Franz Ferdinand provide the pop, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs the roar on day one

T in the Park 2009 review

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T in the Park 2009

Friday 10th to Sunday 12th July 2009
Balado, nr Kinross. Scotland, KY13 0NJ, Scotland MAP
weekend £170 - SOLD OUT, day tickets Friday £60, and Saturday or Sunday £72.50

Daily capacity: 80,000

Franz Ferdinand arrive in front of a much bigger audience back on The Main Stage, as a plethora of flags flutter in the breeze and the Scottish heavyweights are given an enormous welcome.

They start with the lazy, disco pop of 'Do You Want To' and wheel out a string of more irritatingly catchy numbers – the sleazy funk-bass of recent single 'No You Girls' and earlier song 'This Fire'. The contrast between old and new is notable and it's clear just how much of a journey the band have made towards the centre of the pop universe.

Regardless, it's been a majorly successful strategy for them and comfortably the largest crowd of the weekend so far becomes one big disco dance floor throughout the early part of the set.

A quick dash away through the vast hordes, back at The Radio 1 NME Stage, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' striking giant, sparkling blue eye backdrop and stage props are staring out into the dusk.

While their most recent album 'It's Blitz' was a shift away from their frantically angular and at times slightly awkward earlier material to more contemplative, yearning territory and is beautifully brilliant as a result, they open here with a surprise choice – 'Sealings', from the Spider Man 3 soundtrack, a song more typical of their earlier work.

However, Karen O is soon tugging on the heart strings and picking from the band’s more recent work, as, dressed in Native American poncho and headdress, she powers through the excellent 'Cheated Hearts'.

The vocals and, indeed, the overall sound are a little quiet at first, but the volume picks up with It's Blitz's towering electronic opener 'Zero'. The giant eyeballs are let loose into the crowd, one of rock's most powerful, enchanting and entertaining performers pumps her fists does a tribal dance across the stage and wrings every last bit of enthusiasm from a crowd now firmly in the palm of her hand.

'Turn Into', with its tumbling toms and adoring vocal, is pleadingly, heartbreakingly gorgeous and the set's defining moment arrives on another new song 'Skeleton', again with Karen O sounding pained, mournful and delicate, as the East Kilbride Pipe Band march on stage to join the song's haunting outro to universal roars of approval.

The crowd respond, clapping out every beat of the intro to the massive 'Gold Lion' before a heartbreaking, stripped down slow take on the simmering 'Maps' gives way to the new album’s outstanding song - the dancy, infectious 'Heads Will Roll'.

There's time for a rip-roaring blast through 'Date With The Night' and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs depart to massive acclaim.

review by: Gary Walker

photos by: Louise Henderson