It’s the final day of Reading and Leeds Festival and it’s been a music lover’s dream so far. The sun, atmosphere, and legions of impressive bands have made for an inimitable weekend. But luckily for us, it’s far from over…
Here are our top three acts from Leeds Festival’s final day:
The Pretty Reckless
Kicking off things for us the Main Stage, The Pretty Reckless are a blaze of guitars, leather, and platinum blonde hair. The band, fronted by Gossip Girl alumni Taylor Momsen, have been touring near-constantly all summer in support of their third studio album Who You Selling For.
So much is obvious from their show. The band are cool, calm, collected, and so incredibly comfortable on the stage. The whole show seems entirely effortless – Momsen smoothly opening the set with Going To Hell track ‘Follow Me Down.’
They quickly follow it up with ‘Oh My God’, ‘Hangman’, and fan-favourite ‘Make Me Wanna Die’, before taking their bows and leaving the crowd in a blanket of static.
Pvris
Next up: American pop-rock trio Pvris. The band’s appearance at Leeds Festival came only days after the release of their much-anticipated sophomore album. The album, All We Know of Heaven, All We Need of Hell, was released to the public on the 25th August, only two days prior.
This was something the band were eager to boast on-stage, performing two of the album’s three singles so far: “What’s Wrong” and “Heaven.” But aside from these, the remaining tracks consisted mainly of singles from their debut White Noise.
But with a seven song set, there wasn’t much more the band could really have done. They were fairly flawless throughout, front-woman Lynn Gun exploring every inch of the stage, and giving the audience a thorough introduction to their sound.
Glass Animals
Meet the band who managed to get pineapples banned from Reading and Leeds: Oxford’s very own Glass Animals. The band, and their aptly named fans, the ‘Pineapple People’, are summer in a bottle.
Before the show starts, the crowd is awash with Hawaiian shirts, inflatable pineapple boats, and even a pineapple loofah or two. Then the band come onstage, and illicit pineapple fruit vaporise out of what appears to be nowhere. It’s quite a sight to behold.
The band open their show with ‘[Premade Sandwiches]’, a track from their best-known album How To Be a Human Being. They follow it up with ‘Life Itself’, a bittersweet political comment about the lack of opportunities for young people in the UK.
And that pretty much sums this band up. Their music is upbeat, but harsh with meaning, and it’s an incredibly moving combination. They work their way through ‘Black Mambo’, ‘The Other Side of Paradise’, ‘Youth’, and ‘Agnes’ before closing the set with ‘Pork Soda’, and leaving the crowd covered in pineapple confetti. Naturally.
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