Friday
Girls’ front man Christopher Owens appears on the NME/Radio One stage sporting his band’s tee shirt… and we thought only Iron Maiden could pull a stunt like that. The California boy sings into a floral arrangement and the set blossoms with both familiar and unknown songs.
Steve Lamacq introduces our next act as “brilliantly fresh, intuitive pop music”. He can only mean one band and that’s Reading first timers Two Door Cinema Club, a band whose reception suggests they could be playing higher on the bill. Front man Alex Trimble labels the show as one of the best experiences of his life. Watch out Bombay Bicycle Club.
Later on the Festival Republic stage are Avi Buffalo, a Los Angeles trio playing some rather twisted indie pop. Unfortunately, Avi’s Fender Stratocaster is drowned by his rhythm section and vocals on ‘Can’t I Know?’ bear little resemblance to the album track. We’re left wondering if that was some sort of in-joke.
Phoenix rise from the darkness of the NME/Radio One Stage for what is the most aesthetically pleasing performance of the day. Band members are lit as focal points for instrumentation, neon stripes cover the stage like an electric blanket and strobe lighting momentarily blinds the audience. What a light show. What a band.
Saturday
Reading Festival puts its hands in the air as Mystery Jets welcome dance twosome The Count & Sinden are to the Main Stage. The surprise performance of ‘After Dark’ is followed by ‘Two Doors Down’, and stick-spinning drummer Kapil Trivedi is left to steal the show.
Sunday
The heavens have just opened but Fools Gold brighten the mood with tropical afrobeats. It’s their last show of a two-month run and they go out in style. The audience takes on a conga line for hip shaker ‘Surprise Hotel’ and a musical entourage invades the stage for ‘The World Is All There Is’, their chant fading to a whisper as everyone takes a seat on the now flooded Festival Republic stage.
We return for a Kit Kat courtesy of Aussie foursome Tame Impala. ‘Solitude Is Bliss’ and a cover of Blue Boy’s ‘Remember Me’ are the highlights here. It’s a tight show with dreamlike qualities that beg the question “how did I get to this point in the set?”
Words by Jake Young