electric Callboy on the Main Stage East,this was the first time we’d seen anyone on this stage and we are glad we did! They were fun live as they covered Sum 41 still waiting as they had the Sum 41 drummer (name here) performing with them. They also did a cover of Cascada ‘Every Time We Touch’, which created a big party atmosphere followed by an acoustic version of Linkin Park’s numb.

We made our way to the kerrang Stage to see Hot Milk which was another nice surprise as we didn’t know much about them we really enjoyed these and would happily see them again and will listen to them more.

We finished the night finding Mr Fox watching a day to remember, luckily we caught their cover version of Kelly Clarksons ‘Since you’ve been gone’ which is the first time they played it live in 12 years.

We decided to leave before the end as we were petty tired and needed to drive back home, this proved to be a good decision as we got out really quick and had to drive past the continuous stream of people leaving the festival, if we stayed a bit longer it would have taken us forever to get out.

Overall this was probably the most organised and best festival in England we’ve been to as it was easy to get in and out, plenty of clean toilets, merch stalls, food and drink options were good and reasonable (for a festival), and it was easy to move between stages.

St. Jimmy and Rex 🖤☠️

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