Liverpool Sound City – Saturday (4 May ’24)

My ticket

It was time to head off for my eighth Sound City, of the sixteen that have been staged to date.

You can read all about my time at all of the 2014-16 and 2021-23 festivals here, including last year when I had my only non-solo day at the festival. Obviously, once was enough for Lee!

As usual, I had done some limited pre-festival research, only managing to listen to usually just one full song by pretty much everyone on the schedule while trying to pull together an itinerary that gave me a decent range of musical genres, almost exclusively from acts I had never heard of only a couple of weeks earlier.

I got the train into town, heading straight to Spanish Caravan on Slater Street to collect my wristband – a very convenient location as the first act I wanted to see was due to be performing there at 1pm.

Pint and wristband

I was early enough for there to be no queue whatsoever, so I was sorted within a matter of seconds, thus enabling me to pop next door to the Red Lion pub for a very nice pint of Colbier’s Vivace, with the barman selling me on this new local brewery, while also passing comment on my purple Modern Lovers t-shirt.

The music in the pub was of very high quality, including some Richard Hell, XTC, Hey Joe by The Leaves and a track off the second Television album – a great way to set me up for the day/evening ahead.

I’m not sure who’s responsible for the music choice in the Red Lion, but every time I’m in there (which isn’t all that often, granted), there’s always a good selection playing.

Harry McKenny

I went back next door to Spanish Caravan to see a short-but-sweet set from Harry McKenny, a singer/songwriter from Huyton, spotting someone I see every year at these festivals among the crowd.

Harry McKenny

McKenny is so new that he doesn’t have anything on Spotify yet, just a couple of his own songs on YouTube, as well as a few covers of Oasis, Catfish And The Bottlemen and Fontaines D.C. tunes.

He started off with Barcelona, with the next number (possibly called Fine) including the nice phrase “quintessentially fine”, with the Q word being one very rarely used in song!

He resembled an Italian ex-colleague of mine called Pietro while I immediately likened him to another local singer, Jamie Webster, but I definitely prefer McKenny with his voice being slightly more of a bluesy growl, but then I’m not really a Webster fan.

Paris (another city-named song!) had a quote from Fatboy Slim’s Praise You at the end (or more accurately, Take Yo’ Praise by Camille Yarbrough), with the final track (I’m Not A Number) then amping up the Webster comparisons with lines such as “work hard all day on minimum fucking pay.”

Here’s a video of that last song (not from this performance):

Miles Temp

Next up was another local singer, Miles Temp at The Jacaranda.

I got a pint of Camden Town’s Pale Ale from the main bar before heading down into the gig space itself, which rapidly filled up, with one of those present being John Mac, whom I know (very vaguely) through the football, who is seemingly always at Sound City.

Miles Temp

Temp has a surprisingly powerful voice, reminding me a little, oddly enough, of Adele, with much of the music being soulful, heartfelt pop.

Before playing the latest single Wasn’t There, Temp revealed that it had reached a thousand plays on Spotify (it’s now on nearly double that) and expressed surprise at the size of the audience.

First single The End? came with some virtual string backing, but the final song I heard was definitely my favourite, not yet released and called something like Golden Shore. However, I left before the very end to head off to my next appointment.

Queue

Alex Spencer

Alex Spencer was on at the Arts Club Loft.

I had to join an actual (quick) queue to get in, receiving the very welcome bonus of a free drink token thanks to his label Modern Sky UK.

Sadly, I couldn’t use it on my choice of pint, instead settling for a (decanted) bottle of Asahi.

He’s a seventeen-year-old from Manchester whose look brought to mind both Richard Ashcroft and The Coral, while his band featured a keyboard player (in an Elvis Presley tee) called Harrison Crane who looked considerably younger than him even.

Drinks token

In fact, Harrison appears to be somewhat famous in his own right, having appeared on ITV breakfast TV after a video of him playing piano in Liverpool ONE went viral!

He shows up on my Instagram as being followed by ex-red José Enrique, which is quite bizarre.

Waiting For The Change got a band-led clapalong, while Spencer became the second act in a row I’d seen to reassure us that what he was drinking out of a can was in fact water, despite its Liquid Death name.

After Do What I Wanna came a new one, called Nightmares, with the subsequent Fear Will Kill The Future (his most recent ‘single’), making me think of a very mellow version of The Coral.

Alex Spencer

Bassist Annabelle also contributed greatly to the sound, with the set continuing with One Step Forward, but overall the music didn’t really grab me all that much.

