Liverpool Sound City is a festival which has seen a lot of change over the past few years, originally a three day event, based in the city centre- the award winning, ‘Best Metropolitan Festival’ was this year based at Bramley-Moore Docks over the May bank holiday weekend.
Day 1- 28/05/16
With a fantastic line up of both up and coming artists and musical legends, the weekend kicked off on Saturday with a trip to see Judas. Their set at The North Stage kicked things off in style, with some big choruses and heavy guitar riffs to get the festivals goers ready for the weekend ahead. The set is powerful and direct and gives the impression Judas know exactly what they want to do, and how to do it. However, the half an hour set ends all too soon but that’s no problem because we arrive just in time to catch the end of the set from local lads, Sugarmen, on The Atlantic Stage. Drawing in a large crowd, they proved their worth as a main stage act as the crowd favourites ‘Plastic Ocean’ and ‘Dirt’ bellow out across the docks.
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Since the tragic events of earlier this year, there have been many tributes for Warrington lads, Viola Beach and their manager Craig Tarry. Sound City was no different as they ensured their name remained on the line up and marked their set by playing a recording of one of their last shows. Getting a great turn out with a party atmosphere, it sees everyone on their feet having a dance, which is no doubt exactly what the lads would’ve wanted.
Another stand out set of the weekend comes from Welsh singer/songwriter, Connah Evans. He performed as part of the Horizons Project on The Cavern Stage, which was backed by BBC Radio Wales, as the crowd kept gathering around the small stage he played a couple of new tracks including the much revered ‘Wait For Me’.
It soon came round to headliner time and the band a lot of people were desperate to see – Catfish and The Bottlemen. They took to the stage at around 10:30pm to mark what had been a landmark week for them, their second album was released on the Friday and they played their first ever festival headline slot the day after. Liverpool was in for a treat and it really felt as though you were a part of something as the band wasted no time in getting things going with Homesick, they continued to crash through a mix of tracks from both the albums. ‘Anything’, ‘Rango’, ‘Red’ and ‘Pacifier’ all formed part of the 90 minute set which, as always, ended with the chaotic and turbulent, ‘Tyrants’.
Day 2- 29/05/16
After the antics of Saturday, the eager and well-rested festival goers returned for round two.
The best thing about making friends with the locals at a festival is they take you to see all the best bands from the area and that was how my Sunday started. Over at The North Stage we caught The Night Café who were just upbeat but chilled enough to ease us into the Sunday nicely. While being fairly new on the scene, the four-piece do a good job of pulling in a decent sized crowd with their new tracks ‘Together’ and ‘Time’.
It’s fair to say that a trip to Sound City would not be complete without making it onto The Tall Ship to watch a band and next on our list were local lads, Little Triggers. They’re like a cross between The Strypes and early Arctic Monkeys. They wowed the crowd with one of the most energetic performances of the weekend.
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After a lot of stage hopping in the morning, most of the afternoon is spent at The Atlantic Stage watching some great bands. First up is Bill Ryder-Jones’ first Liverpool show in months, playing songs from all four of his albums. His set is an eclectic mix of his greatest hits, including the renowned ‘Two To Birkenhead’. InHeaven are next to take to the main stage, and despite having only a couple of EPs under their belt, they are a band that have a lot of hype surrounding them at the minute and they have even managed to secure support slots with the likes of Circa Waves and Sundara Karma. They blew away the Main Stage crowd with tracks such as ‘Baby’s Alright’ and ‘Bitter Town’.
As soon as I saw the full line up for Sound City, there was one band I knew I couldn’t miss and that was Crows. Love them or hate them, the North London rockers put on a captivating live show that just can’t be missed. The piercing stare of front man, James Cox and his haunting vocals drew in a huge crowd at The North Stage, the last song ‘Pray’ sees Cox jump over the barrier to have a walk amongst the crowd.
Sound City is festival of experiences and there is always something different to do or see if you’re not too busy taking in all the music. We decided to head down to the Tim Peaks Diner tent where we caught an “In Conversation With…” session with Circa Waves. The tent was packed and it was a really fun and interesting to hear the bands own experience of the music industry.
After a much needed sit down, next on our list were The Dandy Warhols, guilty of being the one-song-fans we found a way right to the middle of the crowd for the 2001 indie hit, ‘Bohemian like You’. It was certainly an experience and definitely one track that you just have to see live. Heading back over to The North Stage to catch The Big Moon, having first seen them in early last year, I was amazed at how much the four girls have up’d their game. Playing their new single ‘Cupid’, it proved nigh on impossible to get anywhere near the stage since the four-piece had drawn in a huge crowd.
9pm soon came around and it was time to go and see Circa Waves. Crashing on stage to ‘Get Away’, the band raced through a set packed full of tracks from their 2014 debut, Young Chasers. The electric to the main stage had gone off, the crew dashed about and 20 minutes later, the Circa Waves lads returned to stage to finish their set on a cover of The Beatles track, ‘Retribution’ and then crowd favourite ‘T-Shirt Weather’.
It’s fair to say that Sunday night was a dilemma for most festival attendees, the decision between going to see Liverpool legends, The Coral and Indie Rock god, Pete Doherty was a difficult one- but we managed it. Starting off with Doherty on The North Stage (who was remarkably on time) his solo, live show is really something to see, accompanied by an orchestra and even an accordion player, we saw him play tracks such as famous, ‘Last of the English Roses’ and ‘You’re My Waterloo’.
Dashing back down to the main stage we make it back just in time to catch the last 40 minutes of The Coral’s legendary hometown show – it’s like a greatest hits album being played right in front of us. Tracks such as ‘Jacqueline’, ‘In the Morning’ and ‘Dreaming of You’ go down smoothly, mixed in with the new and slightly heavier songs of the new album, like ‘Holy Revelation’ and ‘Fear Machine’.
Liverpool Sound City fully proved its worth this year, while it wasn’t without teething problems, they provided an excellent line up and a unique setting. We can’t wait to see what they have planned for next year because 2016 will take a lot of beating.
Feature image courtesy of Andy Hughes.