Review - Day two of Sound City

Day two is upon us and we're off to tread the streets again in search of bands dotted all over the city centre in venues wide and varied. Tonight's first port of call was to St Georges Hall for some pre Miles Kane music by Morning Parade, a five piece band from Essex. On entering the magnificent venue, you were blasted out with the sounds of guitar rock riffs and a very mature sounding lead singer, Steve Sparrow. All in all a very good start to what was meant to be a good night in the Hall, unfortunately, the bureaucratic security at St Georges Hall were to scupper us, as after popping out for some fresh air, they decided press had to re queue to enter and by now the queue was pretty big. So massive apologies to Mr Kane, but blame St Georges Hall for the lack of media attention from us.

So onto the Bombed Out Church instead for us, to catch Outfit, who were warming up for Clinic, I have to admit the first few songs were a little lacklustre for me and seemed to never end and I did find my attention wandering around the atmospheric surroundings. Once the lead singer had stopped staring off into space during songs and the upped the tempo with synthesised sounds and a catchy bass line, they did actually sound pretty impressive.

Then came Clinic, a band who apparently, rarely play Liverpool, even though they are based here, and who I've only seen on the Letterman Show, a few months back, so I was still fairly undecided about them. With rhythmic lyrics and heavy guitar riffs during the chorus of the opening track, "Lion Tamer" made me think this looked to be a promising set. The set carried on in this form, with lead singer, Ade Blackburn's vocals drifting across the Bombed Out Church in a crystal clear way that everybody in there was enthralled by them. I have to admit, I found them a lot better than anticipated but I really don't think the surgical look does much for them!!!

Unfortunately we didn't have time for the entire performance as we had to head of to one of favourite venues in Liverpool, the Kazimier, where the sounds bounce of the walls and reverberate around this fab little venue. First up were Pop Levi. I have to admit I really didn't know what to expect from these guys, but from the very first strum of lead singer, Johnathon Pop Levi, guitar, I was enthralled. I haven't seen such a showman in a very very long time. From the opening track, "WannaMama", which opening sounded like Led Zep's," Whole Lotta Love" I was hooked as where the rest of the crowd. With a mix of rock, funk, blues and psychedeliac thrown in for good measure, this set had so much energy it was contagious. Pop Levi cavorted around the stage like Mick Jagger, plays almost as well as Jimi Hendrix and cavorts with his guitar like Prince. With other little gems like,"Police Sign", "Blue Honey" and "Plastic Wrap" this had to be the best band of the night by far and I cannot wait to see them again.

After Pop Levi, came Kurt Vile and the Violaters, from Philadelphia, a four man collective that look like an early 1990's rock band or extras from Wayne's World. With a name like that and the look, i was expecting them to be sounding like Extreme or Pearl Jam, so it came as a bit of a surprise that appeared to more influenced by The Stone Roses or Inspiral Carpets. Even though they were plagued with sound issues during the set, which resulted in one member lighting up on stage to relieve his frustration, to the amusement of the crowd, they certainly did a stirling job and are a band full of musical surprises.

Here's hoping that the final day, will result in even more gems of music for us to let you know about and check out, but one final word, "Go and check out Pop Levi immediately!!!