It’s been an absolute scorcher of a weekend at Reading Festival this summer and it’s been wonderful to have been able to go and watch a heap of our favourite bands in this gorgeous weather. As always, Reading Festival had a few surprises up their sleeve with secret sets from Queens Of The Stone Age playing the NME tent on Friday night and also sets from rising rock band ‘THE HUNNA’, along with ‘Fickle Friends’ earlier today.
There have been SO many great acts this weekend so far and as we prepare ourselves for the legendary sets from Liam Gallagher and Muse later on today, here are our highlights from the festival so far:
QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE
After already appearing at Leeds Festival earlier that day, Queens Of The Stone Age took to the stage of Reading and smashed through a short set of hits. There had been a fair few rumours floating around with the band due to drop their seventh studio album ‘Villains’ that day. Opening with their greatest hit ‘No One Knows’ they continued to treat the crowd to songs old and new until closing with ‘Little Sister’ and declaring their love of Reading Festival to their fans.
ARCANE ROOTS
Arcane Roots are an incredible live band. The three-piece alt-rock band from Kingston are preparing to drop their new record ‘Melancholia Hymns’ in September and after their performance on Friday I can’t wait for it. Performing their two recently released singles ‘Off The Floor’ and ‘Curtains’ they also worked through their biggest songs from their other albums bringing the crowd an epic deliverance with frontman Andrew Groves’s amazing stage presence.
YOU ME AT SIX
As headliners of the NME stage this year, You Me At Six were up against Kasabian to pull in a decent crowd but they more than succeeded. Tearing through a 15 track setlist, they opened with ‘Spell It Out’ from their recently released album ‘Night People’ then straight into ‘Bite My Tongue’ (no surprise appearance from Oli Sykes though). They continued their headline spot with a set of well established classics alongside new material and left the stage leaving a sea of buzzed fans.
AT THE DRIVE IN
At The Drive In are one of my favourite bands and I’d never seen them before so this was the set of the weekend I was most looking forward to. After an 11 year break, shortly after the release of their landmark album of post-hardcore, ‘Relationship Of Command’, they reunited in 2012 and then released their first material in 16 years earlier this year. Cedric Bixler worked his way round the stage, at one point getting inside a flight case and although the sound wasn’t the tightest they please the crowd with their greatest hits and brought back a lot of nostalgia for their older fans.
EMINEM
This was always going to be a highlight of the weekend. With this being his third Reading Festival appearance, Marshall Mathers took to the stage in style and pulled in the biggest crowd of the weekend so far, all eager to hear the hits that shaped their youth. The first half of the set was focused mainly on his newer material peppered with a few deep cuts for the older fans (kill you), though this is where Eminem shines as cross generational artist as the audience never let up – singing ALL THE WORDS EVER. The set came to an incredible end with back back BANGERS ‘My Name Is’, ‘Real Slim Shady’, ‘Without Me’, ‘Not Afraid’ closing with the 8 Mile anthem Lose Yourself. Add some fireworks to round it up all up, and all in all you had an incredible climax to Saturday night with one of rap’s greatest of all time.
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