The 2019
edition of Truck Festival is happening this week and I couldn’t be more
excited! In anticipation of what will actually be my first-ever festival
experience (yes, really), I’ve chosen six of the acts I’m most eager to see
and, if you’re going, who you should be sure to see too! This ranges from
well-established headlines to future stars and underground favourites, showing
why the stacked line-up is perhaps the very best any UK festival has to offer this summer.
Wolf Alice
Given the
mix of indie, hard rock and alternative pop across the Truck bill, Wolf Alice are
the perfect choice for a headliner. The indie quartet have enjoyed a meteoric
rise in their young career, releasing two critically-acclaimed albums so far,
with 2017’s sensational ‘Visions of a Life’, being one of my favourite albums
of recent years.
Few bands
are able to pull off as diverse a sound as Wolf Alice, relaxing you with dreamy
indie-pop one minute and slapping you in the face with high-energy punk rock the
next. Their unique sound plus their proven status as a top live act makes their set an early contender for the best performance of the
weekend.
Zuzu
Rising Liverpool
indie-pop star Zuzu had
a whirlwind 2018, from touring with Courteeners to appearing on the cover of the
Liverpool arts & culture magazine, Bido Lito (pictured). Her
recent bops ‘How It Feels’, 'Dark Blue' and ‘Can’t Be Alone’ prove the hype to be justified
with their brilliant hooks and contagious sense of fun, making her a perfect fit
for a feel-good summer afternoon festival slot.
Zuzu is going to be huge, so give her a listen now and don’t
miss her Sunday set on the Market stage!
Milk Teeth
With the
line-up featuring a lot of indie and pop-leaning acts, many Truck-goers may
find themselves in want of something a little heavier across the weekend. I would point anyone looking to whet that appetite in the direction of Gloucestershire punk trio
Milk Teeth.
If you’ve yet
to experience the band’s visceral yet accessible brand of grungy punk,
definitely check out their excellent 2017 EPs ‘Be Nice’ and ‘Go Away’ to see
why the band have been building a steady cult following in recent years. Since
I saw the band play a barnstorming set at Liverpool’s Buyers Club last year,
Milk Teeth have dropped the ferocious new single ‘Stain’ and it’s a safe bet we
will hear more new material from their festival sets this summer.
IDLES
2018 was a
banner year for IDLES, with their latest album ‘Joy as an Act of Resistance’ being one the most unique punk records in some time and receiving critical acclaim, yet 2019 is shaping up to be
just as significant. The band were nominated for Best British Breakthrough Act
at the Brit Awards back in February and won the Kerrang! Award for Best British
Breakthrough last month.
Their
performance at Truck was originally billed as a ‘special guests’ slot, but
following Fontaines D.C. pulling out of their performance, IDLES have thankfully
been granted a full-length slot to properly showcase their incendiary, politically-charged sound to their rapidly-growing fanbase.
Yonaka
Yonaka have
turned many heads in the rock and alternative pop scenes over the last two years,
with a string of excellent EPs marking them as a band to take those genres in
bold new directions and with heaps of potential for mainstream success. Their debut
full-length ‘Don’t Wait till Tomorrow’, released earlier this year, is full of
festival-ready anthems, while frontwoman Theresa Jarvis is a genuine star in
the making with her fierce vocals and brilliantly unique delivery.
Unapologetically
rooted in rock, yet resolutely modern and cutting-edge, Yonaka are just the
kind of band that alternative music has needed. If you want
to witness what the future of rock sounds like, you absolutely need to see
Yonaka.
Foals
In the eleven years
since releasing their debut album ‘Antidotes’, Foals have gone on to establish
themselves as global indie megastars. Their latest album, ‘Everything Not Saved
Will Be Lost - Part 1’, hit number 2 in the UK and was perhaps their strongest
effort to date, while a surprise set at Glastonbury last month reaffirmed Foals
as one of the UK's best live acts. They are obviously the
perfect fit for the Saturday night headline slot at Truck and since this will
be my first time seeing the band, I'll be heading in with lofty expectations. Obviously, nobody heading to Truck needs to be told not to miss Foals, but just be sure to watch yourself in the pit during 'Two Steps Twice'!
This only scratches the surface of the plethora of great artists on this year's line-up, with the likes of Johnny Marr, Kate Nash, Slaves, Lewis Capaldi, You Me At Six and Two Door Cinema Club being just a few of the other big attractions. Be sure to check back here next week for my coverage of the festival.
Thanks for reading! Let me know in the comments which acts you are most excited to see and leave a recommendation for any other acts you think I need to see.
- Danny
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