Liverpool Sound City 2012 review - Day One

Get your Converse or  Doc Martins on as Sound City is back for its 2012 installment, and to get to see as many bands as possible there's some walking to be done. For us, this just adds to the excitement that it brings to the city. Nipping from one venue to the other as you can try to fit as much in as possible and envelope yourself in the wildly diverse music on off over the next few days and seeing the rest of Liverpool doing the same. So here's a few of our highlights from Day One.

Luke Fenlon at the Epstein Theatre 

This venue, the old Neptune Theatre for those who don't know, is a great venue for those laid back sets from singers or bands who excel so much in intimate gigs and have the capacity to create an ambiance that captures everyone's attention and Luke Fenlon is definitely one of those acts. With his Bob Dylan tones that have become synonymous to Luke's style but laced with the Scouse charm twinkling away, you can always rely on a brilliant time at one of his gigs and once again he was joined on stage by talented musician in his own right, Saul Godman.  

With a whirling twirling little folk rock number that has you swaying along and wishing you were dressed in Romany dress with a bottle of whisky in hand, thanks to the lyrics and followed by ,"Whats The Point In Trying" which showcased a different tone in Luke's vocals. Giving a deeper more mature sound with undertones of darkness which matched his lyrics. A song wracked with emotion which evolves to  a heady bass infused conclusion. He followed this with, "Wasting my time" despite the title is an upbeat rocking track. 

Luke once again pulled off yet another fantastic live set filled with on stage banter that we have all come to know him for, especially as it was his 1st sit down gig and in his words ,"pretty bizarre"!

TOY @ Kazimier 

The 5 members just about fitted onto a very packed stage. Good turn out already from the crowd. They provided a mix of rock with mellow indie vocals. Reminiscent of late 80 early 90s Californian rock in style. 

  With plenty of guitar reverberating across venue with a lot of heavy beat from the drum and a mild nod towards Jarvis Cocker from lead vocals at times, this was proving to be a fun early runner for the Kazimier. With plenty of head banging and tonnes of energy from the band, which in such a small space due to amount of instruments on stage I'm not sure how they stayed on it but thankfully they did.

Alkaline Trio @ o2 Academy  

Illinois based punk rock outfit headlined the very hot O2 Academy and quite literally rocked it to its very core. With a massive fan base all waiting in eager anticipation for them to appear, the buzz vibrating around the room was massive.

Finally, the trio took to the stage with Tiny Tim's, "Tiptoe Through the Window" brought back to life thanks to the film Insidious. They were met with rapturous applause from crowd as they came onto stage and went hell for leather straight into "We've Had Enough" a pounding rock number that set the tone for the rest of their set. The crowd were singing and bouncing along with plenty of air guitar and drums to go with the bands furious onslaught. They belted out many more equally high energy songs from their massive back catalogue including, "Time To Waste" and "Tuck Me In".

 Matt Skiba took time to head up to the crowd to shake hand the two front men took time to enthuse about Liverpool, it's people and The Beatles, after spending the day at the Beatles Museum. All in all, I've seen the O2 rocked before but not to this extent, a truly brilliant set from Alkaline Trio that the O2 is probably still shaking from

Death In Vegas @ Kazimier

We came back to a very packed out Kazimier, for our last gig of the night. With their psychedelic instrumental opening number to set, Death In Vegas, are a mainly instrumental band I discovered and when they did decide to vocalise a track, I have to admit, i have no idea what was being sang or maybe it was just vocal sounds to go with the Pink Flloydesque noises emanating from the stage. 

They continued with their futuristic synthetic sounds throughout set with what sounded like early 90s trance melted in with it and was extremely reminiscent of a Tangerine Dream soundtrack. Not really my thing but the huge crowd seemed to love it. Technically, they are very adept musicians but there was a certain lack of emotion or energy on stage and I personally found myself becoming very bored with the whole thing. I can only assume that they rely on their music speaking for them but in my opinion a lot can be said for on stage personality.

So there we have our first day round up of Day 1 and we can't wait to get out their for Day 2.........once our feet have recovered that is!!

Review by Alison Goggin

Photos Thomas Lennon http://www.flickr.com

Article posted by Musicmafia