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As an entrée to the main course of Sound City next month, a brace of Liverpool acts all scheduled to play the festival jumped aboard The Shipping Forecast.
Taking to the stage before an impressive crowd, considering the early hour, Luke Fenlon easily wins over the partisan audience. Summer sounding vaguely like The Velvet Underground’s Waiting For the Man and Factory Floors push his soul bearing lyrics to the forefront of the sound.
Replete with a cellist, Fenlon’s band evoke unfairly overlooked proto-Britpop types The Auteurs, who also employed a cello in their line-up, even if the lyrics of the present act don’t have the same bilious intent of Luke Haines’ mob.
The Red Suns, stood up to attention during last year’s Sound City and have maintained interest in their output with a slow drip-drip of releases, despite gigging activity in the city being sparse.
Returning with a tougher sound, the band rumble through several tracks driven by motorik beats, concluding with a double-hit of tracks powered by endlessly looped basslines, less in thrall to the crystalline guitar sounds of U2 and the Bunnymen of times past.
The Suzukis follow and pick up the pace with a teeth-rattling opening brace of tracks. Commendably facing out into the audience, the band trade in the same raw ferocity of early Oasis, with the volume jumping several notches as they begin their sonic assault.
Frontman Chris Veasey’s compelling mixture of Liam Gallagher spliced with Mark E. Smith, stood almost eyeball to eyeball with the front row of the audience easily captures the crowd’s sudden burst of attention.
Possibly not the slickest or most refined of the current crop of guitar bands, The Suzukis quash any potential shortcomings or reservations the audience may have by sheer dint of being really, bloody loud.
Built In, racing past in a blur of hollered vocals, thrumming basslines and stinging guitar lines nicely building up expectations for the band’s long-awaited debut LP, slated for release later this year.
All photos by Marie Hazlewood/Purple Revolver