I left for the hundred-capacity Kazimier Stockroom for Coal Mob, but I was unable to get in straight away. However, before I could join the not-all-that-lengthy queue, I had a chat with Peter Guy, who I’ve bumped into at Sound City festivals over the years, having ‘worked’ with him in years gone by for Getintothis.

Having joined the fairly stationary queue for a short while, I ended up giving up as time was a ticking.

Resister

I went back up Seel Street to the Arts Club Loft to see Resister from Glasgow, although I’d only included them in my schedule in order to plug a gap between acts I was more interested in, so didn’t have especially high hopes.

Resister

Sadly, I wasn’t more impressed than I expected I would be, though they gamely played their rock music despite an issue with (very Scottish-sounding) lead singer Connor Dowell’s voice, meaning that the vocals were shared around, with both guitarist Ross Caldwell and especially drummer (and bit of a Sean Dyche-lookalike) Robert Lang chipping in.

However, I’d argue that bass player Craig Morrison was by far the coolest member of the group.

They have a debut ep called Vices due shortly, so I couldn’t identify any individual songs. My favourite was the one with the line “you don’t know what I’ve been thinking,” if my hearing was up to scratch.

Boróka Andl-Beck

boebeck

I didn’t stay for the full set, instead heading back to the Jac for Hungarian boebeck.

Second song Ocean oddly reminded me of a ballsy version of Hugo Largo, despite the very noticeable guitar work throughout.

The drummer was also excellent, with the sound also calling to mind early 90’s shoegazers Cranes as they continued.

After playing Lucky?, singer Boróka Andl-Beck coyly asked, “Can you guess that was about an evil boy?”

I really enjoyed their set, as did the rest of the pretty packed Jacaranda.

boebeck guitarist

I had a short gap before my next musical treat, so went in search of something quick and easy to eat, ending up in the closest McDonald’s.

Kristina Stead

Next up for me was the quite folky Kristina Stead at E.B.G.B.S, one of several acts on the bill that the Sound City website very unhelpfully said nothing about, but some independent digging had identified as an interesting option.

I was there in time to catch a little of the soundcheck, but very sadly the audience barely reached double figures for her solo show.

It’s hard to know why some acts get much bigger crowds than others, but the number of people at the festival inevitably grew as the day moved into evening.

Kristina Stead

Opener Underwater had been written as part of a writing challenge to compose a song with forty words or fewer. It didn’t suffer from this restriction at all.

She was a bit of a talker, revealing that she had ADHD before playing Conversations, claiming that it had a rap in the middle of it, although it was as much sung as rapped.

She must be a student in Leeds as she mentioned having released Green And Gold with a friend “in first year”, later mentioning she’d had difficulties in her second year.

The Other Side was about an epileptic friend called Leroy who’d died two years ago, with the set closing with an upcoming ‘single’ called Letters To My Friend, which featured some audience participation. It had been a pleasant set.

The Dream Machine

I’d seen local (New Brighton) rockers The Dream Machine at Sound City in 2022, without being overwhelmed, as you can read here. However, I decided to try them again this year, at Arts Club Loft.

Sound City said, “Influenced by iconic psych-rock songwriters such as Patti Smith and The Brian Jonestown Massacre, they blend smooth vocal harmonies with tantalisingly hypnotic Americana grooves”, which is a rather odd description of Patti Smith, but we’ll let that go.

The Dream Machine

I heard a little of their soundcheck before they got going properly. I enjoyed them more this time around than two years ago, although I still wasn’t overly excited by them.

They clearly remain Christians (as I’d noted in my previous review), with several crosses on chains and a giant “thank God” sticker on one of their guitars.

Most of the set seemed to come from forthcoming sophomore album Small Time Monsters, due from Run On Records, which is part of the Modern Sky stable.

Frankenstein was less poppy than it is on the recorded version, being followed by Cathedral, another off the new LP. Too Stoned To Die was a lot more like it.

Wolfman featured some nicely galloping drums, but I remain unconverted, so I headed down into the main room to catch some of the band on in there.

Woo

It was local indie band Woo who were playing the Arts Club Theatre.

Singer Shi Burman was a prowling frontman, with lead guitarist Jake Chin stepping out front from time to time. Kieran Flannery on bass looked like he’d been drafted in from an uber-baggy band, while drummer Guto Tyson looked very young.

Woo

They had good stage presence and quite a fresh rock sound, without quite making me excited.

Fin Power from STONE and before that The BOHOs (both of whom I’ve seen live in the past – STONE at Sound City in 2022 and The BOHOs back in March 2017) came out to assist on vocals for the closing Wake, their latest single. It was sufficiently new for him to have to read the lyrics off his phone!

