A View From The Back of The Room: Radar Festival Day 3 (Live Review By Matt & Tom Bladen)

Radar Festival 2024, O2 Victoria Warehouse, Manchester 26-28.07.24

Sunday 28.07.24

Day 3 and it was in a little later to start as the first band we wanted to see was Adharma (9). Again a band made up of Radar Alumni, I've managed to miss them every time they have played locally so to say this was anticipated was an understatement. The project build around Charlie Draper, her own personal history and tragedy has shaped these songs, she uses them as catharsis, scars worn proudly and displayed through anthemic modern pop metal. With band made up of the scenes most talented players, Adharma's shows are safe spaces, in keeping with the festivals overall manifesto of inclusivity. A boisterous start to Day 3 with a lot of love in the room from the crowd and the crew.

Next there was more sheer virtuosity on display Oxymorrons unfortunately had to pull out it was another Radar long time alumni that took the spot. Acoustic guitar genius Mike Dawes (9) arrived with a blast of A Shuffle In D Minor, his self deprecation and between song banter as entertaining as his brilliant playing. Coming from the same school as Tommy Emmanuel, John Gomm and Andy McKee his tapping technique is wildly inventive and lends itself to playing instrumental covers of songs and interpreting them in his own way, so Van Halen's Jump is followed by Gotye's Somebody That I Used To Know and then John Mayer's Slow Dancing In A Burning Room where he can fall back on his blues chops. Friend to many in the Radar fraternity Mike saved the day here closing with a version of Euclid by Sleep Token that was breath-taking.

Elsewhere on Sunday we had the ultra modern rock meets R&B of Siamese (7) which was slick and highly enjoyable as was the 'future jazz' of Sungazer (7) which continues the angular shape throwing from Dirty Loops the previous evening before Blood Command (7) levelled the second stage with total aggression.

More on the aggression front later though as on the mainstage it was Welsh future megastars Holding Absence (9) who showed why they will be taking on arenas very soon. Fusing metal, pop, rock and anthemic courses; Lucas (vocals), Scott (guitar), Benjamin (bass) and Ashley (drummer), continue a proud tradition of Welsh post-hardcore/emo spearheaded by Funeral For A Friend, Hondo MacLean, The Blackout alongside contemporaries Casey. Emotional vocals that got the crowd singing back, making it feel like being amongst friends as Hold Absence have an intimacy to their show no matter how big the stage but they also have a star quality, it's from the honesty of their lyrics and the maturity of their music. Not long after this they played a headline show in Chepstow Castle cementing their arena ready status.

Back to the second stage and remember what I said about heaviness? Yeah well I doubt I've seen anything as punishing as Hunanity's Last Breath (8), the second stage headliners and penultimate band of the weekend, closed out the Sneak Energy Stage with a sound that threatened to flatten Manchester. Brutal, technical deathcore HLB make a statement with colossal breakdowns, thunderous riffs and guttural vocals. Seriously if you like music that is heavy as a heavy thing then HLB will batter you into submission.

The final band of the festival was Norwegian proggers Leprous (7) who played a 'real time request' set, what this entailed was them playing songs that they had chosen as part of their recent setlists and then give the audience four choices of songs at six different occasions. Now Leprous are a brilliant live band, they have refined and adapted their sound as the years have progressed, each album taking them further into more melodic and anthemic territory as their early prog metal sound has been shook off.

Now with a set like as this I was expecting for them to perhaps delve into their last a bit further than they did. But unfortunately there were no choices from Bilateral and Tall Poppy Syndrome given as I'm sure much of the fanbase would love to hear these again. However the furthest back we went was to 2013's Coal but we did also get two from the as yet unreleased Melodies Of Atonement (due 30th August), but mostly it was a lot of songs that have been commonplace in the set for a while now.

Still maybe I'm grumpy as Leprous were great, they perform well but I perhaps wanted a bit more digging into their catalogue.

So that was Radar 2024, a festival that will continue to grow and adapt, creating it's own space in the UK festival scene as an inclusive, eclectic alternative to so many that continue to book the same acts again and again.