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The Hold at The Shipping Forecast was impressively full on a school night for a gig to flag up the opening of the applications for Liverpool Sound City 2012.
A bill pulled together by Sound City and nascent gig promoters Milk Presents, headliners Kill it Kid were up against it from the get-go, with the sound mix doing the band no favours.
With the soundboard beset by gremlins, the band soldiered on, as the group’s churning riffs sounded muddy instead of sharp.
Effectively an update of seventies rock titans like Zeppelin and Sabbath given a contemporary twist, with the keyboard sound rectified and the band’s sampler spluttering into life the group found their feet.
Despite the glitches, Chris Turpin’s bellowed vocals displayed admirable conviction, the quartet playing the bulk of new LP Feet Fall Heavy.
Prior attraction The Loud sauntered onstage and launched without introduction into Amy’s Gonna Get You.
A bovver booted variant on T-Rex’s elfin glam, the band’s mid-tempo thug boogie blared from the PA.
Lee Pennington’s occasionally shrill holler was pushed upfront, slicing through Avida Dollars, Salvador Dali’s self-tribute to his pursuit of greenbacks.
For My Record Machine benefited from its increased pace live, dispensing with the sludgy riffs to hone in on something poppier.
If The Loud’s material gained from its added velocity, El Toro might be advised to take the opposite tack and slow down slightly to allow their sinewy riffs room to breathe.
Commencing with a Link Wray meets Morricone spaghetti western number saw singer Jimmy jitterbugging around the stage.
The surf punks’ tracks were played with aplomb but suffered from a slight feeling of sameyness over the course of a set.
Lucky Beaches on first continued their ascent in unequivocal fashion, Luke Muscateli’s crew weighing into a toughened up Circles in My Mind early on.
A lone lament on record live, Heavy Load sounded as though it had escaped from The Beatles’ Live at the BBC, bassist Ben’s twisting foundation lines powering the song forwards.
The quartet’s confidence onstage was evident throughout, after bungling the close of No Need to Feel Alone following its triumphant choruses, the band burst into laughter as opposed to looking embarrassed.
I’ll Let Go Now (Honey, True) meanwhile was imbibed with the spirit of Lennon, without slavishly copying him.
The subtly anthemic Group Hallucination, a distant cousin of The Mighty Quinn was the highpoint of the set, continuing the band’s run of exemplary alternative pop songs.
Photos by Marie Hazlewood