Radar Festival 2023: Day Two
Day two of Radar Festival up next, and I had to take things a little bit easier after injuring my foot while getting photos of Tiberius. Is it broken? I don’t know. Is it well-rested? Probably not. Am I about to head in for Radar Festival day three? Yes. But enough about me, and more about the first band I caught yesterday – Tiberius.
Tiberius
This band have a habit of running rampant inside the audience during their performances, and this time was no different with vocalist Grant Barclay even performing his sound check inside of the depths of the crowd slowly assembling in front of the second stage.
A nice and gentle circle pit was requested by the band so that the members could join in on it whilst still playing through the set, with all clearly having a very fun and silly time with this tongue-in-cheek act.
It was around this point that my foot got injured, so I’ll be quite honest I wasn’t paying a whole lot of attention to what was going on as I was mostly just hoping that I hadn’t broken anything – but I was still managing to have a nice time nonetheless.
As an outro track, Heaven Is a Place on Earth began playing through the speakers which was slightly unexpected. But then all through the weekend classic 80s pop bangers have filled in the gaps between artists, presuambly due to the success of headliner Dirty Loops last year proving that metalheads appreciate more than just heavy metal.
Pupil Slicer
Up next for me, Pupil Slicer who brought brutality into the festival with Kate Davies’ harsh vocals sending terrifying chills down my spine. Now with the recently released album Blossom behind them, their run of festival dates this summer is the first opportunity they’ve had to properly show it off in all its glory.
I personally first saw them support Rolo Tomassi last year, and they’ve come into their own since then sending waves through the heavy music scene. If you want something grotesquely crawling into your ears and instilling fear into your inner soul, Pupil Slicer hit the nail right on the head with their unique sound.
Stabbing Spiders has to be the highlight of their set for me, with the intro of this track being like a giant slap into the face. With the pit going crazy, Pupil Slicer has certainly made a great impression on all those who came out to see them.
Wheel
Wheel are another band I’ve been aware of for a while, but historically only managed to catch live once. Today was bass player Aki ‘Conan’ Virta’s last show, so he got to pick most of the setlist – even if was only 5 songs. But that’s to be expected at a prog festival.
Whilst I’m personally not super familiar with the discography of Wheel, I did find it easy enough to follow along with their music here on the second stage. A musical style reminiscent of bands like Tool clearly resonated with the audience as people got moving along to their performance.
One thing I did notice during this set was the venue staff let a man with a wheelchair through in front of the barrier to see the show properly – which was particularly necessary so on the second stage where the audience was packed out into a smaller space.
Perturbator
After a much-needed couple hour break, sat down in the outdoor area resting my foot trying my absolute best not to put any weight on it, Peturbator were the next band on the list for me that I just had to see.
An elusive character is James Kent – a solo artist only accompanied live only by electronic drums. He started a rave on the fog-filled main stage with incredible bass pulsating through the venue. The light show and staging of this live act is essential to see in an indoor warehouse space where all you can see are flashes of light, and the silhouette synths, drums, and a guitar.
Pertubator is an example of an act where you can entirely lose yourself in the music to no consequence. It numbs the mind to a state of near hypnosis where everything else just drifts away. It doesn’t matter how badly you can dance, because anything is appropriate for this music. You can lose yourself to the dance and be a complete goofball. Even the grotesque amount of foot pain that I found myself in after losing my brain to the pulse of the music.
Igorrr
I didn’t realise how much I was looking forward to Igorrr until he appeared on stage with his entourage. His music can only be described as utterly eclectic, and he’s brought along a live band to suit this exact definition.
Operatic vocals, harsh vocals, samples, heavy guitars, and synth bass, it’s a rather unique combination on offer for this headline. And whilst I’ve not done extensive listening, I’ve had many friends recommend me his work over the years, particularly the chicken sonata has come up more times than I can count.
All I can really say is that Igorrr absolutely delivered on his reputation – blowing my mind, and the minds of those around me. I was happily looking around the audience seeing concentrated faces trying to unpack what they were witnessing in front of them.
At one moment Marthe Alexandre had the floor hitting some of the highest notes in her range, blasting opera runs like none other I’ve seen live before which was a real treat.
Hitting in dubstep drops during solo dj breaks towards the end of his set closing with Very Noise showed to me that Igorrr emanates self-expression and creativity like no other artist in the scene. This was a bananas set to watch just simply from how much was going on at all times – a metal symphony for the ears, engaging all the senses.
