T in the Park Festival 2012 - Sunday July 8th (Live Review)
Tuesday, 10 July 2012
Written by Heather McDaid
With the festival's finale facing severe weather warnings, it was maybe a twist of fate that the closest we got to torrential downpours was a little spitting of rain here and there. The mud was horrendous, ankle deep at some points, but since when did a little dirt ruin the mood of a festival?
The main stage played host to one of Scotland's best home grown talents of late. Twin Atlantic have had their share of mammoth successes in the last few years, yet there seemed to be something about playing main stage at their home based festival that made this set a little something special. As the band took to the stage following McFly, even drawing a slightly bigger crowd than their predecessors, roars circulated the arena. Though frontman McTrusty was wearing a raincoat with his hood up, few could fault their live performance. It was big, it was a spectacle and it proves exactly why Twin Atlantic have been growing at such an astonishing rate and why they'll continue upwards. The only fault would be the set. Naturally tailored to their most popular offerings of late, it would have been nice to slip in a few older numbers. That's just nitpicking though.
Heading over to the King Tuts, Fun had packed the tent to its capacity. They were fantastic to watch, the highlight of their set being the overwhelming response to their hit song 'We Are Young'. Many would have expected this to be the set's finale, though as it proved to be their penultimate number the crowd completely thinned out by the time the set concluded, which notably caused the atmosphere to diminish slightly. Still, great set.
It's been quite a year for folk-rocker Frank Turner - his mammoth Wembley performance to name but one achievement. Following that particular success, it was no surprise that the masses descended to see Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls take to the stage with simplistic yet wonderful music. There's no grand production, there's nothing over the top; the atmosphere was created by the fun the band are having on stage as they interact with each other, by the adoration in which fans sing back his lyrics. This, simply, feels the way music should - wonderful in its simplest form. As he beams at the crowd, Frank often thanked everyone and reinforced that he doesn't want his music to be exclusive, teaching certain lyrics so everyone could join in. 'I Still Believe' proved the ultimate highlight; the volume in which the lyrics were yelled back was astonishing. Definitely a highlight of the festival.
Returning to this same stage later in the day, the stark contrast in crowd was shocking. Overflowing with attendees, the majority had headed in to see pop diva Nicki Minaj; many felt that she should have been a headline act. After her set was completed, no one maintained that sentiment. Half an hour late: the boos started circulating the arena. 45 minutes late: people started banging on the fences in their masses. One hour late: Nicki took to the stage to an overwhelming mass of boos.
When you're an hour late, you at least apologise. No apology was issued. As Nicki performed her notably short set, cut accordingly by festival organisers, each song was followed by an echoing of boos. Her performance was upbeat, she and her dancers stuck strictly to their routines; the big tracks from her repetoire including 'Starships' and 'Super Bass' redeemed her slightly, but only because the crowd leapt into life, dancing and singing like this was the greatest thing in the world. But it wasn't. Her backing track was what we were really listening to; the rare occasions Nicki spoke or sang were noticeably louder than the backing track, so it was apparent very early on that she was miming to most of it.
It was just such a disappointment. Crowd volume alone told you that she was the biggest act of the day, probably to the point she could have pulled off a headline set, yet she turned up late, didn't apologise then didn't even bother to sing most of the set. Some say you can be forgiven for miming if you put on a good performance (not an opinion I've really held) but it seemed that T in the Park weren't willing to forgive her as her final song closed to a showering of boos yet again. The biggest disappointment of the weekend, a lot of fans turned up excitedly, yet left with a more negative view of Mz. Minaj.
Running off to the King Tuts tent for our final act of the evening, we were met with another mass of people. The world's biggest dubstep sensation was headlining with a DJ set and it proved that Skrillex was a real crowd-drawer. Having been fans of him in his alternative outfit From First To Last, even seeing him do a DJ set a few years ago from his humble Apple Mac, this proved a strange occurrence. As a countdown loomed on the screen, few thought a five minute countdown was enough to psyche the audience up but as we watched it slowly drop, it was inexplicably exciting. As Skrillex ran on stage, the tent descended into anarchy - wild dancing and crazy light effects typified all that he is about; the tent was a mass of movement.
It's surreal to have seen him come from a humble musical start and now see him commanding such a large audience as a Grammy Award winning dubstep artist, and though this had been the butt of many jokes during the day, he proved absolutely fantastic to witness. It's easy to see why he's become so successful and why he continues to draw in the large crowds; a surprisingly perfect and energetic way to close T in the Park for us this year.
Sunday has its high points and its low points, but if you remove one set from the equation, the festival's finale was great.
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