Sunday 21st May – Rock on the Range day 3

I feel like I’m repeating myself daily, but yes, it was raining when I woke up today... Again!  Decision time.  I was looking at the radar which seemed to look like it was due to clear up for the rest of the day, but the weathermen were not in agreement and predicted sporadic thunderstorms. We gave it some time to see what happened.  After the ease of yesterday we went with the driving and parking option for today as well and it was Simon’s turn to stay sober and be designated driver!

Biffy's drummer doing some vocals

We wanted to get there earlier today to see Biffy Clyro on the main stage at 315pm.  Again, our seats had been saved by our new festival buddies so we got our prime spot back.  Considering how successful Biffy are in the UK it is surprising to find that no one here really knows who they are.  So, we gave our new pals a little info about the topless tattooed Scottish rockers before they came on.  Sadly, it seemed like the ‘Biff were having a bit of an ‘off’ day.  The lead-singer Simon especially.  His voice was raspy and they attempted to work the riff for ‘Black hole sun’ (one of Chris Cornell and Soundgarden’s most famous tracks) into the middle of one of their songs but messed it up painfully.  Not their finest moment, but they improved as the set went on and we enjoyed it nonetheless.

We stayed put to see The Pretty Reckless, who are a successful band on both sides of the Atlantic.  It was somewhat tense, as they have been touring with Soundgarden; so their last gig was supporting them on Wednesday night only hours before Chris Cornell killed himself.  Not surprisingly, their set was subdued and they chose to end on a Cornell cover, with the female lead singer, Taylor Momsen, breaking down in tears at the end and being comforted and led offstage by her bandmates.  You really felt for her, she’s only 23 years old.

The Pretty Reckless

We weren’t worried about seeing the next couple of bands and we hadn’t had a chance to check out the comedy tent yet this weekend, so that was our next stop.  We managed to get seats and enjoyed five comedians, headlined by Jim Breuer who used to be on Saturday night live by all accounts, who was very funny. 

Hmmmm.. maybe it is starting to look like rain?!

We returned to our seats to see the last tracks by Volbeat, another band that are successful in the States but I had never heard of.  It was rammed in the stadium by this time so again, we were grateful to have our seats bagged and were getting into the set. Suddenly, an announcement that they were suspending the band’s set due to approaching bad weather and their instruments were rapidly covered with plastic sheeting and…. Silence.  Apart from the predictable booing from the crowd that the festival was being delayed…. Yet again!  Looking up from my position there was clear sky overhead and no indication of further bad weather.  However, that changed within 15 to twenty minutes and everyone was breaking out the ponchos.

That's Kristi in the blue number... she doesn't like her photograph being taken

We tried to brave it out as the torrential rain arrived.  After all, if you manage to stay in your seat, it won’t get soaked with rain, will it?!  After one wave of rain we hoped that was it; but sadly not.  The dark cloud looked continuous and my will to sit there in the freezing rain broke so I got up to go and seek shelter (right me in my tasty green mac). 

Conversation started along a similar line as on Friday afternoon – how long are we going to wait?  Is it worth heading back to the RV until it passes over? Will Metallica still get to play?  Luckily, the delay ended up only being for an hour or so before Volbeat came back on…. To do their last TWO songs!

Hopefully the last of the threatening clouds moving AWAY?!

The crowds that had disappeared during the rain made a return to pack out the stadium for the slightly delayed Metallica set. 

The huge crowd waiting for Metallica....

Having seen the band once before at Reading, you know you’re in for a professional and slick set.  They were really tight playing some tracks off the new album that went down really well, though there was the odd shaky bit with some of the classics – clearly they didn’t worry about practising them so much as they’ve been playing them for so many years!  Some of the less hardy fans started to filter out before midnight… or maybe they just have work tomorrow?!  We stayed until the end, enjoying some fireworks and pyrotechnics.  It was heading towards 1am when they finished.  I can’t help but be pleased that we were in the U.S as I reckon that if these delays had happened in the U.K all the sets would have been cut short, as they HAVE to finish by 11pm…

The killer set went on laaaaate...!

Thank goodness we had made the decision to bring the RV as, out of interest, we went on to the Uber app to find that a taxi back to the RV park would have set us back $67!! 

We walked back to the car park with the masses but we had the benefit of being ‘at home’ whilst everyone else was stuck in their cars in a queue. I was changed into my pyjamas with clean teeth and had an hours nap - before we even attempted to head back to the RV park!