Welcome to Manchester, let’s be having you. For three days a collection of metal, prog rock, jazz and other genres including unique geeza-core were assembled in the 02 Victoria Warehouse, a few minutes’ walk away from the iconic Old Trafford Stadium, for a two-stage weekender of chaos inside a sweltering hot venue. Getting in was easy, quick and well-located – due to its close proximity to Old Trafford there are plenty of hotels away, and Radar itself is only a few tram stops away from Manchester Piccadilly, or a Taxi if you’re feeling generous. Manchester furthermore is really accessible from the South – a quick Avanti Superfare made sure my ticket up there was super cheap in an age when internal UK travel is increasingly pricey.
But enough about the journey, we’re here for the music, and Radar delivered. My first artist was Ichika Nito (regrettably, I wasn’t able to catch Giant Walker but did get tickets to their London gig later in the week), “the hottest guitarist in the world right now”; and ranked number eight in the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time” by the readers of Total Guitar, which is no small accomplishment. His lowkey, almost life-affirming energy started the festival with a contemplative, inward-gazing look; but that mood didn’t stay for long – Vower immediately followed on the smaller Sneak Stage, a band who were given 40 minutes a set list but only had 4 songs out, and a titanic feat for some, but they slayed – creating the chaotic energy that set the tone for the rest of the weekend. Then it was back across the main stage to one of my most anticipated acts of the festival, Vola, their 2022 album Witness continuing to be a delight and the Danish (with one Swede) band feels like a shock to the system. I caught them afterwards walking through the middle of a photoshoot and they were nice enough to say hi – pure energy that had me carrying my way through to the final day as maybe, my favorite band of the festival.
No rest for the wicked, it was off to the intense vocals of metalcore band Thrown – one of the best things about Radar was that you could have not missed a single act playing over the weekend if you had to. Thrown’s mad vocals and pure psyched up energy established them as a band to watch and leaned into the festival’s sheer ability to find unchecked, raw new talent that feels incredibly accomplished. They went hard – it was so good to see nights perform live, and the moshes got things started left right and center. Forming in 2021 their enigmatic stage presence made them a signature of night one, capturing intense violence in a crowd pleasing, safe way – designed to ramp up the energy. Safe to say Radar was not messing around – because it was then back to the main stage for Plini seconds later – barely time to stop for food, and good call too, the beer was out by the end of the first day and the IPA had ran out before the festival had even started – Radar perhaps underestimated the popularity of their two-pint jugs, a great invention, but meant that by the Saturday, the wells had been drained as early as 8pm. Whilst we’re here the food prices were rather limiting and absurd even for an 02 venue, £9 for cheesy chips felt extortionate, as did the £4 for instant coffee, and the limitations of a pizza and chips or a chicken burger for the whole three days made popping to the nearby co-op practically essential.
The headliner after Plini – if guitarists are your speed, there were plenty of them on Friday night, and Caskets, both excellent, on the Friday was The Midnight, who were one of my previewed-acts for the festival and they more than delivered; an LA-based synth band who brought the house down and proved to be a worthy contender for one of the headline sets. Their style seemed reminiscent of a Johnny Jewel-backed Italians Do It Better label, right at home with the likes of Desire and Chromatics. This was part of what made the festival so unique; their ability to switch between rising metalcore bands and synth artists with relative ease. There were a few there for The Midnight – but the dovetail into synth made for a nice, relaxing breather after the intensity of Thrown and Vola; who were my favorite of Friday.
Radar was an organization that listened to feedback with staff active in a discord chat for solo’ers and responded to criticism immediately; they wanted to improve at every turn and never once did I not feel like any feedback given by the community wasn’t heard. The strobe lighting was particularly intense for an indoors arena on the Friday and Saturday, nearly forcing headaches and requiring several between-set breaks outside, but this was rectified by the Sunday. The whole community was welcoming, a solo WhatsApp chat made the evening delightful and we went dressed up as Nuns on the Saturday – attracting many odd looks from the residents of Manchester on our mercifully short journey from the hotel to the venue, and that allowed for one of the most entertaining festival days I’ll ever experience – it was too hard to resist a mosh that formed a prayer-circle around our number; and then witnessing a nun crowd surfing with a cross in hand may have been one of the coolest experiences of the festival. There were around eighteen of us in total and the message sent to others in our number: “come and find me I’m wearing a nun costume” didn’t narrow it down that evening. You’d have better luck finding the solitary mime; or one guy who was wearing a Taylor Swift Eras Tour Hoodie at a metal concert. Costumes weren’t as proficient as 2,000 Trees but were inventive and numerous all the same. I got dragged to the afterparty on Friday which may in hindsight have been a mistake as I’d been up since 5:30am, going hard on six pints by that point; although more was consumed elsewhere, and got dragged to an Afterparty in Satan’s Hollow, central Manchester – for an evening of emocore.
I had just about enough energy for the smooth poppy vibes of Tribe of Ghosts, who offered something unique to the heavy with a blend of electronic for an intense, claustrophobic start to Day Two of Radar. They drew influences from Charli XCX and SOPHIE – connection and catharsis is the Brighton band’s energy and combining Charli’s BRAT summer with post-metal is an idea that shouldn’t really work, but it does. Back onto the first act of the main stage for Kyros; and Saturday was very much the afternoon for rock and synth pop and that was the vibes that delivered superbly. Shouts of “woos” broke the silence throughout the day getting higher and higher in intensity. Then, the smaller stage gave us Seething Akira, another of my previewed bands, who should and could’ve easily been a headliner. The Portsmouth-based band riffed rock, rap and harmonica in a crowd-pleasing way that featured eight songs of pure madness. Something in the Water a highlight of a blockbustery short but sweet setlist; almost too big for such a stage – which ran into problems for size issues and hopefully will be larger next year, although the screen towards the back was appreciated for those not in the mosh.
