Ah Tramlines, we meet again. As Friday dawned so did
the 6th year of the eclectic Sheffield festival and the days events certainly
didn't disappoint. Despite great deal of thumb twiddling that occurred during
the day due to the festivities not commencing until the evening, the excitement
was considerable as we travelled to the brand new main stage on Ponderosa Park. 
Once there it was only a short wait until Ghostpoet emerged to open proceedings
as the slow spitting of rain began. For me being a total newbie to Ghostpoet, I was pleasantly surprised.
The mix of hip hop drum beats and warm synths with cutting guitars from the
full live band added a meatiness to his spoken word raps. The defining feature
of this curious blend is his voice that holds the whole thing together, as it
lays somewhere in between Morgan Freeman and Kano and seems to drip over the
instrumentals and hang in the air. Yet, this proved to be a tame opening
compared to what was to follow as the rain got heavier by the time Slaves took to the stage. 
The rain didn't dampen the primal (their words not
mine) duo's spirits though, as they arrived with lightsabers and proceeded to
have a battle that ended with both of them on the floor following opener ‘Are You Satisfied?’. This cheekiness
carried on throughout the set, somewhat contrasting their thumping, aggressive
tracks from their brilliant debut album, including rousing singles 'Cheer Up London' and the sinister 'The Hunter'. However there was one glaring omittance as their self described aquatic ballad of Feed The Mantaray didn't get an airing. The Kent pair were their normal playful selves as they interchanged
compliments and quizzed which member of the crowd had lost their shoes. Yet the
charm melted away during their customary crowd surf to closer ‘Hey’ as Isaac refused to finish the
song until his hat was returned from the crowd. After 5 minutes, chants of
"where's his hat?" and Laurie making light of the situation, the hat
was returned and the set was brought to a fittingly chaotic close. 
The contrast between Slaves and first day headliners The Charlatans couldn't have been more drastic. The former saw
pogoing and moshing from the crowd whilst the latter saw kids on the shoulders
of their parents and questionable dance moves from the middle aged members of
the crowd. But The Charlatans proved
they're still on form some 25 years after their first release with a career
spanning set and cuts from new album Modern
Nature. New tracks such as ‘So Oh’,
which was given an extra atmospheric edge as dusk fell, and ‘Come Home Baby’ mixed seamlessly with
the older, more familiar tracks from their back catalogue including ‘One to Another’ and the crowd pleasing ‘Only One I Know’ which still sounds
fresh to this day. All of this shows that theirs still life left in the band
yet as they brought their set to a close with a sprawling, woozily psychedelic
8 minute rendition of ‘Sproston Green’
that sent the crowd home happy. 
But my nights work wasn't done as there was still the
small matter of seeing rising stars Yak
at The Great Gatsby on Division Street where the upstairs venue felt like you
were seeing a band in the living room of a terraced house. Starting half an
hour later than planned due to technical difficulties and with frontman Ollie
Burslem looking like a cross between Harry Koisser and Chilli Jesson with a maniacal grin spread across his face, their
thunderous live show impressed the criminally small crowd. Coming off like a more psychedelic Queens of the Stone
Age, it's easy to see why the band has their hype with the stop start ‘Smile’ and the furious ‘Hungry Heart’ hammering around the
small room like somebody had let a jackhammer loose to spiral out of control.
Mosh pits ensued for the raucous closer of ‘Plastic
People’ and showed just why Yak are labelled as one of the next big
things. With that the first day of Tramlines was over and as we went in search of a midnight snack, the most pleasing thought was that we get to do it all again the next day.
No comments:
Post a Comment