Rocker (feedbot)
Gold Member
By eight am, it’s too hot to stay in a tent. The stages are packed before lunchtime and we are raring to go for another day at Trees. Dashing between patches of shade, we’re hyped and hydrated for our Friday.
Melbourne’s Press Club are one of a handful of Australian bands at Trees this weekend, and their breezy indie-punk has an undercurrent of warmth that makes them perfect main stage material. They’re arriving at Upcote Farm at the tail end of a mammoth European run in support of album four, ‘To All The Ones That I Love’, but this is a classic festival set, drawing from all corners of their back catalogue over just seven songs. The new record’s title track translates particularly well, and a glorious few minutes of cloud cover during jubilant set closer ‘Suburbia’ managing to inspire a lung-busting singalong from pockets of the crowd. Frontwoman Natalie Foster leaps with enviable vitality across the stage monitors and down toward the barrier, a captivating presence at the spearhead of a band who have no doubt just won over a host of new fans, thousands of miles from home. [Rob Dand]
Taking Slipknot’s lead, Blackgold’s masked rap-metal shakes the main stage awake. ‘One Chance’ channels Limp Bizkit with a more serious streak, acknowledging their nu metal lineage with an assertive update. The demand a lot from their fans but they give a lot back through spot on lyrics and feral bass that could tunnel through the hillside. Dropping in hip hop megamixes, they get those determined to brave the sun bouncing furiously. [Kate Allvey]
Hail the Sun are good friends with tonight’s co-headliners Coheed and Cambria, and you can hear it in their sound too. At times, the Californian quintet’s technical post-hardcore sound is so post it’s almost pre-something else, pairing notes of Circa Survive and At the Drive-In with their pals’ penchant for the theatrical. Vocalist and occasional drummer Donovan Melero operates primarily in the higher register, and he has some great mic-throwing moves that would give tonight’s other co-headliners Taking Back Sunday a run for their money, but his performance feels primal rather than choreographed. Their energetic set leans most heavily on latest full length, 2023’s ‘Divine Inner Tension’, but there’s also a partial cover of Tears for Fears’ ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ and an airing for new single ‘The Drooling Class’. Six albums into their career, it’s something of a surprise that Hail the Sun aren’t held in higher regard in the UK, but this memorable set in front of a curious (if not rapturous) Axiom crowd won’t have done their stock any harm at all. [Rob Dand]
Within the space of two songs, Coilguns frontman Louis Jucker has broken his microphone whilst on a foray into the crowd. His equipment is replaced, but the band also grapple with a temperamental guitar cable throughout the set. Jucker displays all the hallmarks of an eccentric and passionate character, sometimes appearing agitated by the delays, but he is always quick to smooth things over with the crew after each interruption. He repeatedly expresses his gratitude to the crowd simply for turning up, giving the mic over to the front row on more than one occasion to fill time, and unlike most other bands appearing in the Cave this weekend, demands very little from them in return.
The set itself feels gleefully loose; not quite erupting into full chaos, but entertainingly dynamic. Songs from last year’s excellent full-length ‘Odd Love’ dominate, and Jucker is keen to point out the meaning of the album’s title. He speaks about the importance of embracing our differences, and hammers the point home by warmly embracing as many people in the crowd as time will allow, before himself instigating the moshpit that accompanies their final song. All in a day’s work. [Rob Dand]
Show number 3054 sees the spirit of 2000 Trees distilled into a worshipful Forest stage. Frank Turner’s been a staple of the Trees experience since its inception, but to hear his seminal ‘Live Ire and Song’ in its entirety, solo and acoustic, is something beyond special for Turner’s many fans. The power invested in every chord of ‘Better Man’ smoulders, and the goosebumps raising on our sunburnt shoulders during the title track feel more than real as we punch the air, each lyric a roared psalm. Re-presenting this album is a sublime, and one that means a huge amount to the FTHC faithful. We’ve been on a long journey with Turner and we’re proud to be here with him at his adopted home. [Kate Allvey]
Over on the main stage, Trashboat are keeping it heavy and current, switching between charismatic chorus and empassioned screams through ‘Be Someone’. Their new album is on their minds, and we’re delighted to hear Tobi Duncan’s “personal favourite” track, ‘Filthy Wretches’, in all its blazing ferocity. Paying tribute to the crowd sticking it out in the heat, ‘Shape’ clatters energetically, rewarding our patience. Trashboat strike such a great balance between grunge and heaviness, never succumbing to either, and making the main stage all their own. Self acceptance is their mantra and they preach it through gloriously original noise. [Kate Allvey]
