It’s been a long and rewarding day for metal heads in the French countryside. Dagoba, Pain, Devildriver and Heaven Shall Burn have all turned in formidable performances on the two main stages and after the jaw dropping Gojira, the bookers could have cancelled the rest of the weekend entirely and everyone would still go home happy. The bar has been raised and most bands would be justifiably nervous going on now.
If Machine Head have any pre-gig jitters though they hide them well. For one whole hour they deliver arguably the best set of the day, the California Titans churning the audience into frenzy with a string of furious riffs and shout-a-long anthems. Mercifully, they’ve also noticeably changed the set list around and for long term fans, there’s a definite freshness to the performance that hasn’t been seen for a while.
Robb Flynn: The Great Ringmaster
Kicking off with a furious one-two of Imperium and Ten Ton Hammer, a pair of songs that any other band would be happy to have as an encore, Machine Head are energised, vibrant and impossible to ignore. Singer Robb Flynn is still the consummate front man; a charismatic rock star likeable enough to imagine sharing a pint with. He throws drinks to the audience, grins from ear to ear constantly and seems to genuinely adore being onstage in front of several thousand heavy metal fans. He worships the crowd and they love him so much he could have sneezed for an hour and still triggered a mosh pit.
What makes this such an enjoyable night though is that there’s just as much emphasis on the older tracks as the newer material off The Blackening. All the usual favourites like Old and Halo get aired, but the undoubted highlight is when the rarely played Struck A Nerve gets dragged out of the vaults, the crowd responding by spreading out quickly and launching into a circle pit that challenges Devildriver’s earlier effort for sheer scope.
Machine Head: American Metal In Clisson
Later, Descend The Shades Of Night adds an epic feel to the night and there is no better song to end with than Davidian, the crowd surfers reaching double figures as a thousand voices cry out as one. Machine Head have long been an engaging live band but tonight they were simply on fire. At some point in their career they must have just forgotten how to put on a bad show.
