Three Bands to Watch at 2000trees Festival

Festival line-ups are vast, and it’s easy to spend so much time debating clashes between familiar names that the potential for smaller discoveries means they slip past unnoticed. But stumbling across an unknown band in a crowded tent, then emerging convinced everyone else needs to hear them, remains one of the chief joys of a festival weekend. It’s why we love festivals so much.

So to avoid Festival FOMO take our advice, because here are THE three (male) acts worth making room for at 2000trees 2026 (LAST FEW TICKETS GOING, GOING…)

Coming next… our top three female acts… watch this space. Can you guess who they might be?

Scustin

A couple of years ago we came home from Latitude with one band lodged firmly in our heads: Scustin.

But have they made it onto your radars yet?

Hailing from Bray in Ireland, they occupy a space somewhere between funk, indie rock and guitar punk. Republic of Loose are one possible comparison, but Scustin are already building a character entirely their own.

Imagine walking into a pub in deepest Dublin and becoming involved in a late-night conversation with a collection of local chancers, each carrying a Guinness-soaked philosophy on life and several stories you suspect have become less reliable with every retelling. Now put that conversation over tight drums, crisp guitars and particularly fine basslines, and you are somewhere close.

At the centre of it all is frontman Larry, who approaches each performance with a fresh idea so that no two shows are quite the same. At Latitude, he began the set as a disembodied voice drifting across the woodland Trailerpark Stage, speaking to the audience through a distant radio microphone before eventually emerging from one of the caravans surrounding it.

What followed was exactly what festivals should provide: a room full of people who had no idea what to expect being rapidly converted into a temporary, tightly knit community.

There is humour in Scustin, but they are not a novelty act. Beneath the stories and stagecraft is a band with the musical precision needed to make the whole thing move. Expect dancing, audience involvement and the strong possibility that you will spend the rest of the weekend telling strangers they should have been there.

Festival bookers ignore Scustin at their peril. Festival goers – insist your bookers book Scustin.

Lemonsuckr

Brighton’s Lemonsuckr first crossed our path in April 2025, opening a Club Klang!!! night hosted by local band Big Reference at The Piper in Hastings.

Turning up early for unknown support acts is usually a good habit. On this occasion, volunteering to operate the lights made it compulsory. As obligations go, it turned out rather well.

Lemonsuckr arrived with jagged guitars, blown-out bass and vocals that shifted between deadpan control and sudden release. Their tightly wound dance-indie sound felt slightly dangerous, veering through gnarled riffs, sharp rhythmic turns and bursts of melodic chaos. It was abrasive, physical and delivered with precision both onstage and among the crowd.

Their five-track EP, Life Is a Heist, captures much of that impact. Spotify’s algorithm places them in the unruly vicinity of Opus Kink, Adult DVD, Westside Cowboy, Getdown Services, Fujiya & Miyagi, The Fall, Mekons, Big Special and Sprints. Add Kid Kapichi, GANS and SNAYX from a more human perspective and the general territory becomes clearer.

Frontman Guy Ferris leads proceedings with a tambourine, cowbell and apparently renewable supply of kinetic energy. Guitarists Oscar and Ollie exchange serrated riffs and backing vocals, while Matt supplies the kind of relentless percussion normally associated with long-distance motor racing. Bassist Jake Andrews frequently adds another layer of low-end weight to the live line-up.

Forged, allegedly, in the claustrophobic acoustics of a rusty metal shipping container, Lemonsuckr sound largely uninterested in sanding down their rougher edges. They do not simply perform the songs. They sweat them out, drag them through the crowd and leave them steaming on the floor.

See them when you are angry with the world, happy with the world, or merely keen to test the structural integrity of a festival tent.

Native James

Native James is the performing identity of Aaron James, better known as AJ, whose music forces grime and metal to occupy the same space – but the result is anything but forced…

Kerrang!! raved about the result.

AJ grew up listening to artists including Ghetts, Dizzee Rascal and P Money, before Metallica and Iron Maiden began to infiltrate his musical world. The pivotal moment came through Linkin Park’s Crawling, which demonstrated to him that aggression, accessibility and vulnerability could coexist within the same song.

His own description of the Native James sound is particularly useful: two aggressors sitting at the same dinner table, recognising their shared tendencies and finding they can coexist. This is not simply metal instrumentation with bars sprayed over the top. The two forms are built into each other.

Tracks such as GTFU demonstrate the result, with AJ switching between vocal styles over menacing guitars. Material from the Confessions of a Sinner EP pushes further into that collision of worlds, drawing on grime, nu-metal and a considerable sense of theatre.

Onstage, Native James becomes what AJ describes as “a whole other entity”. He has spoken about entering an almost fugue-like state during performances, acting instinctively and remembering little afterwards. His support dates with letlive. provided a close-up lesson in how controlled chaos can draw anger, vulnerability and catharsis from an audience.

Native James brings intensity without feeling like an imitation. There’s weight behind the performance, but also thought, personality and an understanding that heaviness means little unless it carries some emotional force.

At 2000trees, he should feel very much at home.