It feels like a completely different vibe today with the weather improving and what better way to start the day than with Chasing Abbey who provided a half-hour of electro-folk music to get day two under way at the King Tut’s Stage. Chasing Abbey can be considered a clean version of Kneecap, no swearing or really controversial lyrics, the folk music on show at TRNSMT this year is really impressive with fellow Irish band Madra Salach still to come later. Ronan Bell, Jonathan Byrne and Ted Conway get the crowd moving with some traditional Irish folk music, the new track Seachain was one of the finest songs they played and is taken from their upcoming debut album Cyber Celt to be released in September, we’re looking forward to that one as well as the tour in November. The banjo player is notably outstanding during this one while Ioronta, T.a.L and Oh My Johnny (Banks Of The Roses) are also pleasing on the ears. 8/10
Scottish singer/songwriter Rianne Downey was just beginning the final song of her set Home when we appeared at the Main Stage for Brogeal, Rianne has been touring very successfully with Paul Heaton’s Beautiful South these past couple of years and it’s always a pleasure to see her live. Brogeal are another band that played over on the King Tut’s stage last year and upgraded to the Main Stage this year, deservedly so after the release of debut album The Tuesday Paper Club last year. The Falkirk folk band have a growing army of fans around Scotland and the UK as they stamp their name as one of the best up and coming Scottish bands right now, the main duo of Daniel Harkins (vocals & guitar) and Aidan Callaghan (vocals & banjo) whip the crowd into a delighted frenzy with more than a few having made the journey from Falkirk. You’ll Be Mine, Vicar Street Days and Sunday Morning get the best reaction from the crowd. 8/10
A well earned twenty minutes of shuteye while soaking up the sun was followed by Glasgow band Lacuna down at the BBC Introducing Stage bringing yet another brand of folk music to a fair-sized crowd, there is always a nice energy at a Lacuna show and today is no different. Upfront we have Emily Beckwith as the main vocalist ably assisted by Olivia Thom and Amie Huckstep. From memory, the first time we saw Lacuna live was supporting Lucia & The Best Boys at SWG3 a few years ago and the song Robin was the one that caught our ears, it’s exactly the same today and this track is appreciated all around while Shelley is another standout that has some of the crowd moving. 7/10
Yet another new Irish band to check out for us are Madra Salach who have brought a decent sized crowd along with them today judging by the amount of folk wearing t-shirts with the name emblazoned on them. The crowd don’t need much encouragement to get moving as the six band members create a unique atmosphere at the King Tut’s stage, Madra Salach translates as ‘Dirty Dog’ in Irish. Frontman Paul Banks and all-round musician Jack Martin catch the eye with the latter turning his hand to all kinds of instruments including keyboards, guitar, ukulele and even the penny whistle. Yet another band to add to the must see again list that is quickly growing this weekend at TRNSMT! 9/10
All-female band Girl Group brough a nice energy to the BBC Introducing stage, we spent almost the full set trying to remember who they were supporting at Nice n Sleazy’s in Glasgow a couple of years ago when we last saw them … that information is lost in the memory bank somewhere now. Rage Song was a great way to end the set. Next up for us were a band that have burst through so quickly over the past year selling out show wherever they play. That band are the excellent London-based Keo made up of brothers Finn (vocals & guitar) and Connor Keogh (vocals & bass) – hence the name Keo – their debut album Put A Smile On For Me will be released on 25th September before they embark on a headline UK tour, we really are expecting big things from these guys. If you have yet to hear any of this bands music then we would recommend starting with I Lied Amber, a track that has everything you could possibly want. The mostly young crowd showed great enthusiasm towards Keo as they did when we saw them at Sound City in Liverpool just the month before, we can’t wait for the tour now. 9/10
We couldn’t ignore the fact that The Last Dinner Party had an upgrade to the main stage for this year so popped along and sat on the grass, there is a big crowd in pen two for this set as Abigail Morris leads the band through a set of alternative rock with the highlight being the song that made them appealing to the masses … Nothing Matters. For us though it was The Snuts that had the focus of our attention, it’s been a wee while since we have saw them live and 2024 was their last TRMSMT appearance, Jack Cochrane announces that album number four Joy In Short Moments will be released in October. We did wonder why a group of fans down the front at the barrier were holding sunflowers, it is a reference to the album cover. We are lucky enough to get to hear three songs from the upcoming album – namely Summer Rain, Motherlands and Defibrillator – we can confirm that all three new tunes were sounding great! Of course, the fans are here to listen to the big hitters such as Gloria, Glasgow and Always among others and the band don’t let us down, in fact a sixteen-track set is a great return for the West Lothian band. We are so looking forward to the new album and a possible Glasgow date towards the end of the year. 10/10
Dublin band Basht. are making their debut at this years TRNSMT and you can bet for sure that they will be back after the performance they put in on the BBC Introducing stage, we had the first mosh pits of the weekend (in the mud) alongside a very memorable performance from Jack Leavey and co. This was definitely in our top five performances of the weekend and the news of debut album Poor Advice being released on 9th October went down well with the large crowd who were great from start to finish. Basht. released new single Kiera Knightley just in time for TRMSNT and it went down a storm live, they will be on a bigger stage next time for sure. The style of music reminds us so much of Wunderhorse and talking of horses they didn’t even play our favourite track Wild Horses … it is a five minute song right enough so time constraints may have led them to leave it out, never mind we are guaranteed to hear it when they play at the Art School in Glasgow later in the year. Burn, Perfume and Stockholm were all played to perfection, we are excited to see what happens with Basht. over the next year. 10/10
For those with the dancing shoes on Australian dance artist Sonny Fodera was creating a nice buzz up at the main stage, we prefer our music more raw though, you know guitars and stuff so we only hung around for twenty minutes before heading back to BBC Introducing for another Australian band and a brand new one for us closing off the stage for the night: Radio Free Alice. We are glad we saw them, they were explosive, energetic, talented musicians, all five of them! Vocalist Noah Learmonth is cool, calm and collected throughout the forty-five minute set, the new song Lunch Money is top drawer alongside Look What You’ve Done and Johnny. Big shout to the TRNSMT people for booking these guys, they have won over a lot of new fans today including Basht. vocalist Jack Leavey who was standing right beside us during the set. 9/10
After those last two performances what band could possibly top that? Well the one and only Kasabian of course, a band we last saw at TRNSMT in 2023 but this time they are headlining. Sergio Pizzorno has the trademark fur jacket on tonight but not for long, it is still quite warm and is about to get even warmer as the enthusiastic crowd start the mosh pits all around pen one where we are watching, Club Foot is the start to the set we were all looking for, the highly charged atmosphere feels like one big party even though Scotland had lost to Morocco at the World Cup the previous night, all that seems to be forgotten about now. Shoot The Runner has Sergio work the crowd into a frenzy while You’re In Love With A Psycho has the whole of Glasgow Green sing back the chorus “You’re in love with a psycho, and there’s nothing you can do about it”. Vlad The Impaler keeps the energy levels high as does Release The Pressure, a track in which Kasabian collaborated with Scot Calvin Harris, L.S.F. (Lost Souls Forever) ends the main set but they are not finished yet, Bless This Acid House and the always electrifying Fire has everyone squeeze out any last energy they had in their bodies, what a finish to day two of TRNSMT! 10/10
Check out our review of Saturday at TRNSMT here.
Written by: Alan Brown
