Skindred arrive at Glastonbury having established themselves as a authentic enviornment headlining band with a profitable, mainstream crossover album to their identify. But the Avalon stage they headline this night is hardly one of many festivals’s largest tents. Skindred, although, as just about anybody who has ever attended a competition on this nation can attest to, don’t do unhealthy exhibits. Actually, they don’t even do common exhibits. What they do deliver, one thing even frontman Benji Webbe will admit, is similar factor time and again: “You’ll by no means be stunned and also you’ll by no means be disenchanted” he has mentioned beforehand.
However, though Skindred do undergo their standard repertoire this night, there’s clearly one thing about Glastonbury that has received them fired up. Sure, enjoying to a crowd of hardened metallic followers all able to do the Newport helicopter the second they stroll onstage is at all times killer. However confronted with loads of strangers wandering over from Dua Lipa or Fatboy Slim and nonetheless trying to occasion, Skindred get the bit between their enamel and ship what may simply be probably the most aggressive, spectacular and energetic present of their profession…and that’s Skindred we’re speaking about. Let that sink in.
New songs corresponding to Smile and Gimme That Growth sound unimaginable and add slightly one thing additional to the set: Arya Goggin batters his drums like Roger Taylor and Tony Thompson’s love youngster; Mikeydemus is peeling out riffs everywhere with archer-like precision; Dan Pugsley’s bass, absolutely The ‘Dred’s most underrated assault weapon, sounds beautifully dubby and classics like No one and Kill the Energy rule like they at all times do. However tonight belongs to Benji Webbe.
Completely within the dialog of best residing frontman, Benji refuses to take intrigue and apathy from the group this night, making everybody wave their fingers and bounce with their ragga-metal perfection. “I believed Glastonbury preferred to occasion on a Friday evening? “ he barks at one level.
By the point we get to Warning and the Newport Helicopter, jaws are on the ground. It’s straightforward to neglect simply how unimaginable a dwell band Skindred are after we metallic followers get to see them a lot, however witnessing them firing on all cylinders and with a transparent level to show in entrance of surprised onlookers unaware of what they had been strolling into is a few sight. It may need been the identical, but it surely additionally may simply be the best Skindred present of all time.