Sound City Liverpool 2012 review - Friday

Liverpool Sound City Day 2

Here's some snippets of the bands/singers we saw out and about yesterday and we loved every single minute of it.

Wet Nuns @ Red Bull Studio Live 

We came across this punk rock/blues rock North East duo by chance as we could hear them from up the road and just had to go and investigate the totally amazing sound emanating from the Red Bull Studio Live was from. When we got their I was surprised to see it was just from 2 people on stage, Rob on guitar and Alexis on drums. From outside you'd be forgiven for thinking they were at least 4 people on the stage. The place was buzzing with energy from the crowd, who were loving every minute of it and the band themselves, who were obviously enjoying every second of it going by the on stage antics and banter. They had also attracted a lot of the North West music industry big guns and I can see why. They didn't want to leave the stage and the crowd didn't want them too. Also a first for me was seeing the drummer, Alexis, take lead vocals for some of the songs but with his sheer raw rock vocals bordering on thrash, which complimented Alexis vocals whose have a more rounded mellow edge to them without loosing that rock grittiness. Guitarist Rob, was totally caught up with the music covering whole stage in what seemed like one giant bounce. This is a massively talented duo and crowd loved them, including us.  

White Arrows @ Kazimier 

This young band heralding from L.A have with plenty of talent. They bring  a fresh sounding approach to music which floats and bounces melodically along throughout set with a gentle rock twists and a mellow twist to the set. Lead singer, Mickey Church's vocals ranged from gently melodic countryesque to gravely from each song, thanks to a cover of Bruce Springsteen's ,"I'm on Fire". Definitely a must see for all you modern indie rock lovers.

Get Back Colquitt @ Binary Cell 

With a lead singer, Shaun Dunbabin, looking like a very young Suggs, this young Liverpool band not only have a mature sound beyond their years but lyrics to boot. Shaun has a brilliant voice which captures the emotion of the lyrics. Pity Sound City didn't see fit to actually put this venue on the map as its in a obscure place on Seel Street and people have missed a fantastic opportunity to see a very talented young  Indie Rock band who bring a style of their own to the genre. Very polished performance who will hopefully be playing bigger venues very soon. 

Michael Kiwanuka @ Epstein Theatre 

I almost kicked myself for missing him at last years Sound City and I was certainly not going to let that happen this year and I can say with all honesty that this has to be the best 90 minutes I've spent listening to live music in a very long time.

I dont quite now how to begin trying to describe this gig apart from using the words sheer brilliance that hits every possible musical tingly part of you. We were taken on a soul train that passed through mellowville and funktown on the way. Joining us along the way were some hauntingly beautiful vocals by Michael Kiwanuka. This set hit every note you could possibly wish for in a gig, and then some. 

He was joined on stage for half of the set with various musicians including Miles James on guitar, Steve Pringle on keyboards and Graeme Godfrey on percussion as well as a bass player and drummer. 

With songs like ,"Rest", "Home Again" , "I'm Getting Ready", a cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Waterfall" and my favourite of the night, "Rest" a solo song that was gentle, emotive, beautiful and rendered the lively audience into sheer silence, as everyone just basked in the pleasure of listening to such a talent. Michael sang the remainder of the set how he had originally played them,and took us back in tie to when he in his bedroom with just his guitar and a pen and paper writing them, and it worked so well, keeping it simple and very real, especially with "Any Day Will Do Fine".
His band joined him back on  stage for a final funked out number which saw the crowd standing up and joining in clapping and dancing along especially one very natty dressed dude who definitely had his funk on big style especially for tonight.
As i said earlier, I'd missed him last time round and am so glad that I didn't this time. So far for Sound City, Michael Kiwanuka has stolen this festivals crown for the most uber performance.




BearinHeaven @ Leaf 

This Brooklyn based "rock" band have to be quite possibly the strangest yet oddly captivating performance so far. With enigmatic lead singer Jon Philpot, clad in a Rambo style vest  and providing some mad 80s dancing with a bit of Tim Booth stylee thrown in for good measure they definitely provided great stage presence.With an electro pop style heavily influenced by the bands of 80s yesteryear they are definitely something a little bit different from what we've seen so far. All in all a highly entertaining set.

Pond @ Kazimier 

An odd little get up from Australia, with Paisley Adams, a mini Sid Vicious look a like as lead singer this rock band were an eccentric little group who provided a pretty damn good end to our Day 2 of reviewing. At times you thought they were going to go right into Rage Against The Machine mode, then into a funked up little beat number all while Paisley swung around the stage on another planet.  After jumping into the crowd half way through set, Paisley just managed to get back on stage and managed to switch of all the lights. Next track saw him playing the flute, not sure I've seen that happen in a rock ensemble before but from the short time they were on stage I realised, it was probably best to expect the unexpected from this curious little lot. But I've got to say, I kinda loved them all the more for it

Review by Alison Goggin
Photos by Thomas Lennon HERE

Article posted by Musicmafia