2000Trees Friday review: Nova Twins and Bob Vylan bring sets to remember

Kickstarting our day with an early afternoon set on the main stage was Norwegian pop-punk group Sløtface. “Thank you for coming here early we love to see it,” says frontwoman Haley Shea. On a mission to wake this sparse crowd up, the band pulled out all the stops to bring the sound of summer to Trees with a setlist full of dreamy riffs, and nostalgic-sounding chorus lines.

A cheeky shred or two later and As December Falls has taken over mainstage with unhinged energy. Bringing melodic metalcore breakdowns from the get-go, the band weaved in snippets of their 2023 album Join The Club, including notable mentions ‘Alive’ and ‘Carousel.’ 

Image credit: Carla Mundy

Arriving more than fashionably late were alt-indie project Crawlers, who finally took to the stage at 4pm - almost 30 minutes past their set time. Opening with ‘I Don’t Want It,’ before they’d even gotten to the chorus the show was already leaning towards the disastrous side. The sound quality was awful, and the backing track was clearly disturbed. 

An eerie sound of a videotape unwinding played in the background, whilst Nova Twins waltz onto the stage, dressed to the 10s. Blaring into their hyper-charged 2020 release ‘Taxi,’ vocalist/guitarist Amy Love shortly followed up, “Where all my boss bitches at?” before slamming into helter-skelter ‘Cleopatra.’ 

Image credit: Carla Mundy

Nova’s revived Trees after a slightly chaotic Crawlers set, with protruding bass wobbles, hellish screams and kaleidoscopic production. Pulling out all the stops, Amy stunned with amazing screams in their obliterating single ‘Antagonist.’ Crowd surfing whilst maintaining awesome guitar shreds, Nova’s wrapped up their set with an annihilating outro for ‘Choose Your Fighter.’ 

Ready to give us everything they had for their last show as a band, Palm Reader tore the roof off of The Cave with an outstanding and emotional last-ever performance.  “Make some noise for yourselves 2000Trees. You’re one of the reasons this band lasted 13 years” frontman Josh Mckeown beckoned. Emotions were high from the get-go of this set. Playing to a severely overspilled tent of screaming fans, it was clear just how sentimental this moment was for everyone involved. 

Image credit: Carla Mundy

Palm Reader dove into a dream setlist, playing snippets from their lockdown project Sleepless, including heavyweight cuts ‘Willow,’ ‘Hold/Release,’ and ‘Stay Down’ - which all went down with roaring success. As we crossed over to the main stage to catch our last set of the night, Bob Vylan were playing ‘Dream Big,’ with a special guest - Bobby Vylan’s daughter. “Give it up for little Moonrise Vylan, says Bobby. 

In standard Bob-Vylan-concert-style, the band sent the men to the back, and encouraged women and non-binary people to the front for their hard-hitting anti-misogyny banger, ‘He’s a Man.’ By which point the energy levels in this crowd were enormous. ‘Hunger Games,’ swiftly followed and went just as hard as mosh pits full of spin kicks and headbangs quickly emerged.  

Image credit: Joe Singh

A band that’s never been afraid to stand up for what they believe, on stage hung a Palestinian flag. After spinning into their hard-hitting single ‘Right Here,’ Bob Vylan encouraged a “Free free Palestine,” chant from the audience. 

“Thank you very much Vylan Fest,” says Bobby before joining the crowd for the chorus of ‘Wicked & Bad.’ Parting the audience like the Red Sea, the singer climbed onto the sound box to finish off the song and was crowd-surfed by screaming fans back to the stage. 

Arguably the best line-up of the weekend, Friday at 2000Trees was one to remember. Whether it be Nova Twins and Bob Vylan’s exhilarating main-stage performances or Palm Reader’s gripping farewell. 

Check out our What's On Guide to discover even more rowdy raves and sweaty gigs taking place over the coming weeks and months. For festivals, lifestyle events and more, head on over to our Things To Do page or be inspired by the event selections on our Inspire Me page.