Opening with spoken word poetry is a bold move, but La Dispute’s desolate post-hardcore charm resonates perfectly with the idyllic Forest Stage. Their descent into howls and delicacy on guitar sparks a gentle clap through the trees, ‘Environmental Catastrophe Film’ taut and absorbing. From among the many acts claiming a ‘hardcore’ root to their sound, La Dispute stand out as the most sensitive and intelligent, their songs flowing freely across planes of emotion, enigmatic and veiled behind murmured sentiment. [Kate Allvey]
With an intro as dreamy as the hillside view, Coheed and Cambria glide onstage. The keenest fans caught their mini-Forest stage set this morning, but the biggest stages are where we expect to see Coheed’s space operas presented in their fullest. ‘Goodbye Sunshine’, their recent single, is unveiled in all its power rock glory, sparkling as brightly as the iconic glittery Trees sign at the top of the hill, extended out for full vocal appreciation. It’s all about the classic rock guitar for Coheed tonight, and there’s something oddly inspiring about how their complex, prog-lite sound can unite everyone from girls in Eras Tour shirts and grandparents in bucket hats alike to rapt appreciation of Claudio Sanchez’s vision. The focus on ‘The Father of Make Believe’ cements their latest album as the last necessary brick in becoming the stadium rockers they were born to be. [Kate Allvey]
2025 has truly been the summer of reunions – but while Oasis and Black Sabbath made most of the headlines, tonight’s show heralds the unlikely return of Million Dead, catching the attention of post-hardcore fans in the Gloucestershire area at the very least. They didn’t so much break up as self-destruct, with the band going their separate ways back in September 2005. Now, twenty years later, and owing in no small part to frontman Frank Turner’s cult-like appeal in the strange bubble of this festival, they’re back for one more hurrah. Now a five-piece, featuring both Cameron Dean and Tom Fowler on guitar (who have never actually been in the band at the same time), they emerge to feverish applause, before launching into a slightly abridged version of ‘The Rise and Fall’.
With only two full length records to their name, Turner wryly acknowledges that the setlist is likely to feature most of the songs that people want to hear, and indeed the hour-long communion includes all the expected singles as well as some B-Sides, all now with fleshed-out instrumentation courtesy of the twin-guitar attack. It’s also great to hear the band confident enough in each other’s company to enjoy some self-deprecating humour. Turner makes a few tongue-in-cheek comments about how hard it is to replicate the vocal range he had in his youth after two decades, but aside from asking the crowd to step in to replace drummer Ben Dawson’s blood-curdling scream on ‘Pornography for Cowards’, everything is delivered faithfully. The chorus of ‘Living the Dream’ soars up into the roof of the tent and the closing salvo of ‘I Am the Party’ and ‘Smiling at Strangers on Trains’ predictably has fists in the air and all hell breaking loose down in the front.
After breaking up before they could ever grace 2000 Trees the first time around, they finally made this stage their rubicon. Welcome back, Million Dead. We missed you. I think you missed us, too. [Rob Dand]
As the torturous tyranny of the sun subsides, it’s clear that despite today’s 33-degree heat, the real Hell on Earth scenario is now unfolding inside the Cave. Bathing the tent in a sinister red and orange glow, simulating the unholy ambience of last year’s debut full-length ‘Devoured by the Mouth of Hell’, Heriot cultivate an oppressive atmosphere of their own making – and they are in no mood for winding things down. Vocalist and guitarist Debbie Gough is in a particularly demanding mood. She shreds like a demon and continuously calls for more pit action like a woman possessed by another woman who is also possessed. Their twelve song set is practically relentless in its intensity, with only the brooding ‘Opaline’ offering much in the way of relative relief. As they pull down the curtain with a riot-inducing rendition of ‘At the Fortress Gate’, just three years after opening this same stage, the appreciation in the crowd is a reminder of how confident and sharp the band have become in such a short space of time. A triumphant and commanding headline slot. [Rob Dand]
Exhausted children are wheeled in wagons to the main arena as we stream in for the day’s dessert, chanting along as ‘A Decade Under The Influence’ punctuates our footsteps. Adam Lazzara flings his mic, posing elegantly, as ‘What’s It Feel Like To Be A Ghost?’ grips us, the post punk whirls of ’S’Old’ spiralling into the darkening sky like a promise. Their “love song, if you will”, ‘The One’ soars a rough edge to Lazzara’s voice before hopeful synths devastate in the slowed instrumental. ‘My Blue Heaven’ pulls together everything we hoped from their set as it moves magnetically through crashing riffs and raw emotion
Whether they’re offering up gigantic choruses to bind us together or keeping it tender and personal on ‘Amphetamine Smiles’, Taking Back Sunday offer us a mature and memorable finish to the day, full of heart and class, dealing out everything from lighters -up moments and fists punching the air to breakdowns for dance moves and pure emotional release. There can’t be any complaints about this one-off spectacular: “We hope all your dreams come true,” Lazzara wishes before ‘MakeDamnSure’ and he just might have fulfilled that before he even finished his sentence. [Kate Allvey]
