Independent Venue Week 2018: Pure Joy, Jo Mary, Blurred Sun Band: The Jacaranda, Liverpool

Independent Venue Week may have drawn to a close, but that doesn’t mean that it has to fade away until it pops up in our peripheries at the beginning of 2019.

Instead, Bido Lito!’s closing party ended the week on a high, leaving us eager for next year to get a wriggle on so we can do it all over again.

In the depths of The Jacaranda – one of the best independent music venues the city has to offer, complete with a Beatles history – Saturday night saw an amalgamation of music that was completely varied, but also complementary.

First up were The Blurred Sun Band, a Liverpool-based five piece who were able to switch the direction of a song faster than you could keep up.

Alternating tempos meant their set was far from boring, as soon as you start to settle into a song something new would happen, forcing you to sit up and take note.

Twangy, warped guitars meld together with a light beat, the occasional brass interlude underneath a coat of silky vocals.

The Blurred Sun Band embrace jazz and take it on an existential journey, and the product is what we imagine blues on LSD might sound like.

Next on are Jo Mary, the raucous mischief of every gig they attend. However, that’s not all they bring.

The four-piece are unconventional from the get-go, which matches their psychedelic garage rock sound to a tee.

Naturally, they partially divest half way through, because what kind of Jo Mary set would this be if they didn’t?

Shoes and shirts strewn over the stage, they plough on, with Wife Song a particular highlight, blowing away any cobwebs left in the bricked basement of The Jacaranda with a leap into a punk rock take that explores the complexities of marriage: ’Now he lives in a house that’s a wooden casket’ – we’ll take a stab in the dark and say there’s probably more positive nuptial-related songs out there.

Last on are Pure Joy, with a twist.

Ditching two guitars and vocalists and adding a whole lot of tech, they’ve been reborn as Pure Joy… Go Galactic!

Their new preternatural sound forms a set that’s layer upon layer of warping kaleidoscopic tones, impossible not to bob your head to.

A non-stop set makes a switch of guitarists necessary, each taking their turn to provide the instrumental accompaniment for the various laser-like noises.

Despite the many technical problems they were faced with, Pure Joy… Go Galactic! provided the audience with a fresh and experimental take on their original sound, representing the period for all musicians when something drastically different is needed to keep the music headed in the right direction.