Liverpool’s cultural renaissance over the past decade or so has allowed the city to flourish in ways that I don’t think even the people themselves could have expected and it’s perhaps best delineated by the inner-city festivals that litter the surrounding area. FestEvol, ran by Club Evol promotions, returns at the end of this month, this time at the resplendent Invisible Wind Factory with its biggest line-up yet. Headliners come in the form of Wild Beasts, The Parrots and The Sundowners, but it’s the smaller acts on the bill that have captured our attention. Here at So Young, we’ve compiled a handy list of the best acts to catch if you happen to be gracing the festival. Without further ado…
The Big Moon
Where? Caladan Stage
If there’s any band at this moment in time who look like they’re having the most fun, it’s The Big Moon. Romantic and ramshackle with a brilliantly, wry outlook on life, their music is the perfect manuscript for life as a 20-something, with songs about love, hangovers and dodging boredom.
Cabbage
Where? Caladan Stage
No explanation necessary if you follow So Young, but if anything can be learned from Cabbage since their rapid clamber to the forefront of the music press, it’s that they just about never rest. If you thought that since frontman Lee Broadbent has essentially broken his pelvis that their stage shows will be any less dilapidated, then think again; Cabbage are always here to entertain. A perfect snapshot of Northern debauchery.
PINS
Where? Caladan Stage
Purveyors of style AND substance, we’ll have you know, PINS combine understated girl-group pop with a searing, stripped down, post punk dynamic and after sending their sound to the Joshua Tree desert a couple of years, expect supreme refinery from one of Manchester’s finest new age exports.
The Blinders
Where? Genesis Cave
Visceral trio on the ascent, whose live shows are as established as their penchant for black marker pens in which they scrawl their manifestos on their chests, with “Fuck The NME” and “Pig Fucker” serving as glimpses into their anger. Inspired by beat poets and a darker strain of psychedelia, you’d be a tit to miss these.
White Room
Where? Vermilion Sands
Enigmatic bunch from Brighton whose shamanic stage presence, induction of the tambourine, coruscating guitar patterns and perky percussion evoke a feeling of heady joy. Make sure you catch “Think Too Much” live for a what-the-world-is-waiting-for kind of moment.
The Orielles
Where? Genesis Cave
A fresh-faced bunch from Halifax, The Orielles dip in-between Northern noir and happy, dreamy guitar pop with unnerving ease; the best band if you enjoy your indie macerated in all flavours and eras. Personally, I can’t wait to hear their sprawling new single, Sugar Tastes Like Salt, in the flesh. Eight minutes of pure, downbeat groove.
Psycho Comedy
Where? Vermilion Sands
Liverpool natives but much more in tune with the downtown cool of 1970s New York, Psycho Comedy have it stamped all over, especially on frontman Shaun Powell’s Iggy Pop snarl. They even look like they could be long-lost members of Television.
Dream Wife
Where? Caladan Stage
The coolest girl gang in town, Dream Wife’s Icelandic charm and fiery attitude is nothing compared to their sugary sound met with the tangiest of aftertastes. Imagine a 90s teen movie soundtrack with Rose McGowan in and you’re halfway there.
Buy your Tickets here: https://www.skiddle.com/