REVIEW: RADAR Festival, Saturday
TesseracT by Nic Howells
A heavy hit of music: TesseracT headlines an unforgettable Saturday
Saturday at RADAR Festival 2024 was really the feast for music lovers. This was very much a heavier day than Friday but had just as varied and strong a showing in terms of bands in its own way. The obvious and key feature for this day was TesseracT headlining the main stage in a huge accolade for the band. The captivating set concluded a high-quality day of bands that threw fans over the halfway point of the weekend. Here’s how it went:
Tribe of Ghosts
All the way from Brighton, Saturday's openers Tribe of Ghosts were concluding this year's summer shows with this set at RADAR. Having been in the house for their set at last year's Bloodstock Festival, quality for these guys was never in question. Viewing this set was much more about how much they had grown in the last year and how well they translated to RADAR’s crowd vs the more heavily inclined BOA faithful. The answer? Top marks for both. This set was a blistering way to avoid the 2nd-day slumps and further proves the point that heavier-leaning bands do amazingly on RADARs 2nd stage.
Kyros
Now a lot can be said about Kyros. A lot lighter in tone, though compared to Tribe of Ghosts, what could RADAR book that wouldn’t be? The Brits were an odd one to gauge, drawing quite the crowd for first on the mainstage as well as dressing up the stage like few other bands of the weekend did, heavily inspired by their new album Mannequin which comprised most of the set. The most refreshing part of Kyros' performance outside of their obvious talent was seeing so many gimmicks while they were playing, little tidbits of performance as well as a group of people just having fun. Festivals are a hard crowd to connect with but Kyros filled that void excellently, one can only imagine the treat their upcoming London show would be in a couple of weeks.
Seething Akira
Seething Akira could have made a case to play the mainstage based on band size alone, as the 6 members absolutely crammed themselves onto the 2nd stage as a major draw in today's lineup. The group certainly had internet popularity behind them and it translated to a well-formed and enthusiastic crowd as the group played a blinder (Literally blinding, this set was bright). The early bands of the Saturday were the ones that most staunchly made use of the step at the front of the stage, as dual vocalists Kit Conrad and Charlie Bowes spent the entire time parading back and forth taunting and bantering the crowd.
Ithaca
Ithaca seemed every bit deserving of the main stage placement and made 0 attempt to tone down the brashness in the face of that. This half-hour with the Londoners had a single blip on the tech end of things but otherwise was all go, heavily based around 2022’s album They Fear Us. The group smashed past the rest of Friday's bands, which would be the heaviest band on the main stage so far.
Hail The Sun
Californian post-hardcore-ers Hail The Sun used RADAR to kick off a slate of UK dates that are their first time on these shores in 7 years. The energy the Chico outfit brought to the 2nd stage was definitely “practised” as in terms of their performance there wasn’t a hair out of place musically. There was a slight gaff Donovan Melero launching the microphone and standing clean off stage in the 2nd song when flashing a bit of showmanship. Yours truly popped the stand back up to him from the photo pit and things were right back on track for a great 40-minute set.
Graphic Nature
The GN will forever be a personal favourite and have been covered by us on tour with Dream State back in April. This is a group that has been everywhere and then a few more places on top of that, and had RADAR as just a stop on their tour promoting new album Who are You When Noone is Watching? If there’s any issue to be found with Graphic Nature in 2024 it's that everyone knows now, so these sets have gotten substantially more popular. Their setlist was a very tight read in 2023, and the new album means some excellent new tracks have made their way into the running order. This was another excellent show of form for the 404 and just one stop of the trail they’re blazing.
Car Bomb
When enquiring as to what to expect with Car Bomb’s set, a fellow press outlet simply suggested “chaos”. Now as far as prog goes, the New York quartet’s mathcore leaning rumble of a set definitely classed as a bit of the mad stuff. For a name very inherently striking, the members of Car Bomb were insanely nonchalant with their performance, and it was one eagerly lapped up by Saturday’s fans as it was the first time the group had been seen in these lands since before the pandemic. Hopefully, it won’t take the “meatballs” that long to come around again.
The Fall of Troy
RADAR’s Saturday seemed to bungee cord between exciting brand-new talents and established overseas bands the fans have been waiting lifetimes of pets to see again. The Fall of Troy definitely classifies as the second kind, save for the fact they played ArcTanGent last year. The Washington trio are headlining the run of dates mentioned for Hail the Sun earlier. This is a smart and simple booking on RADAR’s part and a popular and exciting choice in The Fall of Troy for an extra silver of post-hardcore.
Dirty Loops
When discussing bands needing no introduction, the RADAR faithful will often turn to a band like Dirty Loops. The Swedes are like royalty for the prog crowd, with many having guessed these to be headliners then organisers were teasing those announcements. These follow the footsteps of Haken from last year's lineup as having headlined a previous iteration of RADAR, and likely could have filled the top slot, but somehow mean more being on as the special guest. The festival itself seems to hold a place in the hearts of the group as Henrik Linder was spotted on more than one occasion with the press sporting some unbelievable cheeky grins about being back.
Conjurer
While Dirty Loops were a wild card for being Dirty Loops not headlining, Conjurer are a wild card just because they’re Conjurer. Belting runs from last year supporting Carcass and playing Outbreak festival should sufficiently hint that the Rugby lot are a tad heavier than the usual RADAR showings, but it made a 2nd stage headline slot all the more awe-inspiring than they were. The formula RADAR seemed to crack with this and last year is “heavy as hell, complex lighting, plays bangers” for the 2nd stage, and Conjurer absolutely lived up to that role. That said, can someone please check on Connor Marshall's neck? As it could be heard screaming from headbanging even over the bass.
TesseracT
In a definite case of “best for last” for Saturday, RADAR bestowed the sandwich headline to TesseracT for one of their biggest UK showings to date. The MK tribe had hinted at pulling out all the stops ahead of the show, but it wasn’t clear just how true that was until it was in full swing. All decked out in extra substantial stage attire, the 5 piece gave it the full headliner treatment with the already announced Choir Noir being a stunning accompaniment as they moved around the stage. There were additional platforms added to give the warehouse stage a tiered setting, as well as there being a full video crew and laser arrangements interspersed into some songs. The relationship and promotion of TesseracT from RADAR this year would be second only to very few bands. This was an excellent instalment in the band's War of Being saga around the world, and better still, posters were touting further dates for it in the UK come the new year.