Words: Kate Allvey and Rob Dand // Photos: Penny Bennett and Paul Lyme
Press Club
Melbourne’s Press Club are one of a handful of Australian bands at Trees this weekend, and their breezy indie-punk has an undercurrent of warmth that makes them perfect main stage material. They’re arriving at Upcote Farm at the tail end of a mammoth European run in support of album four, ‘To All The Ones That I Love’, but this is a classic festival set, drawing from all corners of their back catalogue over just seven songs. The new record’s title track translates particularly well, and a glorious few minutes of cloud cover during jubilant set closer ‘Suburbia’ managing to inspire a lung-busting singalong from pockets of the crowd. Frontwoman Natalie Foster leaps with enviable vitality across the stage monitors and down toward the barrier, a captivating presence at the spearhead of a band who have no doubt just won over a host of new fans, thousands of miles from home. [Rob Dand]
Blackgold
Taking Slipknot’s lead, Blackgold’s masked rap-metal shakes the main stage awake. ‘One Chance’ channels Limp Bizkit with a more serious streak, acknowledging their nu metal lineage with an assertive update. The demand a lot from their fans but they give a lot back through spot on lyrics and feral bass that could tunnel through the hillside. Dropping in hip hop megamixes, they get those determined to brave the sun bouncing furiously. [Kate Allvey]
Hail the Sun
Hail the Sun are good friends with tonight’s co-headliners Coheed and Cambria, and you can hear it in their sound too. At times, the Californian quintet’s technical post-hardcore sound is so post it’s almost pre-something else, pairing notes of Circa Survive and At the Drive-In with their pals’ penchant for the theatrical. Vocalist and occasional drummer Donovan Melero operates primarily in the higher register, and he has some great mic-throwing moves that would give tonight’s other co-headliners Taking Back Sunday a run for their money, but his performance feels primal rather than choreographed. Their energetic set leans most heavily on latest full length, 2023’s ‘Divine Inner Tension’, but there’s also a partial cover of Tears for Fears’ ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ and an airing for new single ‘The Drooling Class’. Six albums into their career, it’s something of a surprise that Hail the Sun aren’t held in higher regard in the UK, but this memorable set in front of a curious (if not rapturous) Axiom crowd won’t have done their stock any harm at all. [Rob Dand]
Coilguns
Within the space of two songs, Coilguns frontman Louis Jucker has broken his microphone whilst on a foray into the crowd. His equipment is replaced, but the band also grapple with a temperamental guitar cable throughout the set. Jucker displays all the hallmarks of an eccentric and passionate character, sometimes appearing agitated by the delays, but he is always quick to smooth things over with the crew after each interruption. He repeatedly expresses his gratitude to the crowd simply for turning up, giving the mic over to the front row on more than one occasion to fill time, and unlike most other bands appearing in the Cave this weekend, demands very little from them in return.
The set itself feels gleefully loose; not quite erupting into full chaos, but entertainingly dynamic. Songs from last year’s excellent full-length ‘Odd Love’ dominate, and Jucker is keen to point out the meaning of the album’s title. He speaks about the importance of embracing our differences, and hammers the point home by warmly embracing as many people in the crowd as time will allow, before himself instigating the moshpit that accompanies their final song. All in a day’s work. [Rob Dand]
Frank Turner
Show number 3054 sees the spirit of 2000 Trees distilled into a worshipful Forest stage. Frank Turner’s been a staple of the Trees experience since its inception, but to hear his seminal ‘Live Ire and Song’ in its entirety, solo and acoustic, is something beyond special for Turner’s many fans. The power invested in every chord of ‘Better Man’ smoulders, and the goosebumps raising on our sunburnt shoulders during the title track feel more than real as we punch the air, each lyric a roared psalm. Re-presenting this album is a sublime, and one that means a huge amount to the FTHC faithful. We’ve been on a long journey with Turner and we’re proud to be here with him at his adopted home. [Kate Allvey]
Trashboat
Over on the main stage, Trashboat are keeping it heavy and current, switching between charismatic chorus and empassioned screams through ‘Be Someone’. Their new album is on their minds, and we’re delighted to hear Tobi Duncan’s “personal favourite” track, ‘Filthy Wretches’, in all its blazing ferocity. Paying tribute to the crowd sticking it out in the heat, ‘Shape’ clatters energetically, rewarding our patience. Trashboat strike such a great balance between grunge and heaviness, never succumbing to either, and making the main stage all their own. Self acceptance is their mantra and they preach it through gloriously original noise. [Kate Allvey]
La Dispute
Opening with spoken word poetry is a bold move, but La Dispute’s desolate post-hardcore charm resonates perfectly with the idyllic Forest Stage. Their descent into howls and delicacy on guitar sparks a gentle clap through the trees, ‘Environmental Catastrophe Film’ taut and absorbing. From among the many acts claiming a ‘hardcore’ root to their sound, La Dispute stand out as the most sensitive and intelligent, their songs flowing freely across planes of emotion, enigmatic and veiled behind murmured sentiment. [Kate Allvey]
