Liverpool Sound City 2013 offers up lad rock, glock rock and a bobby dazzler of a frock, Getintothis’ Dru Ryder discovers enough new music for a lifetime. Job’s a good ‘un.
Heading over to The Shipping Forecast to begin the last day of Sound City, we were slightly saddened at the idea of all the musical madness coming to the end.
Our melancholy was soon forgotten as Dexters smashed out some serious lad rock. Previously touring with The Courteeners, you can hear heavy traces of the Manchester band in Dexters billowing tunes. Strumming the strings off guitars and deep power vocals were the perfect combination to get the night off the ground.
A venue that’s been made frequent use of this time around is The Garage; grotty car park by day and an adept festival venue by night ideally suited to powerful electro, The Last Days of 1984 induced plenty of head-bobbing early doors. With shades of Django Django they showed plenty of potential, however, there was a side order of self-indulgence as they gazed into their keyboards and The Garage was left pretty vacant by the close of play.
Mutiny On The Bounty – no holding back at Screenadelica for Sound City
On a different note entirely, a musical galaxy far far away from synths and shoegazing, Highfields played to a crowd in awe at Leaf.
It was refreshing to see a band smiling, rather than the cool moody glares. With no pretensions, their gypsy folk and honest lyrics brought a smile to every face, while the disparate use of instruments, such as, cello, glocks and an accordion showed off their diverse musical skills.
The crowd went from swaying to jiving and back again with such a range of songs, shifting from the subtle to bombastic seamlessly. Punchy chorus’s and heavy bass lines seemed to still convey the messages of love and loss, never losing the meaning of the song.
Golden Fable – fairytale magic at Sound City
After a great deal of bouncing, we dragged ourselves back to The Garage for Golden Fable, who recently supported GIT Award nominees Wave Machines.
Aptly looking as if they had just stepped out of a fairytale, vocalist Rebecca Palin was dressed in what seemed to be a floor length, Victorian wedding dress and a sharp pixie hair cut, we expected nothing less than magical, other wordly music.
Electronic and synthesised they contrasted their sounds with the ethereal voice of the Palin, who sounded as if she belonged in a choir of angels.
With the gypsy folk and electro pop covered it was time to head over to The Brink for some stripped back acoustics from Richard Walters and Ali Ingle.
Both imbued poetic lyrics with quivering voices to a quietly captivated crowd. A charming send off after a day of manic musical inspiration.
The last day of Sound City went off with a bang and we’ve come away with a whole host of new music discoveries just ready to break out into the big time. Job done.
Pictures by Getintothis’ Conor McDonnell and Sakura.
