REVIEW: TRNSMT Festival
By Zoe Salvucci
On June 29, TRNSMT Festival entered its second year on the Glasgow Green following its “Best New Festival” award at the 2017 NME Awards. First weekend headliners included Stereophonics, former Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher, and Arctic Monkeys. TRNSMT’s inception followed the end of the 22-year run of T in the Park, one of the U.K.’s original music festivals. The sun gave Scotland a bit of mercy from their usually fair summers to bring a hot weekend for TRNSMT and its 120,000 attendees, with the temperature remaining around 80º with a cloudless sky for the whole weekend.
The festival had two stages, with the King Tut’s Stage (named for King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut in the city center) featuring smaller acts, though the sets were staggered so audience members could see at least part of every set throughout the day. Down by the River Clyde, audiences could relax to acoustic acts on the hotels.com stage or party with fellow festival goers to the DJ sets at the Smirnoff Bar. The real King Tut’s hosted after-party shows Friday and Saturday night, featuring the Academic and Fatherson, respectively, both of whom performed at the festival on the King Tut’s Stage.
The first main act of Friday was Jessie J, her significance obvious from the massive crowds rolling in at 3:20 p.m., right before her set. She put on an explosive performance under the unusually hot Glasgow sun, with crowds singing along to every word of hits such as “Domino” and “Price Tag.” While Jessie J may have been a tough act to follow, other highlights of the afternoon included indie rock groups Anteros and Pale Waves on the King Tut’s stage, as well as Ireland-based band Kodaline on the main stage.
After the gates closed, fans who weren’t ready to call it a night could swing by the Academic’s aftershow in the city center, where they played to a somehow still-energetic crowd. A much more intimate gig than the festival, fans knew every lyric and danced the rest of the night (into the following morning) away.
Saturday brought another sunny day to Glasgow, and the first sold out day of the festival. 50,000 fans flocked to the Green to see former Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher, as well as bands such as Shed Seven, Wolf Alice, and Courteeners. The roughly 10,000 person increase over the two days was tangible, with far longer lines for toilets and drinks, and packed crowds taking every inch of what little shade the Green had to offer.
Saturday was a strong day for Scotland-based acts, as fans donned with Scottish flags filled the small space in front of the King Tut’s stage for the Snuts and Kyle Falconer. On the main stage, Glasgow local Gerry Cinnamon performed an indie-folk set with a thick Scottish accent to an enormous crowd brimming with Scottish pride. Saturday also featured the only hip-hop acts of the festival, including Krept x Konan on the main stage and IAMDBB, Ramz, and Bas on King Tut’s. Rapper J Hus dropped the day before, leading Scottish rock group the LaFontaines to move up from King Tut’s stage and take his opening slot on the main stage.
Excitement built as Liam Gallagher’s set drew closer. Preceding him on the main stage was synth-pop, indie rock group Courteeners, also hailing from Manchester. The audience seemed to know every word to their songs, including “Not Nineteen Forever” and “Are You in Love with a Notion?” Straddling the Courteeners’ and Gallagher’s sets on King Tut’s stage was the Sherlocks, who struggled to bring in too large of a crowd due to fans staking out good spots for the headliner.
Gallagher did not bring much energy to the stage, but satisfied the audience nonetheless, opening with two crowd favorites by Oasis, “Rock and Roll Star” and “(What’s the Story) Morning Glory.” His solo work was met with less enthusiasm, if only for a lack of familiarity with the songs. So eager was the crowd that one man decided to scale the speaker towers, dancing on the tall metal grids and being met with cheers and encouragement from the audience. He quickly became the subject of disdain, however, when halfway through Oasis hit “Cigarettes and Alcohol,” security came on stage to inform Gallagher that he could not continue the set until the man got down. “Jump, you s**tbag,” said Gallagher, unafraid to show attitude to a fan. After a solid 15 minutes in which the man ardently refused to climb down, Gallagher returned to the stage to finish his now-shortened set with acoustic versions of “Live Forever” and “Wonderwall.” The spirit of the crowd during his final songs was strong enough to make up for his loss of performance time.
Sunday’s main stage kicked off with three solo artists in a row, namely Tom Grennan, Miles Kane, and Declan McKenna. All put on strong performances, and kept the audience moving despite their diverse musical styles. Excitement brewed around the barricade as fans were staked out early for the night’s highly anticipated headliner, Arctic Monkeys. English alternative group Nothing But Thieves kept the energy high after McKenna’s show-stopping performance, but the energy soon began to die down as the crowd got antsy waiting for the Monkeys. Indie pop band Blossoms did not fail to notice this, even asking at one point, “You still with us, Glasgow?” They failed to bring back the energy from earlier in the day, and the exhaustion could still be felt during the following set by Interpol, the only American band at the festival.
The crowd erupted with cheers when, after Interpol’s set, the stage setup was revealed for Arctic Monkeys. After roughly 45 minutes, the band walked on stage, met with screams bigger than anything heard the rest of the weekend. After starting off their set with the relatively mellow “Four Out of Five” from recent release Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino, the Monkeys quickly shifted gears into playing energetic hits off their earlier albums. The crowd immediately snapped into moshing-mode, as thousands of people shoved forward to get as close as possible to the barricade for Favourite Worst Nightmare single “Brianstorm.” Swaggering frontman Alex Turner greeted the audience with a simple “Good evening Glasgow!” which was met with even more screams as the crowd realized how singular this experience was, as TRNSMT would be the band’s only U.K. festival date of the summer.
Frontman Alex Turner invited earlier performer Miles Kane onstage to play guitar for their main set closer, “505.” (Turner and Kane partnered in 2007 to form supergroup the Last Shadow Puppets, who remain together today.) Returning after nonstop cheering for a three-song encore, the Monkeys started off slow again with Tranquility opening track “Star Treatment,” then immediately launched into “From the Ritz to the Rubble,” a song off their debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not. The band ended with the explosive “R U Mine?” which had thousands jumping along and singing every word. Reprising the chorus one final time, Turner waved goodbye to the crowd, who continued to sing as they were herded off the Green and into the streets of Glasgow.