After a perfect day had already passed, Saturday soon rolled around. History in the making with a set from Dave, as well as many other incredible artists to discover – Leeds Festival always gets the line up just right.
Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes – 12:00 @ Main Stage East
No other artist can perform like Frank Carter live. After long gaining a notoriety for unexpected crowd interaction and an adrenaline-fuelled performance, expectations were high for his performance. Carter noted that he’s been attending for 20 years and playing for 15 years, which is why they always understand the assignment – complete organised chaos.
After a ferocious start with ‘My Town’, Carter was soon diving into crowd and was almost vertical during their performance of ‘Sticky’. Opening the biggest mosh pits possible, ‘Wildflowers’ was made a safe space for women and non-binary fans, with men ordered to the sides. He wanted them to be the safest of the weekend and proved his commitment to his pengagum – both on and off the stage. Holding the note for ‘cursed’ and telling the crowd that we came here to have the best day of our lives, Carter screaming, “Are you ready?”, fired the audience up for the finale.
Arms flailing and mosh pits galore for ’Take It to the Brink’. As a member of the crowd shouts to Carter, “I love you”, he replies: “I love you too”. As always he has impeccable stage communication with the crowd. Jumping off the drum kit platform for ‘Lullaby’, the unpredictability of his performance is what draws you in.
Explaining to the crowd about how he had a wardrobe malfunction yesterday and how it wasn’t going to be repeated, it was met with booing from the crowd. He candidly reminded them that we’ve all got Google. Telling the crowd to hold him and guitarist, Deano mid-way through ‘Devil Inside Me’, there was circle pits galore. Always humble and never straying from his roots, he asked the crowd to put their hands together for some very important people – the security, guitar techs and everyone involved backstage and behind-the-scenes.
Finishing with ‘Crowbar’ was the perfect choice – it’s a track about finding yourself, which Carter himself stated it was “something I know a lot about”. Belting out the words, “People everywhere will try to bring you down, those jealous motherfuckers they will try and take your crown.” Throwing the mic stand to the back of the stage and taking a photo of the crowd for posterity, the crowd chanted for an encore but alas it wasn’t to be. We’ll all just have to book tickets for their next show to relive the moment.