FESTIVAL REVIEW: Sound City Festival – Saturday, Liverpool, 04/05/2024 (2024)

It’s that time of year again when we head to Sound City Festival as the early May bank holiday saw people head to Liverpool in their masses from all corners of the UK. Last year’s event was split over three days but this year it was just the two which made it more interesting as most of the venues were close to each other.

Wristband collected it was a stroll around checking out the venues before Harry McKenny opened the festival at The Spanish Caravan at 1pm, the small venue being jam packed with everyone wanting a good start to the weekend. The local Liverpool lad has only been making music for a year but he gained a few new fans with his acoustic set. 6/10. Next up was Viddy also at The Spanish Caravan. They are a five-piece alternative pop band and it was an interesting mix of tunes during their half hour set which set us up nicely for a full on day of music. 6/10

At 17 years of age Alex Spencer is already making some great tunes as proved by the 300 or so that turned up to The Arts Club Loft at 2pm to hear the young Manchester lad work through a very lively set of indie rock tunes including latest release Fear Will Kill The Future, Waiting For The Chance and One Way Ticket. This talented musician has a big future ahead of him. 8/10. A quick dash round the corner to see Londoner Lo Lauren at The Shipping Forecast was worth the effort as Lauren and her drummer provided half an hour of high energy electro-pop for the small crowd, the highlights being Only One On Earth, by far their biggest song, the set ending with a new track Wonder. 8/10.

It was back to the Arts Club Loft for Glaswegians rockers Resister at 3pm who we saw recently supporting Rosellas. Although their vocalist was ill, hats off to him for fighting through, the drummer stole the show with an impressive performance alongside some vocals and by the end of the set the drum kit was just about to collapse! Their two recent releases Sarah and Get Some were highlights of the set. 7/10. The Odds provided some nice indie tunes at the Arts Club Loft during a solid half hour performance. The music is warming up nicely. 7/10.

Next up Sheffield rockers The Rosadocs were at the Arts Club Theatre. They have a very unique sound with the vocalist keeping the crowd onside with his energetic performance, coming into the crowd at one point. Biggest song to date is No 54 the band’s first ever release. We were delighted to hear a new track Stand Alone whilst Settle Down sounded excellent. One of the best bands of the day so far. 9/10.

Bleach Lab played an outstanding set at The Shipping Forecast at 5.30pm, this band are getting lots of attention and will be playing more than a few festivals over the summer months. Their music can be described as indie-pop or dream-pop and there is certainly a mixture of both in the songs. Vocalist Jenna Kyle is coolness personified with an incredible voice and all four band members were working hard on the stage during the eight-track set, six of the tracks from the 2023 album Lost In A Rush Of Emptiness. The band write from the heart and you can feel this intensity during tracks such as Nothing Left To Lose and Everything At Once, their song-writing touches on subjects such as toxic relationships and loss. Old Ways is by far Bleach Lab’s biggest track with over a million streams on Spotify alone and this was one of the standouts in the set along with Safe Place. Look out for them at the festivals during the summer. 9/10

Red Rum Club were already on stage at Grand Central Hall when we arrived at 6pm meaning we only caught half the set, but what a half hour it was! The place was absolutely packed to the rafters as Kids Addicted got everyone dancing and singing along like in one big party. Red Rum Club have just came off a very successful UK tour including a sell-out crowd at Liverpool’s M & S Bank Arena, their home city, and a mural was recently unveiled to the band in the Sefton area, so these guys are big stuff in Liverpool right now. The last two tracks of the set were the highlights, Vanilla followed by Would You Rather Be Lonely? ended the hour long set on a high as the crowd once again helped out with the chorus. A decent return of fifteen songs from the local heroes as the fans enjoyed hearing a few tracks from the recently released album Western Approaches. 9/10.

Tik Tok sensations Good Neighbours put on a lively show at the Arts Club Theatre with their viral song Home being the highlight, a track that has over 168 million plays on streaming platforms. The unreleased track Blue sounded great. 8/10. King No-One are well known for their lively shows and stage antics of vocalist Zach Lout, it wasn’t long until he was running along the bar! Alcatraz and Roll Of The Dice best of the set. 9/10.

Deco brought the energy to the Arts Club Loft although there was quite a delay in them taking to the stage. Deco’s music can be described as indie synth-pop and write mostly summer feel-good pop hits. They toured the UK in 2023 selling out a lot of the shows and this year will be touring with Nile Rodgers & CHIC this summer and have a debut album on the horizon! The cover of The Verve’strack Bitter Sweet Symphony always goes down well at their live shows and tonight was no different. Deco head out on their own tour at the end of the year. 8/10.

The Lottery Winners set at The Arts Club Loft was the best of the whole day even though there was a delay in their appearance on stage due to the technical issues. They had the packed room onside from the first song Worry as vocalist Thom Ryceland led a singalong “All in my head is worry, worry, worry, worry”, the crowd response was just the start they were looking for as the full room sang the lyrics back to the stage. A short rendition of The Beatles track Hey Jude gave the crowd another opportunity to exercise their vocal chords, a fitting tribute to the late Seymour Stein who helped get them signed to Modern Sky Records in 2019. This band have been on the rise since then, even bagging a number one album Anxiety Replacement Therapy in 2023. Start Again and Letter To Myself were definitely the highlights of the set and the crowd left the Arts Club Loft knowing that they had witnessed a very special performance tonight. 10/10.

Written by: Alan Brown