Coheed and Cambria
With an intro as dreamy as the hillside view, Coheed and Cambria glide onstage. The keenest fans caught their mini-Forest stage set this morning, but the biggest stages are where we expect to see Coheed’s space operas presented in their fullest. ‘Goodbye Sunshine’, their recent single, is unveiled in all its power rock glory, sparkling as brightly as the iconic glittery Trees sign at the top of the hill, extended out for full vocal appreciation. It’s all about the classic rock guitar for Coheed tonight, and there’s something oddly inspiring about how their complex, prog-lite sound can unite everyone from girls in Eras Tour shirts and grandparents in bucket hats alike to rapt appreciation of Claudio Sanchez’s vision. The focus on ‘The Father of Make Believe’ cements their latest album as the last necessary brick in becoming the stadium rockers they were born to be. [Kate Allvey]
Million Dead
2025 has truly been the summer of reunions – but while Oasis and Black Sabbath made most of the headlines, tonight’s show heralds the unlikely return of Million Dead, catching the attention of post-hardcore fans in the Gloucestershire area at the very least. They didn’t so much break up as self-destruct, with the band going their separate ways back in September 2005. Now, twenty years later, and owing in no small part to frontman Frank Turner’s cult-like appeal in the strange bubble of this festival, they’re back for one more hurrah. Now a five-piece, featuring both Cameron Dean and Tom Fowler on guitar (who have never actually been in the band at the same time), they emerge to feverish applause, before launching into a slightly abridged version of ‘The Rise and Fall’.
With only two full length records to their name, Turner wryly acknowledges that the setlist is likely to feature most of the songs that people want to hear, and indeed the hour-long communion includes all the expected singles as well as some B-Sides, all now with fleshed-out instrumentation courtesy of the twin-guitar attack. It’s also great to hear the band confident enough in each other’s company to enjoy some self-deprecating humour. Turner makes a few tongue-in-cheek comments about how hard it is to replicate the vocal range he had in his youth after two decades, but aside from asking the crowd to step in to replace drummer Ben Dawson’s blood-curdling scream on ‘Pornography for Cowards’, everything is delivered faithfully. The chorus of ‘Living the Dream’ soars up into the roof of the tent and the closing salvo of ‘I Am the Party’ and ‘Smiling at Strangers on Trains’ predictably has fists in the air and all hell breaking loose down in the front.
After breaking up before they could ever grace 2000 Trees the first time around, they finally made this stage their rubicon. Welcome back, Million Dead. We missed you. I think you missed us, too. [Rob Dand]
Heriot
As the torturous tyranny of the sun subsides, it’s clear that despite today’s 33-degree heat, the real Hell on Earth scenario is now unfolding inside the Cave. Bathing the tent in a sinister red and orange glow, simulating the unholy ambience of last year’s debut full-length ‘Devoured by the Mouth of Hell’, Heriot cultivate an oppressive atmosphere of their own making – and they are in no mood for winding things down. Vocalist and guitarist Debbie Gough is in a particularly demanding mood. She shreds like a demon and continuously calls for more pit action like a woman possessed by another woman who is also possessed. Their twelve song set is practically relentless in its intensity, with only the brooding ‘Opaline’ offering much in the way of relative relief. As they pull down the curtain with a riot-inducing rendition of ‘At the Fortress Gate’, just three years after opening this same stage, the appreciation in the crowd is a reminder of how confident and sharp the band have become in such a short space of time. A triumphant and commanding headline slot. [Rob Dand]
Taking Back Sunday
Exhausted children are wheeled in wagons to the main arena as we stream in for the day’s dessert, chanting along as ‘A Decade Under The Influence’ punctuates our footsteps. Adam Lazzara flings his mic, posing elegantly, as ‘What’s It Feel Like To Be A Ghost?’ grips us, the post punk whirls of ’S’Old’ spiralling into the darkening sky like a promise. Their “love song, if you will”, ‘The One’ soars a rough edge to Lazzara’s voice before hopeful synths devastate in the slowed instrumental. ‘My Blue Heaven’ pulls together everything we hoped from their set as it moves magnetically through crashing riffs and raw emotion
Whether they’re offering up gigantic choruses to bind us together or keeping it tender and personal on ‘Amphetamine Smiles’, Taking Back Sunday offer us a mature and memorable finish to the day, full of heart and class, dealing out everything from lighters -up moments and fists punching the air to breakdowns for dance moves and pure emotional release. There can’t be any complaints about this one-off spectacular: “We hope all your dreams come true,” Lazzara wishes before ‘MakeDamnSure’ and he just might have fulfilled that before he even finished his sentence. [Kate Allvey]
