For Catfish and the Bottlemen, 2014 has been a monumental year; they signed a deal with Island Records, put out three huge singles and announced their highly anticipated debut album The Balcony, which is due for release on 15th September 2014. Having the huge weight of expectation on their shoulders with their debut release being so close, what better way to give everyone a taste of what they can expect to hear on the record than a huge live performance at both Reading and Leeds festivals.
The band were scheduled to play the Festival Republic Stage, which is becoming increasingly notorious for being the best place to catch live performances from bands just before they break through into the wide public consciousness and the Welsh-based lads performed in such a way that they could easily have bossed the main stage with their anthemic tunes and party vibe. It may be extremely daunting for a band who are yet to release their debut album to play one of the biggest and best festivals in the UK (if not the world); what size crowd would they get?; what sort of reception would the songs get from festival-goers who aren’t necessarily their core fans?; would everyone be watching Enter Shikari on the main stage instead of coming to see them? Thankfully for Catfish and the Bottlemen they have such a brilliant sound and led by the energetic Van McCann, are a very likeable band so any fears they did have prior to the show were needless as a huge crowd flocked to the tent to catch a glimpse of these rising stars.
Dressed in their usual black outfits, the band bounced onto the stage with the determination of a group ready to make their mark on the welcoming crowd. From the very start of the set, the crowd were in good voice and tracks such as ‘Homesick’, ‘Rango’ and ‘Pacifier’ incited a huge sing along from the heaving audience, with most people knowing each and every word to the tracks, much to the delight and slight surprise of the humble band. Some bands have a knack for writing music that needs to be played live to thousands of people from a festival stage on a glorious summers day and Catfish and the Bottlemen have certainly mastered that talent, with the rousing chorus of ‘Kathleen’ whipping the crowd up into a further frenzy.
Whilst they took the opportunity to air some new tracks from their upcoming album, the band ensured there was enough time in their performance to treat the crowd to their recent releases ‘Fallout’ and ‘Cocoon’ to confirm their set as one of the highlights of the festival this year. The confidence and class with which these guys perform to a crowd is exhilarating and any up and coming bands/artists watching their set and seeing their meteoric rise from the BBC Introducing stage in 2013 will have been heartened and inspired to see exactly what is possible.
Being the buzz band of the year must come with some huge pressures but if Van McCann and his band of merry men continue at the rate they are going, it is only a matter of time before they make their main stage appearance, which on the evidence of their set this year could easily be in 2015. The band have been quoted as saying that they don’t make music for chart success and that they make it to play at live shows and festivals but if The Balcony does as well as it is predicted that it will, then chart success will only make their rise to stardom that much quicker!
Matt Tarr
@MattTarrJourno
Matt Tarr
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