Festival season is in full force, but with so much choice, it can be difficult to keep track of what’s going on where. Luckily, TeamRock is on hand to guide you through the best of 2000 Trees festival’s eclectic bill. From alt.rock to metalcore, here are the bands you just can’t afford to miss…
10) While She Sleeps
To call this Sheffield-based five-piece a metalcore band is doing them a disservice – their sound is more complex than that description allows, combining elements of hardcore punk, alt.metal and post-hardcore into its melting pot. Such musical chaos lends itself well to the live setting, and these are worth watching just for energetic spectacle alone.
9) Muncie Girls
Cherrypicking elements from various garage rock, grunge and punk rock influences, this Exeter-based three-piece specialise in wide-eyed pop punk that is naive, uplifting and infuriatingly addictive. This year’s debut album earned them an invitation to join Billy Bragg on stage at Glastonbury – and if it’s good enough for Billy, it’s good enough for us.
8) SiKth
If you’re of a certain age, you might remember SiKth mainly as being lumped in as part of the UK’s response to nu metal. However, fast-forward 10 years and they’ve transcended those roots, helping to inspire an entire musical genre (djent) and coming back with a genuinely progressive and modern prog-metal album (Opacities) in 2015. They’ve expanded their musical horizons, grown their confidence, and their live shows bear the fruits. Watch them.
7) Kagoule
There might only be three of them, but their glorious racket outstrips the sum of their parts. Mixing all the best bits of the 90s – grunge, alt.rock and piles of fuzzy distortion – they’ve been building a name for themselves with a number of low-key festival appearances over the last year or so. Festivals are where they’re most comfortable, so this performance will be one to watch.
6) Milk Teeth
Punk rock is great. Grunge is great. When you combine the two, a la Gloucester’s Milk Teeth, the result is even better. Dirgy but upbeat, and so bloody catchy, this is ultimate festival music. Learn the words to some of the songs now, because they’re the sort of live band that just make you want to grab a beer and sing along.
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5) Black Honey
Despite being lauded by indie tastemakers over the last year, Black Honey’s profile still isn’t as high as it deserves to be. With a sound that borrows equally from retro 60s garage punk, 90s shoegaze, woozy Americana and infectious pop-punk, this set will provide a lush, mesmeric counterpoint to the noisier bands on the bill.
4) Creeper
Gleefully uniting punks and metalheads across the land, Creeper trade in the sort of horror-punk that made Misfits a household name. Their live shows are energetic, their songs anthemic, and their sound has proven far bigger than all the modestly-sized stages they’ve found themselves on. This might not be the case for much longer, so catch them before they make their way to the arenas.
3) The Bronx
If you’ve seen the Bronx live before, then we don’t need to convince you to catch them again – you can skip to the next entry in this list. If you’ve never seen the Bronx live before, this is your opportunity to right that wrong. Masters of ferocious hardcore punk, this LA quartet specialise in incendiary live shows that will both blow your mind and destroy your ears.
2) Black Peaks
Having released one of the best albums of 2016 so far, this Brighton-based quartet have spent the months since its April release honing their live craft. Combining their subversive mix of art-rock, prog, metal and alt.rock with live performances that have earned them comparisons with Devin Townsend, they have cemented themselves a place as one of the UK’s most important going concerns.
1) Refused
After twice proclaiming it was definitely all over for good, Swedish hardcore pioneers Refused are in fact back once again, touring a mix of material old and new. Their recent live performances have been as consistently entertaining as they were in the mid ‘90s, and their musical prowess has sharpened in the intervening years. Catch them while you can, because next time they split, it might actually be for good.
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