# A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z




Miscellaneous - Liverpool, 19/5/2011...21/5/2011

  by Richard Lewis

published: 18 / 5 / 2011



Miscellaneous - Liverpool, 19/5/2011...21/5/2011

intro

At the three day Liverpool Sound City, Richard Lewis watches sets from among many other the Kooks, Cast, Miles Kane, Dinosaur Pile-Up and Fly with Vampires

Held around venues thankfully nearer to each other this year, requiring far less legwork, Liverpool Sound City 2011 proved to be the boutique festival’s biggest year yet. With the weather just about holding out on Thursday, the festival began in earnest with all the venues pressed into service on the first day, providing a bumper crop of bands to wade through. Singer-songwriter Luke Fenton, who has already received the patronage of Radio One in the past few months, continued his meteoric rise, his melding of West Coast sounds with scuffed mid 60s Bob Dylan lyrical tangents winning an appreciative audience. Dinosaur Pile-Up’s unpretentious grunge pop proved to be highly infectious, while the Sand Band, on the receiving end of several hugely praiseworthy reviews earlier in the year for their rustic debut album, played as three-piece, turning their tracks into ambient glides with added lap steel guitar. Headliner Steve Mason, despite the anticipation proved to be mildly disappointing. The ex-Beta Band man’s set was disarmingly straightforward compared to his past wayward successes. The Kooks, a surprise late addition to the bill, played a hugely oversubscribed headline gig, proof their popularity might not have waned as much as many suspected. The late scheduling of some of the events was also cause for some consternation. The highly acclaimed Kurt Vile was due onstage at The Kazimier at midnight, a more than reasonable time for a DJ set, less so for a folktronica act. On to Friday, more people had bought understandably purchased day tickets with the weekend approaching, meaning the city centre was thronged with gig-goers. Unheralded as yet Canadians Winter Gloves proved to be an unexpected delight, their New Order meets Walkmen esque tunes winning over an unfortunately scant crowd early in the evening. Another feature of the second day of the festival were the conferences that began in earnest as various music industry figures, running the gamut from grass-roots, start-ups and fully fledged successes held seminars and talks. The event with the biggest buzz was former Joy Division/New Order bassist Peter Hook in conversation with NME snapper Kevin Cummins, who talked over the history of Factory Records and all things Manchester. A well-attended but slightly incongruous affair, the event must have been strange to any locals present as the pair discussed the musical past in forensic detail of a major city thirty miles to the west of it. Welsh garage rockers the Keys played a wonderful, far too brief set at The Shipping Forecast, their taut tracks a master class in economy and precision. The distinctly underwhelming Picture Book followed next, the lauded trio having caught the eye of Sire Records’ maverick Seymour Stein, who signed them at last year’s Sound City. Clinic, opaque as ever turned in a tight set at St. Luke’s Church. Belligerently pursuing with the surgeons’ masks almost a decade and a half into their career, the band benefitted hugely from the setting the gig was held in. Turned into a music/cultural events venue in the last twelve moths, the building has the local sobriquet of ‘the Bombed-Out Church’, as it was irreparably damaged during the Blitz. The Luftwaffe didn’t entirely destroy the place however and, replete with atmospheric lighting and grass underfoot where the pews used to be, it has the effect of attending a festival in a ruined temple. Onstage before the surgeons, acclaimed local punk/funk alchemists Outfit played to a sizable crowd, the group reminiscent of ‘Stop Making Sense’ era Talking Heads. Elsewhere, the much-hyped Miles Kane, appearing at St. George’s Hall achieved a lock-out half an hour before he was due onstage, despite some present in the venue later saying there was still spare capacity inside. Excellent country-blues troubadour Willy Mason packed out the 350 capacity Zanzibar Club, a place best known for spawning the Coral and the Zutons a decade ago. A superb gig, the fixture would have benefitted from being played in a far bigger venue. Snotty US rockers Black Lips succeeded in garnering a huge amount of press for rowing with their gig security following several stage invasions at their gig at The Masque Theatre, most of the reviews preferring to focus on this as opposed to anything the group actually played. Saturday opened with the news that one of the most anticipated sets of the weekend, Phil Selway was shifted from St. Luke’s Church to the rather more corporate surroundings of the O2 Academy after high wind threatened the ecclesiastical brickwork. This meant that bands already booked at the venue had to be shunted elsewhere to accommodate the Radiohead sticksman, who understandably needed a big space due to the high numbers expected at the gig. The initial confusion seemed to correct itself however, as the all the bands who were scheduled to play on the night were found a berth elsewhere. Cast, recently reformed, packed out the Crypt of the Catholic Cathedral (Holding gigs on hallowed ground in the city is unusually popular). A double hit of Liverpool bands topped the bill at St. George’s Hall on Saturday, the space booked for two of the city’s biggest groups. Future stadium rockers Sound of Guns headlined at the venerated venue, the gig taking place in a ballroom/lecture theatre replete with chandelier hanging from the ceiling. In keeping with his Bono-esque practice of clambering around lighting rigs and stage sets, frontman Andy Metcalfe scaled one of the balconies in the hall, much to the crowd’s delight. Playing immediately before them, Fly with Vampires were arguably the hit of the festival. Marrying the harmonies of Fleet Foxes with the thunderous power of the likes of Biffy Clyro, with nothing lost in song craft, the four-piece set the bar incredibly high prior to Sound of Guns taking to the stage. Django Django, who have recently been tipped by John McLen (also of the Beta Band), turned in a tight set at Mojo. More electronic than on their recordings, the band were less indebted to the percussive drive of the Beta Band than on record, a facet that presumably drew MacLen’s compliment. With much of the festival’s focus on guitar bands, dance music was for the most part thin on the ground at Sound City. A signal of how times change, considering the massive success of ‘superclub’ Cream some fifteen years ago. The cult of the DJ, once able to pull thousands in, has long since passed. SBTRKT demonstrated however that the genre hasn’t completely been confined to the early Noughties, turning in a melodic live set with drums, keyboards and laptops at his disposal. Similarly, Jamie xx, moonlighting from his parent band, also played to a highly appreciative crowd. The two acts proved the hype they have garnered over the past twelve moths is largely justified, both packing out the subterranean Shipping Forecast venue The Hold. Hugely well attended, with the weekend tickets sold out months in advance, Sound City 2011 was undoubtedly a massive success for the organizers. In spite of some glitches with stage times being altered and venues being changed at short notice, the festival is likely to secure even bigger acts to headline next year. The primary focus of the festival and its enduring quality however is being able to discover bands you had never previously heard of, by wandering into a venue that caught your eye. The photographs that accompany this article were taken by Marie Hazelwood.



Picture Gallery:-
Miscellaneous - Liverpool, 19/5/2011...21/5/2011


Miscellaneous - Liverpool, 19/5/2011...21/5/2011


Miscellaneous - Liverpool, 19/5/2011...21/5/2011


Miscellaneous - Liverpool, 19/5/2011...21/5/2011


Miscellaneous - Liverpool, 19/5/2011...21/5/2011



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