Woo with Fin Power

After they finished, I went back upstairs to try to hear a bit of Abbie Ozard, but it became apparent that she wasn’t ready, so I left for The Jacaranda.

Kiosk

Kiosk were on, who are apparently “an aliencore art-punk three piece. They originally crash landed in Roswell in 1947, now based in Leeds.”

The guitar work initially reminded me of Keith Levene-era Public Image Ltd, but as the set progressed The Raincoats came to mind even more, with the overall impact being like something off the NME’s C81 cassette.

Kiosk

The bass player spent part of one song playing his instrument more like a piano than the usual way, while it should be noted that the singer has a much (traditionally) better voice than is usual for such an outfit, much in the way perhaps that Björk used to front the challenging Kukl.

I bumped into Peter again at this show, as we seemed to following each other round from show to show!

Here’s a clip from another gig of (Mental Breakdown In A) Sauna:

The silliest song was definitely Nintendo, with its chorus “I want my Nintendo back.”

Kiosk were definitely one of the highlights of the whole festival for me, and I decided that I would keep an eye out in case they issued anything on CD, although I was doubtful in this day and age.

However, while writing this piece I came across something on their Instagram page suggesting there might be something available – they responded very rapidly to my query and I am now awaiting a CD in the post for the probably very reasonable price of £5.70. However, I can’t be certain as to how much of a bargain it is as I have no idea what’s on it!

Antony Szmierek

Next up was Antony Szmierek at Grand Central, apparently a 32-year-old teacher from Hyde, near Manchester.

I took advantage of the venue by heading upstairs to find somewhere to sit, soon being joined (again!) by Peter and his mate, with Working Classic being the first song I was there for.

How Did You Get Here? is written up on the Sound City site as a song that “resides on the dancier end of his sonic spectrum, boasting a hip-hop flow with his trademark, dynamic lyricism,” which seems fair enough to me, though I don’t think that this was one of his tunes I caught.

Antony Szmierek

He was a nice palate cleanser, without overly thrilling me. He talked about having a dad he never knew, posing the ‘deep’ question, “does anyone really know their father?”, which is possibly a good one.

He conformed to the stereotype of his genre by supplying plenty of “Liverpool” shout-outs.

After Twist Forever, he did a cover of Overload by Sugababes (their debut single from 2000 which peaked at #6 in the UK) complete with a fairly wild guitar solo.

Spider

Raised in a Nigerian-Catholic household in Dublin, Spider was my next act, playing at The Shipping Forecast backed by two other women in a multi-ethnic group.

After a number of technical issues, they started without the electronics they seemingly normally add to the simple guitar and drums backing.

Spider

This meant that there was only time for three of their rock songs. 5678 is much poppier in the recorded version that’s in the Spotify playlist at the bottom of this piece.

America’s Next Top Model was my pick of the three numbers they managed to perform. It would be interesting to see them without the equipment problems.

Brooke Combe

I headed to the Arts Club Loft, expecting to see the 80’s synth pop-influenced Deco, but instead Scottish singer Brooke Combe was underway, playing what later transpired was a ‘secret set’ to a packed room.

I’d seen her before when she joined Jamie Webster for a cover of for Talking Heads’ This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) at the Pier Head in June 2023, as reviewed here.

Brooke Combe

Her lyrics cover the classic soul topics of love lost and defiant singledom, as can be seen by songs such as Talkin’ Bout Heartaches, the even more in-your-face Leave Me The Fuck Alone and For The Last Time.

She has a voice and personality that could one day make her a bit of a star, but it’s not really my thing.

She was backed only by a guitarist, which probably made the songs less interesting for me, having now listened to a few of them online.

The last song I stayed for was a cover of Childish Gambino’s Redbone, a 2016 single that actually won a GRAMMY award with the memorable line, “My peanut butter chocolate cake with Kool-Aid.”

Jack Valero

I got to The Shipping Forecast in time for a little of Brighton-based Jack Valero‘s soundcheck, having bought a pint of BrewDog’s Hazey Jane from the main bar upstairs to quench my thirst.

Jack Valero

I didn’t really know any of his music beforehand, my interest being sufficiently piqued by the fact that he is the son of Billy Bragg. It rapidly became apparent that he didn’t sound much like the old man, either in voice or overall sound, being much poppier. Nor did he look all that much like him to be honest.

He is yet another performer I saw at this Sound City who is on Modern Sky UK, with his first release having come in 2022.

