Liverpool Sound City 2016 review: Trudy and the Romance, LOCK, She Drew The Gun, Barbagallo, Sky Valley Mistress and more

LOCK

Dividing his time between The Tall Ship, The Cargo and The North, Getintothis’ Amaan Khan finds some Liverpool bands making some big noise.

We’ll be honest, Sound City is a promising festival but the first day of its 2016 edition gave us a mixed impression. We looked forward to Sunday to deliver on those promises. Before the fatefulness of the evening kicked in, the north end of the festival was more than delivering.

The North Stage had an impressive start with the rock double espresso of Sky Valley Mistress. With their Dead Weather/Patti Smith ferociousness, they delivered a set of burning energy that even included bass solos that people actually listened to. For this writer, they emerged as the most surprising talent brought to the our eyes by Sound City 2016.

Flowing through Night Cafe‘s backbeats and Miserable Faith‘s exotic (albeit uninteresting) sounds, the afternoon welcomed GIT award 2016 nominees Trudy and The Romance. Their doo-wop sound and frontman Oliver Taylor‘s skinny epileptic Elvis dance moves through Baby, I’m Blue felt fresh and charming even in such a musically rich festival. The high point came when fellow Sound City act and friends, Pink Kink joined them as backing vocalists for a cover of Beatles’ Don’t Let Me Down, while perfectly accompanied by Mersey’s winds and a summer sun.

Be sure to check out the rest of our Sound City 2016 coverage here.

French artist Barbagallo turned out to be another pleasant surprise of the day. Something about that language, that things just sound so romantic. Maybe it is some stereotypic judgement on our part or maybe not, given that they even had a song about getting up at night to fetch a glass of water for your partner. Simple. Sweet.

Things were a little less interesting at The Cargo Stage, where the electro-pop of We Are The Night and grunge of DTSQ and 57 managed to be liked by a good crowd without having anything that stood out for this writer.

DTSQ

At the sunset, Glastonbury 2016 emerging talent winners She Drew The Gun impressed with powerful songwriting, a considerable crowd that had been anticipating them at The Tall Ship. It is an act that is quite deservingly set for bigger stages.

Later on in the night, O Captain‘s folk rock and LOCK‘s heavy pop saw a smaller crowd with most people concentrated at bigger stages. Regardless of any tragedy at the main stage, Overall, we would say Sunday was a good day for Cargo, Tall ship and North.

Pictures by Getintothis’ Ryan Jafarzadeh and Vicky Pea.