TENEMENT TRAIL is over for another year and it’s fair to say that the 2025 edition will surely do down as one of the best in the festival’s storied history. Music fans turned out in their droves on Saturday 11th October for Scotland’s biggest and best music festival of discovery and a line-up that was bustling with talent from the very first note.
Over fifty acts performed across nine venues at the special 2025 edition, as we once again took over some of the nation’s best-loved venues such as the world-famous Barrowlands, Saint Luke’s and the stunning Barras Art and Design.
And with a line-up brimming with local talent as well as a vast array of hotly-tipped prospects from further afield, Glasgow’s East End was definitely the place to be on Saturday as it was brought to life by the festival’s famous atmosphere and spirit. Every venue was packed from the off as music fans dashed from gig to gig in the hope of discovering their new favourite band or artist.
So, with plenty of memorable moments scattered throughout the day, let’s look back on some of the highlights of Tenement Trail 2025, from us and you
Our first secret act of the day was none other than Glasgow’s Humour. Fresh from a performance at Oran Mor the previous night, the band reached capacity in Van Winkle early on – treating to some of the best material from their recently released debut album ‘Learning Greek’.
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Meanwhile, over in BAaD, our TENEMENT TRAIL competition winners Alcatraz blew the cobwebs away with an electrifying set full of heavy, moody rock anthems – swinging from dark, bluesy passages into soaring lead vocals and surging riffs. Playing in front of a packed room, they’re a band who show huge potential.
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BBC Introducing returned this year to host a stage in Barrowlands 2, featuring a wide array of talent including Theo Bleak, Matt White & The Emulsions, Tanzana and The Rooks. After a period away from the limelight, Theo Bleak made a welcome return to the festival – treating fans to some material from her most recent EP ‘Bad Luck Is Two Yellow Flowers’ and ‘Pain’. Known for her intimate, diaristic lyrics, her ethereal vocals held the crowd to attention in a set that was beautifully haunting and poignant.
As always at TENEMENT TRAIL, local talent fared very well with the likes of GIRLS.SPEAK.FRENCH and Fog Bandits drawing huge crowds at The Winged Ox and BAaD respectively – the former had fans queuing down the street outside St Lukes despite their early set time. Meanwhile, over at BAaD, The Zebecks were one of the main draws of the day in the airy venue, playing to a fervent crowd with a set full of punchy anthems and charisma. Outside, the vibrant atmosphere was bolstered by the addition of our SOUNDYSYSTEM DJs in The Backyard, with the likes of Gallus, Martha May and the Mondays, The Rooks and Sister Madds welcoming crowds by the box office with great tunes.
Of course, as well as strong local offering, this year’s touring cohort also made a striking impression. Perhaps one of the best discoveries of the day was FLETCHR FLETCHR. Hailing from Newquay, the band – featuring brothers Rohan Fletcher and Adam Sanders – played in front of a packed St Lukes with a gripping urgency and towering rock sound, channelling the likes of Sam Fender and Springsteen with soaring harmonies and sax interludes. Definitely a band to keep an eye on in future.
Over at Van Winkle, the spotlight was mainly on the strong Irish contingent who had made the pilgrimage to Glasgow – one of the most popular being Madra Salach. Having developed their craft in the pubs and intimate venues of Dublin, the band have started to grow a strong word-of-mouth following – boosted by the release of their gripping debut single ‘Blue & Gold’ last month. It was hard to take your eyes from frontman Paul Banks, whose magnetic delivery was the perfect foil for the band’s atmospheric Celtic folk arrangements. It made for a heartfelt and stirring set that channelled the energy of Lankum and the rawness of The Pogues – it’s safe to say the wait at the door was worth it for those lucky ones who made it in.
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Similarly, Dirty Faces from Derry were another big draw with a queue that tracked all the down the street. However, after a strong start, some technical difficulties got in the way. They approached it with humour and jokes though – and a spontaneous rendition of ‘I Am The Bogside Man’ which had the crowd singing in solidarity.
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Meanwhile, over at the Barras, Fright Years gained many new fans with their exquisite indie pop – soaring, emotive and beautifully cathartic, and featuring a huge anthemic crescendo for ‘Stars’. Also making their debut on the iconic stage were Glasgow punks Gallus whose prime 7pm slot attracted a huge crowd. With only 30 minutes to make their mark, the five-piece did exactly that – tearing through one pulse-racing anthem after another at breakneck speed and with an infectiously high energy that fed into the crowd. Swaggering through material from their debut album and their recent ‘Cool to Drive’ EP, it didn’t take long for the mosh pits to open and for frontman Barry Dolan to join them on the bouncy ballroom dancefloor. Three years on from their BAaD, it felt like a huge victory lap for the fast-rising band.
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Like a quick one-two hit, Dead Pony followed up with an equally rousing set that confirmed their status as one of the nation’s most exciting live acts. The four-piece have toured extensively since the release of their debut album ‘IGNORE THIS’ last year, and it showed. With their formidable frontwoman Anna Shields at the helm, their thumping alt-rock and nu-metal anthems hit hard in all the right places, inciting huge mosh pits from the off with their heavy riffs and pummelling rhythms. One of the highlights was undoubtedly a cover of Limp Bizkit’s ‘Break Stuff’ which featured Gallus frontman Barry Dolan and Count The Days’ Div Walls. Exhibiting everything we love about TENEMENT TRAIL, it created beautiful chaos both on and off the stage. Huge.
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Afterwards, our headline act Pale Waves played a note-perfect, career-spanning set that touched down on everything from old favourite ‘There’s a Honey’ to the more recent ‘Perfume’. Appropriately, the encore featured ‘Glasgow’, featuring Heather Baron-Gracie donning a saltire.
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Over at St Lukes at the same time, Soapbox unleashed unruly chaos. Topping off another huge year for the group which has seen them tour all over the UK and Europe, Dead Pony’s former tour buddies have graduated to a whole new level and are sure to follow in their footsteps. Adept at working a crowd, frontman Tom Rowan was barely on the stage – instead he spent large parts of the gig roaming around the floor of St Lukes and inciting pit after pit, conducting pure chaos against a backdrop of pummelling drums and muscular guitars. A couple of years on from their mid-afternoon slot in BAaD, Soapbox are now an entirely different beast with more power, more confidence and more swagger – and they look set to be the next band to put Glasgow punk on the map. And after climbing up the ranks of the festival’s line-up, they encapsulate everything that TENEMENT TRAIL is about. They were the worthy contenders for this year’s secret midnight set too – a secret that quickly made its away around the East End before the band brought the day to a rousing finale under the arch of McChuills.
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And just like that, Trail was done for another year. We’ll be back next year on Saturday 10th October with early bird tickets on sale here.
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photo by Victoria Sykes
