Reading 2013 Preview: Friday

By Tom Aylott

Green Day return to Reading/Leeds after their “secret” slot in 2013

This week, the final countdown to Reading festival will be all you’ll hear about from us. Sorry about that. Not really. Here’s the first of three preview of what bands we’re super excited about and also a playlist to get you in the mood. So, in no particular order, here are our top 10 for the Friday of Reading this year. You can find a 20 song playlist on the right of your screen!

01 Rx Bandits

It’s their first festival appearance in the UK for a LONG time, and after their set at the Barfly early on in the week, it’ll great to see how they take on the Lock Up Stage this year. The band are on of the all time great, underrated modern rock bands, and we can’t wait to see them back in action.

02 Green Day

“Wayoohhh”. “I said, Wayooohh”. If that sends shivers down your spine, then you’re probably best off avoiding Green Day, but otherwise, we’ve seen first hand that the band are a still force to be reckoned with live, so their headline set at Reading (their first since the ’50 Cent’ bottling incident of about a decade ago), should be pretty insane. You know what you’re getting, but you can’t call yourself a punk fan and be at Reading without checking out some of the classics.

03 Gnarwolves

Their first time ever playing Reading, Gnarwolves get the early slot on the Lock Up this Friday – so we’re planning on getting ourselves in early and making sure we see how they take on this massive step up – tracks from ‘Funemployed’ have been earning them plenty of new fans this summer on tours and other festivals, so hopefully the Reading crowd will be just as into it as we are!

04 Alkaline Trio

We’re not quite sure if we imagined it but we’re pretty sure that Alkaline Trio won’t be clashing with Green Day on Friday (the times get released tonight so we’ll see), but there’s little doubt that the band are in a great stretch of form and will worth watching regardless. Their new album is their best in a long time, and they’ve got a huge arsenal of hits to play. It should be a great place to see them as well, as they’ve always handled the tents at festivals better than the main stages!

05 New Found Glory

New Found Glory playing ‘Sticks And Stones’ in full. In the sun (we hope). On the main stage. Is there any better excuse for a good time? No. That is all.

06 Deftones

Deftones delivered another fantastic record last year in ‘Koi No Yokan’, and every time we’ve seen them play a massive sound, their performance has match their surroundings. They’re a band that’ll have no trouble filling their set with absolute bangers, so don’t miss out.

07 Quicksand

It’ll be the first time many of us at Team PT will have seen Quicksand in a long fucking time, and we’re hoping that the Lock Up stage treats the band well – even if you’re not that familiar with the band, get yourself in their to see Mr Shreifels and co – you won’t regret it for a second.

08 The Living End

We maintain that the best Living End song is the one you can find on the Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 soundtrack, but there’s very little doubt that the Aussie rockabilly punks will get the Lock Up stage bouncing on the Friday night at Reading – they’re a fucking riot live and one you’d have to be very silly to miss!

09 System Of A Down

Deftones into System Of A Down into Green Day is one of THE classic Reading main stage final threes (it really is), but we’ve got a sneaky suspicion that System Of A Down might just be the ones to watch this time out. Their headline performance at Download recently didn’t quite get an overwhelmingly positive response (we liked it, though), so it’ll be interesting to see what happens. Regardless – there’s some gigantic hits to be played by Serj Tankian and co, so it’ll be a fantastic watch.

10 FIDLAR

Our only pick from the Radio one stage for the Friday (you could go watch Skrillex if you want, probably), FIDLAR have been making quite the name for themselves recently, and you can be sure that they’ll want to impress in that MASSIVE tent. It could be a game changer for the band, and it’ll be great to see how they do to such a large crowd.

So! That’s our picks for the Friday of Reading 2013. Come back tomorrow for Saturday’s picks and let us know who you’re most looking forward to seeing via @punktastic and facebook/punktasticdotcom

TOM AYLOTT