Liverpool Sound City: It’s Every Band Lovers Dream

Celebrating its 10^th Anniversary, Liverpool Sound City returned to Clarence Dock once again this year for a fantastic weekender overflowing with talented musicians…

 

Following pre-festival warm ups from The Human League and The Velvet Underground at the site days prior, the festival with a heavily dominated line-up of guitars opened their festival gates to the many revelers over the weekend.

 

The Saturday saw a line-up consisting of acts such as the likes of Fickle Friends, The Hunna, The Magic Gang and Metronomy taking to the outdoor and tent stages. As a first time visitor to the festival, it’s hard to know what to expect. As a festival that started off solely in live music venues, similar to the likes of other inner city festivals such as Dot to Dot and Live at Leeds, it came as a bit of a surprise upon arrival.

 

The once small festival has transformed over the years and is now completely outdoors and structured as a proper outdoor festival. Luckily, it’s on the docks so no amount of rain can make the site muddy. Miraculously, the expected rain even managed to cease itself over the festival, making for T-shirt weather and slightly sunburnt music fans across the weekend.

 

Walking into the festival on the Saturday, the skies had begun to cloud over and the wind picked up with dust from the docks blowing out of control. It was sunglasses weather- but not because of the sun, more to protect the eyes from the extremely dusty environment.

 

We initially joked that its dusty grounds made it feel like we had come to a festival on a barren wasteland- but it was a wasteland that we would grow to love over the following days…

 

The first highlight of the Saturday came from The Hunna. Their songs are loaded with anthemic qualities, invigorating melodies and energy, but it was a shame that the sound levels weren’t quite ‘bang on’ during their set as the audience struggled to hear the vocals.

Other sets that were a highlight of the Saturday came from punk duo, Slaves, who encouraged mosh pits on the main stage, whilst sweet indie pop band, The Magic Gang wooed the audience over at the Soundcloud tent.

 

What came, as a surprise was a headline set from Metronomy, which almost felt as though the band would have been much better off headlining a tent as opposed to being main stage material.

 

 

After the closing set, VIVA embarked on a journey back to Manchester in hope to catch some sleep for the following day…

 

Sunday morning came. We made the right decision that hair of the dog would get us out of our hungover stage, and arrived at the festival in time to catch The Shimmer Band. They are funky, exciting and futuristic- ones certainly ones to watch out for in the future.

 

Soaking up the rays in anticipation for The Amazons, we sat on one of the many picnic benches across the grounds. It was such a lovely atmosphere; people drinking, smaller bands handing out free CD’s- a thriving hub for live music.

 

Next up came the set from Reading band, The Amazons. Fairly new on the scene, this band brought with them the best set of the entire weekend. Recently releasing their debut album, this band offers everything you could possibly want in a rock and roll band. Every song is catchy, faultless and sent the audience into frenzy and pints of beer flying left right and centre.

 

A tribute to Manchester was also held, before every one of the 5,000 festival-goers throughout the main stages, smaller stages and tents managed to sing in unison to ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger.’

As the festival drew to a close, Brighton born band, The Kooks closed the main stage. Their timeless classics closed the band-dominated festival perfectly, as thousands of fans united for one last time over the weekend through their love of live music to belt out their favourite classics at the top of their lungs.