Gengahr bring a magnetic set to Reading 2015

Reading resorts to bedlam whatever the circumstances. If a band plays five solid notes at a decent speed, hands are raised and the apocalypse awaits. Festival spirit - acting like a loon and forgetting how to dance but not giving a crap - is amplified here, hence why it remains a go-to source for all things bonkers.

It’s a tricky feat to follow with Gengahr, whose songs always swerve in unexpected directions. Just when the reach a manic climax, they’ll shift again and ease things out. That’s the way of their debut album ‘A Dream Outside’. But this being Reading, crowds still know how to respond when the game is upped.

All-out hedonism doesn’t arrive with their mid-afternoon Festival Republic set, but bit-by-bit Gengahr become more magnetising as they progress. ‘Embers’ sees frontman Felix Bushe shifting from his traditional falsetto into something sharper and more pronounced, and the band’s calling card of precision gives way to berserk crescendos with ‘Bathed in Light’ and ‘Powder’. It still feels like half the time, people aren’t sure how to react to a band mixing softly-softly builds and a sinister cutting edge. Pits don’t open up, but then that would be odd, even at Reading.