I also loved Ithaca, a main stage highlight, but the highlight of the Archtype Stage for me on the Saturday was the raw energy of Heart of a Coward. Their mosh was intense and super fun to get involved in; so chaotic that coupled with the Friday night chaos it almost did me in for the rest of the festival – they’re on tour with Humanity’s Last Breath, another Radar act – look out for individually touring acts in your nearest city as there’s quite a few of them dotted about the UK, and I’m strongly tempted to see them again which is the highest praise I can offer a band so soon. I missed Graphic Nature, who led a rallying cry for the neurodivergents, but recovered for Car Bomb, equally intense as Heart of a Coward and one of the highlights of the festival. Dirty Loops provided a much-needed cool down, and the perfect stop-gap – whoever did the planning at Radar has to be commended for knowing precisely when the moshers will run out of steam, but that didn’t stop them from thriving – and on top of that, producing two Justin Bieber covers – of course; encouraging the crowd to mosh during Baby, and then going into Roller Coaster. Hell of a ballsy move, and the crowd ate it up. I was on the verge of calling it a night through TesseracT – the headliner of Saturday, given how tired I was by then, but their sheer passion kept me going through the live debuts of Tender and Sacrifice, with Legion being one of the best songs of the festival. Their Encore of War of Being capped off night two, and it was a real treat for the die-hards – getting to witness the outro of Of Mind – Nocturne played live for the first time.
And then came Sunday. By this point, tiredness had overcame and I caved for my first £4 coffee – incredibly, lasting 3 days without one. But it was the shock to the system that I needed – and I stayed, and arguably, saved the best day for last. Because what a day! What a lovely, lovely day. I got there for Adharma after catching up with friends for the last day and I’m glad I did, because the modern/classic fusion of minimalist but by no means quiet sound felt triumphant in their short but intimate set-list. The Omnific were incredible too; debuting with progressive, entrancing music that summed up the entire weekend perfectly – a chaotic swing for the fences unafraid to push boundaries. It was impressive that we lasted until the last day without a dropout or a cancellation, such is the impressive organization of the Radar team to pull everything together when bigger festivals have had had more high-profile cancellations in the past without replacements (One day, FKA Twigs will perform at Primavera Sound) but it’s to the absolute credit of madcap geeza core Pintglass stepped in at such a last minute notice to replace Siamese, especially having pulled double duties following their show at Rebellion for the afterparty the night before.
Lots of “I say Geeza, you say Geeza” chants filled the room, and the sheer infectious energy was hard to resist – the masked high-vis band members must have been sweltering in that heat, and their energy gave us one of the best sets of the whole festival. They look scary on stage – but a quick fist-bump with their lead frontman moments later confirmed that they’re the sort of scary-band that are super nice in person. This proved a bit surreal as on top of Pintglass and Vola I also bumped into Future Static’s frontwoman Amariah Cook leaving Pintglass – their set earlier in the day was so good that I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to see them again in London later in the week – and at £11, you should too – they’re one of the rising stars on the Australian new metal scene and will be touring Liminality – their debut album; and their songs like Roach Queen are unmissable. Wall of Sound told us “there is a massive future awaiting this band…” and they couldn’t be more right. Hell of an energy! Few festivals make it clearer that the artists involved are fans of their colleagues, and fewer festivals can provide a better chance for interacting with people on a one-on-one basis – everyone’s here to have a good time and you are, too. If you don’t, I’ll be very surprised.
Rounding out my Sunday – I was long past gone to see Leproux, the closing headliner, but with a 3:50am start the following day booking tickets to their January gig in London was probably the better call to make, were the ferocious Blood Command, (Welcome to the Next Level Above Human gave an aura of chaos) with the band on double duties at Arctangent festival in Somerset (not Bristol, as much as it advertises, it’s closer to Weston-Super-Mare), next month – proving just how good a fusion of Norwegian-Australian musicians can be. This was an emotional journey for them; with front-woman Nikki Brumen making sure that their World Domination album really gave them just that, World Domination – on stage, having time for an Oscars-level speech about their emotional journey from a small venue to performing at the best prog rock festival in the UK. And the best prog rock festival in the UK, Radar is – you’ll find no greater selection of rising stars anywhere and no more wholesome and welcoming a crowd. It’s a community that felt listened and heard – and made sure it will be a regular appointment on my festival circuit for many years to come.
My closing band at Radar, not a headliner, but with the energy of one then – was Holding Absence, following the jazz-fused energy of Sungazer, who put on a hell of a show after difficulties pre-arrival, with many fearing they’d drop out – the balance of calm-heavy-calm continuing throughout all three days – an eclectic mix indeed. And Holding Absence were a delight – giving us twelve songs that made me a fan instantly, performing tracks ranging from Like a Shadow to Wild to Curse Me With Your Kiss.
Early bird tickets are available now – and with a lineup this good this year, full of breakout new talent and fan favourites, you’d be hard pressed to ignore them. Manchester should be a staple on your festival circuit amongst the bigger names, and offers a welcome respite from the camp-fest heavy festivities to come in August.
Pictures courtesy of official Radar Festival photographers.
You might also like…
Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band 2024 at Wembley Stadium
Review: 2000 Trees Shows Bigger Festivals How It Should Be Done