Even though the festival is still underway, Victorious 2025 seems doomed to be remembered solely for its performance— or lack thereof— from Irish folk group The Mary Wallopers, who had their show cut-off near immediately after displaying a Palestinian flag on stage: the decision to axe them has sparked a wave of outrage, with much-anticipated Saturday act The Last Dinner Party pulling out of the festival as a result. Outside of that headlining-grabbing moment though, Portsmouth has also been home to a number of excellent shows of late, filling the sunny seaside city with all-manner of rock’n’roll fury.

Wunderhorse

Jacob Slater and company have only been active for a few years, yet walked out onto the Common Stage before an uncountable number of diehard fans: if there’s a complaint to be made of Wunderhorse’s show, it was that the band could be hard to hear over the choir of rabid voices screaming along to every word. The four-piece played with a fearsome intensity, smacking their instruments around like each track was rounding out a Nirvana concert— even Slater’s vocals frequently sounded like they were going off the rails, breaking out of sheer passion. Several of the group’s most raucous tracks, including frantic opener ‘Midas,’ agonising bruiser ‘July’ and an extended jam of ‘Rain’ (complete with the Misirlou riff thrown in for good measure), made the cut, pushing the audience to bash around and mosh to their hearts’ content. With a fanbase this devout, it was also no surprise to see some slower cuts, like ‘Butterflies’ and ‘Arizona,’ going down an absolute treat: if anything, these were the strongest moments of the show, as Wunderhorse’s sound could lack the sheer impact it was clearly begging for at times. That was no fault of the band’s though, who wore their hearts on their sleeves from the start to the bitter end.

Kaiser Chiefs

If first impressions really are everything, then Kaiser Chiefs had it all at Portsmouth. The group’s introductory skit, complete with a hilarious Jurassic Park homage and some questionable editing choices, set expectations for a show full of all the wacky hijinks and youthful energy of the self-described ‘angry mob.’ The Kaiser Chiefs were celebrating the 20th anniversary of their breakout debut record ‘Employment,’ with tracks from that album making up more than half the setlist— given the extreme enthusiasm cuts like ‘I Predict A Riot’ and ‘Oh My God’ received from the gargantuan crowd, it seems to have been a good move. The gang haven’t aged at all in those twenty years, throwing themselves into the catchy goodness of ‘Everyday I Love You Less And Less’ with grins and chuckles: even if guitarist Andrew White and bassist Simon Rix weren’t the most animated on stage, the sheer magnetism of frontman Ricky Wilson made up for it and then some. The singer was clearly drawing from a limitless supply of energy; throwing his microphone around; climbing the stands; running through the crowd; and putting us all in the palm of his hand. The chorus of ‘Ruby’ could surely be heard across the entirety of Portsmouth: the Kaiser Chiefs are still on top in 2025, absolutely nailing this anniversary performance.

Queens of the Stone Age

When comedian Joel Dommett is cracking jokes about feeling insecure on the same stage as you, you know you’re doing something right: enter Queens of the Stone Age, the festival’s Friday night headliner. The group’s entrance— set to bombastic orchestral music— made it clear that the five-piece are a capital B, capital D, Big Deal: if that didn’t do the trick, the screaming and moshing to ‘You Think I Ain’t Worth A Dollar…’ and fan-favourite ‘No One Knows’ should’ve clued you in. Queens had an almost arrogant stage presence, with guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen and bassist Mikey Shuman swaggering across the stage throughout the show: frontman Josh Homme, in a similar vein, carried himself with a drunken confidence between songs (though if he had been drinking, it had no impact on his boisterous vocals or slamming guitar chops). That bravado certainly lent itself to the group’s massive rock’n’roll grooves, as tracks like ‘Song For The Dead,’ ‘Misfit Love’ and ‘Burn the Witch’ felt impossibly huge— often, it really seemed like the band were burying you in sound, crushing the audience under the unstoppable madness of ‘My God Is The Sun’ and ‘Smooth Sailing.’ Elsewhere though, the show had a subtle levity to it between the carefree a capella outros of ‘Emotion Sickness’ and ‘Make It Wit Chu’ and the rubber duck that Homme brought on by the show’s end. Queens of the Stone Age absolutely lived up to their reputation: on that stage, they were untouchable.