Describe in a Tweet: The perfect Saturday wake up call.
What Happened: Violins and Moogs, cellos and guitars, choirs and drum kits. It might not seem like the most natural combination but Trinity Orchestra are an annoyingly talented bunch of students, treating us to renditions of songs from one of the most famous acts currently performing today. Roll over, Beethoven. It's a fairly breathless start as we're treated to reinventions of One More Time and Harder Better Faster Stronger that obviously owe a lot to their electronic counterparts but they aren't simple carbon copies. Crescendos and diminuendos are snuck in here and there and the live brass adds a real punchy nature to the songs, while the strings can add a beautiful layer to a track or simply accompany the up-tempo tunes without distracting the masses from the melodies. There's a decent crowd at this main stage performance and that may have contributed to the orchestra's nerves: once or twice things seem to go off track and the vocals for the most part are poor in comparison to the sterling performances from the rest of the musicians. Special praise, however, must be reserved for the lead guitarist as he effortlessly reeled off the signature mazy guitar solo from Aerodynamic that received rapturous applause. It's something refreshingly different and in a sense sums up this festival quite well, taking the odd risk to create something crowd pleasing and enjoyable.
Swoon: Guitar solos aside, the finale Too Long justifies the presence of the dozen or so choir members knocking around on stage, with most of the crowd singing along with the refrain and the the lead male vocalist finally stepping up to the mark. Just a lovely way to sign off a performance: the medley of tracks as the orchestra's "encore" was nice but this was the pinnacle of this set.
Funeral: There were a few sound problems (notably the strings being drowned out at times by the overenthusiastic guitars) but the vocals for the first half were disappointing: the confidence that's necessary for an act to perform on the main stage at a major festival like this simply wasn't there. It's the only major black mark against this performance.
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