Ayrshire’s Ecko have become cult heroes at the Shiiine On Weekender since their 2022 debut. Their rags-to-riches debut was a tough act to follow last year, but they still impressed. If the band remained at this level this year, it could only be considered a success. Could they go further still?
Pressure? What pressure?
Shoulders were loose, guitars were slung low, and this was a band with confidence oozing through their souls. On ‘Danny MacKenzie,’ frontman Jamie Warden moved with an ease not seen before. He stepped on the intensity when the power came on top and then eased off into a gentler, aloof mode, visibly allowing an aurora to build around him. Like all great frontmen, he wheeled away from the limelight when it was Matthew Welsh’s (lead guitarist) moment to shine.
A practice they doubled down on during ‘Play Pretend’ when Welsh became the lead singer for the first time. With Warden in such great form, heads turned rapidly. The most exciting band of the decade just added another intoxicating dimension to the band. Welsh's vocal snarled with bullish defiance, his incredulous Keith Richards-esque solo and Liam O’Connor’s career-best bassline crunching its way to glory set this band out so far ahead of the rest.
After the behemoth performance of the latest single ‘Let Go’, the band cut loose on ‘Think Three Times’. The perfect ying and yang of these two felt like a set closing pair for a long time. The violence of ‘Let Go’ tempered by the glee of ‘Think Three Times’ to send thousands home joyously became an inescapable image.
Ecko, three years into their Shiiine careers, played with the skill of a mainstage headliner. Pumping the room full of adrenaline on ‘Miss Hurricane’, and dipping it on ‘Sour’ to show their genius, Ecko propelled souls into the darkness and lifted them out via a haze of psychedelic immortality.
The main stage awaits!