Slam Dunk 2014

In today's transatlantic battle for supremacy, the home team kick off proceedings, as Canterbury dust the cobwebs off the main stage with a dedication of 'Wrapped In Rainbows' to the glorious weather. Meanwhile, Philadelphia's Modern Baseball draw an enormous crowd under the floor-to-ceiling windows of the sweltering Atticus stage, their recent Real Friends support slot clearly aiding their rise. Or perhaps it's the momentary Slayer cover.

Over in the shadowy confines of The Forum, Decade find themselves incessantly plagued by dodgy guitar straps and throat infections, hampering what could have been a wonderful showcase of January's criminally underrated 'Good Luck'.

No such troubles face Gnarwolves, who dive straight into a thunderous 'Melody Has Big Plans', instantly inspiring the biggest sing-a-longs of the whole day. Storming through the dodgy sound, the echoes keep coming, a clearly overwhelmed Thom Weeks leaving much of the vocal duties to the enormous crowd they've drawn. Trialling both new material and the first major setlist revision since the 2012 release of 'Cru', the band are clearly blown away by the speed and scale of their rise. "We didn't think it was going to be like this," grins Weeks, and they leave the stage having taken yet another huge leap forward.

Back in the sweatbox of the Atticus stage, State Champs are lumbered with numerous painful screeches of feedback and mic cut outs. These setbacks only slightly taint a set fuelled by a furiously effervescent crowd, their polished American pop-punk contrasting wonderfully with the sheer Britishness of the queues of crowd surfers that form as each skyward fan hovers in the air, awaiting their turn to be lifted away by the overworked security staff.

Motion City Soundtrack are a band who thrive on such contrasts, their saccharine pop rock disguising a wealth of lyrical darkness. Indeed, as the old guard take to the main stage under a setting summer sun, the irony of a tanned and smiling throng singing about how they want to "get fucked up and die" is lost on most. What isn't lost is the level of their influence, particularly as they close with two of the scene's biggest hits in 'Attractive Today' and 'Everything Is Alright' - the latter's atypical positivity ending the set in rare high spirits.

Suffering from the all-too-common plague of the acoustic artist, Rob Lynch is sadly swamped by a vile amount of talking. Thankfully he goes on to win out, as the faithful few singing along at the front begin to drown out those behind. Something particularly special then follows, as the first ever UK trip from You, Me and Everyone We Know inspires frenzied sing-a-longs and an overwhelmed frontman in the form of a newly sober Ben Liebsch. Having peddled an innovative and idiosyncratic form of pop-rock since 2007, the anticipation for Liebsch's eventual trip to these shores creates a buzz around this tucked-away corner of the festival that is matched by few. He hints at a potential return to the UK with a newly formed third full-band incarnation, but for now those in the know are just happy to hear songs that many thought would never hit these stages.

letlive., meanwhile, are hitting anything but the stage. Jason Butler storms around the confines of the union's car park - climbing fences, surfing inflatable mattresses and diving headfirst into the crowd on numerous occasions. Their audience reciprocate, the seas of crowd surfers and gargantuan circle pits a marker of just how frenzied a movement like letlive.'s "word of mouth" ethos can become. Ending on an explosive 'Renegade 86', the band's reputation for live mania is entirely justified.

Closing the main stage is left to The All American Rejects, who - despite drawing a huge crowd - can't quite match the energy of the day. The odd misogynistic comment from frontman Tyson Ritter also hits a sour note amongst a crowd who can only really bring themselves to humour him through tracks from 2007's 'Move Along', each of which is bookended by drab cuts from later records.

No such trouble for Kids In Glass Houses, as they storm through a set comprised predominantly of debut album 'Smart Casual' in full, closing out both the festival and their career as they head towards hiatus. Embracing the influence they have had on the British scene in a way that avoids pretension and ego, Kids In Glass Houses and Slam Dunk Festival prove themselves perfect bedfellows. A wonderfully diverse celebration of a scene which thrives on its transatlantic identity, once again Slam Dunk proves that - as many of its participants have been trying to for years now - pop punk's not dead.

Tags: letlive., Slam Dunk, Festivals, Reviews, Live Reviews