Jack Valero

He introduced Heaven Help Me as his “lockdown song”, which was a lot mellower than the preceding Catch My Soul, not necessarily for the better.

Backing singer Amie Shouler was clearly have a total ball, but sadly she was somewhat lost in the mix. It’s worth adding that the bassist was gamely coping with what seemed like a gigantic instrument!

He mentioned that Innocent Light was off a forthcoming ep produced by Jamie Webster.

Last number was what he said was more of a social commentary than his other songs, Pull Back The Hammer, “for a more compassionate world.”

While not necessarily rushing out to buy any of his stuff, I did enjoy his performance and would happily listen/watch again, and will keep an ear out for him in the future.

Flowerovlove

Eighteen-year-old Joyce Cisse performs under the name Flowerovlove, saying “The main message is to spread self-love and to blossom. Words to describe my music are nostalgic, versatile, mellow, warm, and the feeling of home. Nature and life experiences feed into my creativity.” Hmm, OK then.

Flowerovlove

She was on at Grand Central, which meant I got another sit down, very pleasing at this stage of proceedings.

Her stuff isn’t on Spotify, and I’m not really sure what songs she played, apart from when there was a mass audience singalong for a surprising, but welcome, cover of ABBA’s Dancing Queen.

Unfortunately, the next song had the drums too loud, rather drowning out the vocals and keyboards.

I took that as my cue to head off for my next appointment.

Rushbonds

Rushbonds was on at the Jac, being a five-piece band, although the venue was very packed so I could be wrong there! Amongst the crowd was an old guy whom I spot at every Sound City.

Robyn McLeod

Lead singer Robyn McLeod had very juddery, but quite charming vocals.

They’ve been described online as indie-jazz-soul, which seems a little too try-hard, but they’re quite tricky to pin down.

Second number Close But No Cigar had a nice funk side to it, while the next song recalled Patti Smith a little for me.

Football is apparently a song about “being groomed when I was younger”, with Isaac Llewellyn’s guitar playing reminding me a bit of The Feelies.

Subsequent tunes made me think in turn (slightly) of Scritti Politti and Jane’s Addiction. Quite the mix.

Next on my list was twenty-year old self-described “pop provocateur” Caity Baser. Her blurb also states, “Caity’s the big sister you always wanted, the best friend your mum says isn’t allowed to come round any more and the best member of your favourite girlband who’s just gone solo.”

However, despite the short distance involved, I decided I couldn’t be bothered to hike it over to Grand Central and then back again for the final band of the night, so I popped over the road for a pizza from Harpers instead!

Gen And The Degenerates

I returned to the Jac in what I though was sufficient time, bringing a pint of Camden Pale downstairs, only to discover that there was already a lock-out ahead of Gen And The Degenerates coming on stage, which meant I had to wait for someone to leave before I gained entry. Fortunately, I was in before the band kicked off.

Gen And The Degenerates

They were a really fun live proposition, who had a lot more balls to them than the few tunes I’ve listened to online. They revealed that they’d played this very room many times in the past – it certainly seemed an ideal location for them.

They all put on shades for Post-Cool, as is apparently their tradition, although poor planning meant singer singer Gen Glynn-Reeves had to borrow a pair from someone in the crowd. She spoke her lyrics as much as sang them, in the grand tradition of the likes of Mark E. Smith.

Gen And The Degenerates

For a new one called (I think) I Like It, she brought out a large inflatable shark which was then tossed around the packed audience, as their new album has a shark on the cover!

Girl God Gun had some great lyrics in it, as did many of their songs to be fair, such as “I’m a fantastic kisser, manufactured in the UK.”

The shark returned for the closing number, the title track to the Anti-Fun Propaganda LP, which is currently sitting in my Amazon basket, waiting for me to hit ‘buy’.

So ended the first day of my eighth Sound City, which had offered a real smorgasbord of musical treats, with boebeck, Kiosk and Gen And The Degenerates my pick of the bunch.

Sunday would be a much more restrained affair for me, due to Anfield commitments, but by the time this piece has been published I have already snapped up a ticket for the 2025 event.

My t-shirt

Tonight’s t-shirt

I plumped for my purple Modern Lovers tee for no specific reason.

There were fewer other band tees in evidence than I was hoping to spot, but those I did spy include Led Zeppelin, Swans, Suede, Frank Turner, Miles Kane, New Model Army, Beastie Boys, Foals, Seb Lowe, The K’s, Red Rum Club, Foo Fighters, David Bowie, Fugazi, Pixies, The Unthanks and Pink Floyd.

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Playlist

Here is some of the music from the day on Spotify: