August 22, 2009 23:07

MGMT thank fans for not seeing Oasis at V Festival Stafford show

Band fill out Stafford's Arena tent

Photo Gallery: MGMT

MGMT played an ecstatically received headline set at V Festival Stafford tonight (August 22), showcasing a number of unreleased songs and paying tribute to V Stage headliners Oasis during it.

Despite going head to head with Oasis, the New York band drew an impressive crowd to The Arena, packing the tent out with ease.

Singer Andrew VanWyngarden made reference to the Gallagher brothers before playing 'Of Moons, Birds & Monsters', saying: "We're not saying this in a bad way, but thanks for not seeing Oasis!"

The band had the crowd in raptures even before they'd plugged their instruments in, as they came onstage to the music from ’The Pink Panther’, which much of the audience sang along to.

VanWyngarden, wearing shorts and a blue jacket, launched straight into MGMT fan favourite 'Piece Of What', orchestrating a huge singalong from the audience as he did so. The band followed that with 'Electric Feel', which had the packed tent waving their hands in the air. After taking a sip of sparkling water, the singer lead the band into 'Destrikk', which was followed by new track 'It's Working'.

Later in their set, a frenzied version of 'Time To Pretend' saw the stage lights turned on the audience, showing a sea of glowsticks and fans singing along. MGMT followed the song by playing another new track, 'Song For Dan Treacy'.

'Kids', which was played during the encore, saw VanWyngarden and bandmate Ben Goldwasser both downing their instruments to concentrate on singing, with VanWyngarden at one point catching a paper cup that was thrown on the stage (in good nature). Seconds later, the singer picked up a pair of stray sunglasses that had also been thrown on stage and put them on.

He ended the track by singing a clip of Oasis' 'Wonderwall', though the crowd drowned him out by singing the keyboard refrain to 'Kids' louder.

The band ended their set with another new song, the slow-paced 'Congratulations'.

MGMT played:

'Pieces Of What'
'Electric Feel'
'Destrokk'
'It's Working'
'Weekend Wars'
'Of Moons, Birds & Monsters'
'Time To Pretend'
'Song For Dan Treacy'
'The Youth'
'Future Reflections'
'Kids'
'Congratulations'

NME.COM will be coming live from both the V Festival sites this weekend (August 22-23). Stay tuned to NME.COM/festivals/v-festival for news reports, blogs, video interviews and photos from the event. Plus get next Wednesday's (August 26) issue of NME for the ultimate V Festival review.