10. Liverpool Sound City, Liverpool, 22.05.15
It’s almost cinematic, really – The Vaccines’ release of their third album coinciding with the week of their headline slot at Sound City festival in Liverpool. With the stellar likes of The Flaming Lips and Belle & Sebastian topping the bill, Sound City is The Vaccines’ first ever headline slot, the three-day city festival taking place on the Bramley-Moore docks. The festival boasts an impressive line-up, featuring Peace, The Cribs, Honeyblood, Gengahr, Circa Waves, Spector, Iceage, and Swans. For The Vaccines, a relatively young band already with three full-length records, heavy tour experience, and a fanbase that spawns far and wide, a festival headline slot has been imminent, expected, deserved; and there is no better place for a bill-topping debut than Sound City. A close-knit, cohesive festival celebrating the best of alternative music and arts located in what is arguably the musical and cultural center of England, a headline at Sound City is the perfect size for a band like The Vaccines.
I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of seeing the Vaccines performing live. Like I’ve said before, there’s just something that truly works with the Vaccines playing festivals, all of their songs instantly filling you with absolute joy and delight at every listen. They’re not a band like, say, Interpol, whom I love dearly; I’ve seen Interpol twice, and each show sent me home with eager anticipation about ideas on how I am to decorate my funeral casket. The Vaccines are truly happiness contained in a slew of three-minute songs, cathartic pop bliss, addictive lyrics and melodies that you can’t escape. And why would you want to? As performers, they are incredible, every song a danceable number with choruses you’ll have to sing and shout at the top of your lungs, riffs and bass lines pumping through your soul, a musical heartbeat. The four of them have a ball on stage, the awe and wonder as they stare across the sea of hundreds of festival-goers apparent in their eyes. It’s a headline slot The Vaccines have thoroughly deserved, and if we are lucky, this is only the start of a series of major festival headline runs. They deserve bigger and better, and with what their new record English Graffiti have proved, they shouldn’t have to wait much longer for both.
I’ll forever be grateful to the Vaccines, not only for their music, but for broadening my horizons and opening my mind about the incredible live music industry of the UK. They are the band, at least this semester, who truly inspired me to pursue the path of music journalism, unleashing in me a deepened thirst for music that I know won’t be quenched anytime soon. At the end of my year abroad in London, I have been to approximately eight Vaccines gigs, met them on six separate occasions, crashed into Pete Robertson’s drum set, and high-fived Justin Young. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve seen ‘If You Wanna’ live. A number of these opportunities cost me nothing, but the value of having all these incredible experiences with an equally incredible band? Priceless.
Words by Cady Siregar