After a much needed kip in my own bed, I ventured back up to Balado, with surprising ease, on one of the many shuttle buses. I was fully expecting long queues on my arrival at St Andrews Bus Station but thankfully my fears were unfounded.
Today’s line up, although boasting some impressive acts, did not appear to be as consistent as Sunday’s so it wasn’t until 2pm that I wandered across to the NME stage for the first time to catch the Belgian band dEUS. Having been introduced to them some 8 years ago, I had always wanted to see them live , especially as the album leant to me ‘The Ideal Crash’ was so good. They didn’t disappoint and their enthusiastic performance so early in the day was certainly just the tonic to kick off the days proceedings. Glancing at the line-up for the rest of the weekend on the NME stage I knew this would be the one and only time I watched anything here!
Whilst deciding what to do next I found myself outside the Pet Sounds Arena wherein I heard some vaguely familiar crooning coupled with loud shrieking, sadly it wasn’t Neil Diamond but the unexpected presence of Will Young, in full indie-wear so as to fit in. Playing a set of his classic hits including the appropriately titled ‘Leave Right Now’ with his backing band, who he had probably only met during the week, he camped it up bigtime in the surprisingly packed tent. Even stooping so low as to sing the opening lines of The Proclaimers ‘I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)’ and of course the entire crowd lapped it up. He responded with a ridiculous attempt at highland dancing, all the while oblivious to the ‘Will loves cock’ flag which was circulating around the crowd. I swear I was only there for 10 minutes, a lot happened in a short space of time!
It was not long before I was back in the Pet Sounds Arena though, for a performance I was actually looking forward to this time. Lightspeed Champion featuring Dev Hynes, former frontman with the shortlived phenomenon Test Icicles, played an excellent set drawing from his recent debut album ‘Falling off the Lavender Bridge’ with particular highlights being his Star Wars intro into ‘Midnight Surprise’. Playing a guitar led version of ‘The Imperial March’ merging into the Star Wars theme before segueing into his own song was a real treat for the many geek boys in the audience myself included. Asking the crowd if they had enjoyed Will Young, they replied with a chorus of boos, so he advised us to stick around for MGMT and The Hold Steady in what was a fairly strong end of evening billing with Interpol rounding proceedings off.
However, I set off to take in a bit of Sons and Daughters set in the King Tuts Tent which saw them in fine form playing songs from their recent album ‘This Gift’.
The Bernard Butler produced LP is undoubtedly a more poppier effort from them but it was good to see they retain that dark edge in their live setting with songs like ‘Dance Me In’ and a great cover of Seal/Adamski’s ‘Killer’ the highlights. The plan was then to watch perhaps the most eagerly anticipated performance of the weekend on the Futures stage and witness Glasvegas move from contenders to champions. I knew it would be busy but by the time I got to the tent it was full to the brim. Indeed, some over zealous types were resorting to breaking and entry, risking life and limb with the security by climbing under the tent, judging by what I heard from people who were there, it may well have been worth taking a kicking to see.
It was slightly easier to negotiate my way into the T Break stage to see the magnificent Twilight Sad an hour or so later. Quite why the organisers decided to place one of the best Scottish bands in modern times on the unsigned stage when they have a critically acclaimed debut album and are signed to Fat Cat records, is beyond me and I’m sure quite a few others who have followed their impressive career so far. Nevertheless, by the time they walk onstage the tent is rammed and there is a sense of excitement in the air as they play a frustratingly short set culminating with a mass singalong to album opener ‘Cold Days From The Birdhouse’ which has even has the normally brooding and intense James Graham flashing a smile in our direction. The band leave the stage, one by one, looking a little taken aback at the reception they receive from an audience who clearly wanted more, its just a shame that they were not given more time and a bigger stage to do so,
Having never actually watched a band straight after The Twilight Sad, it was going to take something special to keep me entertained so it was a no brainer as to what to go and see last. Around the age of 14, I picked up a copy of the eponymous Rage against the Machine album on tape and although, admittedly, it is the only one I own by them, it became a firm favourite and I definitely thought the chance of seeing them perform live was long gone. Amazingly, they reformed last year for the Coachella festival and thankfully made it to Scotland to deservedly headline the main stage at T. It was a welcome return to these shores for Zack de la Rocha and co and they responded to the crowds ecstatic reception with one of the best performances I have seen by any band, anywhere. They were literally on fire as they ploughed through a set featuring several songs from the Rage album including ‘Bombtrack’ a personal highlight in ‘Know your enemy’ and a devastating ‘Bullet in the head’
If you can imagine that at the same time over on the NME stage The Kaiser Chiefs were spewing out their banal indie pop, Ian Brown’s tuneless dirge was offered up in the King Tuts Tent there was no real contest in terms of performance as Zack de la Rocha was like a human coil of aggression. During ‘Wake up’ he broke from the usual lack of chat to set the record straight about some comments he made last year regarding George Bush, stating that he actually said Bush should be tried for war crimes and not assassinated as was suggested on Fox News. You do get the feeling with some artists that they get political for effect, however only a fool would aim that barb at De la Rocha, because if he does not mean what he says then he should get an Oscar for his performances. A word too for the audacious guitar playing from Tom Morello, it was actually ridiculous how good he was, recreating that distinctive sound note perfect and managing to make it look effortless. By the time they arrived back on stage for the encore to the strains of the old Soviet anthem, everyone knew what they would finish with.
‘Killing in the Name of’ was breathtakingly awesome and I only regret not being a little further down the front as when the lights went up on the crowd and the drums kicked in at the defiant “Fuck you I won’t do what you tell me” climax, the bounce looked incredible. To be honest, words cannot describe how good it was. Obviously nostalgia plays its part but in no uncertain terms this was a massive band in formidable form and it is sad to think that it was not recorded at their behest. Could anything possibly top this tomorrow? We shall see…