LIVE: Boardmasters, Friday 08.08.14

Big Deal

Big Deal are a band that never seem to stop touring; playing at the majority of festivals this summer, straight after getting off tour with Peace, Big Deal have reignited interest in themselves again. The band are always a fun live, and always win an audience over by playing fan favourites, all with catchy lyrics and driving beats. Having both a male and female singer it gives them on stage chemistry like few other bands.

Darlia

There is a buzz around the indie scene at the moment with a pool of new bands receiving regular air time on Radio One. This was apparent when Darlia managed to fill Mavericks Tent at Boardmasters Festival. The band walked on stage to a raucous response as front man Nathan Day (complete with a hat) launched into fan favourite ‘Blood Money’. There is a real sense of intensity when Darlia are on stage – you get the feeling that drummer, Jack Bentham, couldn’t hit the cymbals any harder if he tried. Current single ‘Dear Diary’ turned the set into a singalong as the audience fire the words “you could tell me all your secrets” back to the band, louder than the band can deal it out themselves. The mid set point was when Darlia introduced their next single, or as Nathan put it: “This ones called ‘Chants On Fire’, or ‘Stars’ or whatever the label want to call it”. To close the set off, Darlia played their popular debut EP Knock Knock in it’s entirety with a rare outing of ‘Choke On Bones’, then into ‘Napalm’ (which they dedicated to a fan) and closed in traditional, Darlia fashion with ‘Queen of Hearts’, which was the best received song of the set. Darlia’s performance was incredible, however you’d have to feel Darlia were out of place when most of the audience are 16 year old boys with hair cuts like an Iced Gem. It was hard for them to get the whole tent moving, however it will happen as their fan base broadens.

Yuck

Yuck brought style and angst to the tent and set such an intense mood, with very little breaks between songs. (The sunglasses in the pitch black of night was a nice touch.) They had everybody moving and haven’t lost a step with their new line up… A good watch.