A review of Twin Atlantic headlining the Garden stage at Belladrum 2013
Belladrum saw Twin Atlantic headlining a festival for the first time, this was a big deal for them as they’ve grown up through this festival progressing through the stages over the years. Before coming on stage, Bohemian Rhapsody belted out to warm the crowd up, inducing massive crowd sing-a-longs and building excitement for their set. By the time the song ended, we were ready to witness the spectacle that is Twin Atlantic.
Whilst new songs are classed as a ‘dangerous territory’ at festivals, they showed no fear by opening their set with a brand new song. This didn’t seem to put the crowd off at all as they still put their all into joining in where they could. Later on in their set they played “I Am An Animal” – this is another new song that they’ve been playing at festivals this summer. Drummer, Craig Kneale recently told us the new songs have been going down as well as some of the older ones at festivals, it’s easy to understand why as they provided the high energy, big choruses and catchy verses we’re now used to from the band.
Aside from the new songs, they played their debut album ‘Free’ in it’s entirety, with the exception of instrumental ‘Serious Underground Dance Vibes’. There are so many big moments on the album that it would have been foolish for them not to pack in as many as they could. Title track “Free” has received a lot of airplay, therefore is easily one of their most recognisable songs, thus receiving a massive from the crowd.
A song sure to put a surge of energy through the crowd is “Edit Me”. Placing it at a point in their set where the crowd would be starting to get tired, this song has something truly infectious about it and the whole arena was bouncing. In stark contrast to this, “Crash Land” provided a much more gentle moment to the evening with Sam McTrusty stepping back from the microphone on occasion to allow for the crowd to take over. There’s never been a problem with sing-alongs to this song, it’s a masterpiece and sends tingles down your spine when you hear everyone singing the words back at the band.
In honour of their first performance at Belladrum on the Seedlings stage in 2008, where they had to ask the crowd to sit down for the remainder of their set as they were getting out of hand – Sam asked everyone at the Garden stage to sit down whilst they played “A Guidance From Colour.” The song is the title track from their first EP, and rarely makes an appearance at live shows these days, this was an incredibly special moment for any Twin Atlantic fan.
They also played older classics such as “What Is Light? Where Is Laughter?” and “Human After All” which were gratefully received by those who have been around from the start of Twin Atlantic’s career.
It’s been far too long since they were in this part of the country, and you could tell they were sorely missed. It’s almost hard to believe they’ve only been a band for six years when you see that kind of reaction from a crowd – they’ve come a long way in a short time, and they deserve every second of it. They closed Friday night with “Make A Beast Of Myself” including confetti and massive balloons being bounced about in the crowd. The perfect ending to the day.
You can read our recent interview with Twin Atlantic, and see more pictures of the gig.
Photos by Roddy McKenzie and Thomas Bisset.
Click to contact the photographer.
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