19.25, Main Stage

SYSTEM OF A DOWN have come on early, but I arrive to find there’s been a temporary hold-up after one of the barriers shifts forward. It later transpires that a few fans have been injured, but the band helped to ensure that tragedy on the scale of Limp Bizkit’s Big Day Out appearance doesn’t occur. Once they get underway again, I’m reminded why I find their appeal to the punk-‘n’-nu-metal-loving hordes so strange: they simply don’t play by the rules, even if they’ve allowed themselves to become tarred with the same brush. Not only are they outspoken and overtly political (words that Chester Bennington and Fred Durst would have difficulty in spelling), but they also have the capacity to change gear almost at the flick of a switch, from crushing frantic thrash metal to bouncy childish rhythms to the sort of bizarre Armenian folk music by which they’ve been influenced. There are more ideas in a song like ‘Chop Suey’ than there are in Korn’s whole oeuvre. Sure, it feels at times like your ears are having some kind of seizure, but then that’s infinitely preferable to listening to Staind and Puddle Of Mudd – though, to be fair, not much isn’t. One point of interest: with his long hair and full beard, guitarist Daron seems to be morphing into Bill Bailey.