Snoop Dogg and an incident with a falling lighting rig – it’s all going off at St Luke’s Church as Getintothis’ Sean Bradbury wraps up an eventful evening at Liverpool Sound City.
Despite the drizzle and dreary Friday night conditions, the Sound City line-up at St Luke’s Church soldiered through and provided an eclectic evening’s entertainment.
The last 10 minutes of Aussie rocker Daniel Kuhle‘s set was a beautiful shambles.
Daniel Kuhle live at Liverpool Sound City 2012.
The Ironside axeman – with his frizzy ginger beard looking like a multipack of Wotsits crushed and glued to his face – was happily chopping away on his Les Paul, Blues shouter voice doing the business over some fine punch-drunk country rock chops, when a spotlight tumbled from the top of the apparently hastily-erected stage.
Not only did it knock out both his mic and guitar, but it landed upside down and shone a spotlight on his groin.
Not a problem for Kuhle, who embraced it with a joyful, unplugged cry of ‘LIGHTS ON MY NADS!‘ and an almost explicit crotch thrust. Maybe it was part of his act all along.
Oliver Tank live at Liverpool Sound City 2012.
Next up was Oliver Tank, the Antipodean James Blake previously honoured with a Getintothis single of the week award for his blissful electronic daydream Last Night I Heard Everything In Slow Motion.
The danger with someone who weaves such delicate textures is that they won’t carry when played to an audience. But Tank‘s set up of a hat-trick of synths, tasteful, distant wailing on a cherry red Strat and his yearning vocals gave his live sound an extra dimension.
He also brought the bass, making the ground beneath the bombed out church rumble on more than one occasion. Up All Night and a synthtastic take on Snoop Dogg‘s Beautiful were the standouts.
Step Panther live at Liverpol Sound City 2012
Step Panther happily thrashed their way through a succession of short, sharp garage rock shocks, but it was in their more mellow moments such as Maybe Later when musicianship shone through the otherwise sheer noise.
Folk trio Ratty Little Fingers brought things to a close, between them playing almost every stringed instrument under the sun. Their talent is in no doubt, but despite their boundless energy – we’re not sure any of them had both feet on the ground for one second of their set – there was a lack of any truly infectious tunes or memorable melodies.
They will come though. Dancing away and powering through the pouring rain can only be sign of a prodigious work ethic that will surely be rewarded.
Pictures by Darren Aston and Conor McDonnell.
