Festival season is upon us once again and what better way to spend the early May bank holiday than discovering some new bands at the Sound City Festival in Liverpool that boasts an impressive Alumni including Sam Fender, Lewis Capaldi, Lizzo, Olivia Dean, The Reytons and many more.
A smooth drive from Glasgow to Liverpool and wristbands collected had us at The Shipping Forecast for the first band of the day at 1.30pm where Fletchr Fletchr had attracted a decent sized crowd for the time of day, here is a band that supported Imagine Dragons in London last summer playing to over thirty thousand fans. Childhood friends Rohan Fletcher (vocals & guitar) and Adam Sanders (lead guitar) displayed great charisma on stage with the combination of Rohan’s deeply personal vocals and Adam’s superb guitar work winning over the crowd. Whenever, Whenever and new song Passenger were the highlights of the set while the last track of the set Life was dedicated to the vocalists father. This was the lively start to the weekend we were looking for. 8/10
We decided to hang around and await Bristol’s Adult Leisure taking to the same stage, they have been on the must see live list for a few months now after stumbling across their music via the Spotify algorithm back in January. They didn’t let us down! Fresh from a very successful couple of weeks in the USA for New Colossus Festival (New York) and SXSW (Texas) they are riding high at the moment and also released debut album The Things You Don’t Know Yet in October 2025. The music of Adult Leisure can be described as a feel-good 1980’s melodic sound as can be heard during tracks such as Boy Grows Old and Kiss Me Like You Miss Him. The Light You Attract is the band’s most recent release from January and sounded great live, the lack of a barrier meant we could get up really close to the band and this was also helpful for frontman Neil Scott as he is in among the crowd for the last song Borderline stirring things up a little. These guys have everything you want from a band, we will be watching their journey over the next couple of years with interest and hopefully catch them on the next tour. 9/10
Any hopes of seeing PISS were dashed as The Jacaranda was full to capacity to it was down the The Kazimierz Stockroom for The Love Buzz who have come across from Cork, Ireland for the show. The warm weather turned the room into a sauna for half an hour but nobody was complaining, the hypnotic energy transpiring from the stage soon caught hold of the crowd with their self-proclaimed DIY scuzz pop sound, we were glad to have went for plan B now. 7/10
Next up is a local band we saw in the same venue (Arts Club Loft) in 2024 at Sound City. Lee Yoi translates as ‘Two Girls’ from Cantonese but the two girls have allowed their younger brother Donnie to join the band and his Ramones t-shirt tells a story as they are an influence on the band. Matilda Farrell (drums & vocals) and sister Rose (guitar) light up the spacious room for a half-hour filled with a mixture of punk and rock and roll … there is even time for a cover of an Elvis Presley song. Rose makes a statement early in the set “We are a punk band and we don’t use fucking AI!”. They tried to cut the ten song set, not a chance with this trio. Like 2024 they were one of the standouts of the weekend. Everyone should get listening to Lee Yoi. 9/10
The Saturday afternoon headliners are Irish band Gurriers – who come from different parts of the country – playing up at The Dome at Grand Central Hall, the biggest venue of the weekend by far holding around three thousand. We had saw Gurriers supporting Dubliners Inhaler at the O2 Academy in Glasgow last year so were looking forward to an extended set from them. The fans down in the standing area got right behind Gurriers from the word go with the first mosh pits of the weekend opening up, the crowds in Liverpool never fail to impress us. From the first notes of Des Goblin the full hall is electrified with the post punk music and it’s not long until vocalist Dan Hoff is in amongst the crowd creating some memorable energy in the pit. There have been a lot of comparisons to Fontaines D.C. which is a fair point but the music of Gurriers is so raw and exciting that you couldn’t possibly sit down at one of their shows! There are a few new songs on the set today including Nothing Happens Twice and Today’s Not Enough but it is the tracks with the big punch that steal the show, Top Of The Bill and Approachable create the kind of energy that some bigger bands are missing. Gurriers was one of the top three performances of the weekend, watch these guys grow during 2026. 10/10
After sitting down for a chat with The Molotovs, it was now time to see the band in action at the Arts Club Theatre. By the time we turned up there was barely any space which was expected as The Molotovs have had a great start to the year with a sold out UK tour in early January. This was followed by the release of their critically acclaimed debut album Wasted On Youth on 30th January that reached number three in the album charts and has given the band a lot of media attention and comparisons to bands such as The Jam. Siblings Matthew and Issey Cartlidge put on one hell of a show and left a great impression on the fans that were lucky enough to gain entry to their set. A cover of David Bowie track Suffragette City went down well with the knowledgeable crowd and Get A Life, Wasted On Youth and More More More were also appreciated. The Molotovs tour again in September around the UK in bigger venues than last time, we can’t wait to see them again. 9/10
Due to sound issues we only had time to catch half the set from Dea Matrona in the Arts Club Theatre, they are not long off a successful support slot with Canadians The Beaches so they naturally pulled a decent sized crowd. Red Button and So Damn Dangerous were the pick of what we saw. 7/10
Local band Keyside are always a joy to watch and this is their fourth year in succession playing at Sound City, the fact they are playing up at Grand Central Hall tells you how much progress they have made since we first saw them up at Mountford Hall back in 2023 when vocalist Dan Parker looked about fourteen! Latest single Lemon and Lime has been getting a lot of radio airplay and Runaway, Angeline and Nikita are all played superbly well and this solid performance should stand them in good stead for next year. 8/10
Basht. are another Dublin band that have quickly come on to the scene, the Irish seem to have a massive production line of bands that are coming through right now and Basht. are deservedly making waves, the name is an abbreviation of unabashed for those wondering. We have been fans of this band since last summer and they have developed a very unique sound which we have grown to love. The atmosphere in Grand Central Hall is a bit more calm than the Gurriers set earlier, maybe a lot of the crowd are seeing Basht. for the first time tonight but what a show they put on, we can’t big this band up enough. Wild Horses, Burn and Gone Girl are the tracks that do it for us. Basht. are signed up to make their TRNSMT Festival debut next month, now that’s one to look forward to. 9/10
Keo closed off the first day of Sound City in style at Grand Central Hall where we were lucky to get a seat up in the balcony, fronted by the cool, calm and collected Finn Keogh who is sporting sunglasses and a hat that wouldn’t have looked out of place on the head of Captain Sensible (ask your dad)! Considering that Keo have only been releasing music since 2025 they have exploded onto the UK indie scene over the past year and had a very successful recent UK tour where every show was sold out. A fifteen-track set featuring songs from their June 2025 EP Siren alongside some unreleased tunes had the hall buzzing with excitement, the crowd downstairs were singing every word back to the stage thus creating a great takeaway moment from the weekend. Highlights of the hour long set included Hands, Thorn and I Lied, Amber whilst the addition of a cover of The Doors track The End thrown in for good measure was a nice touch. Keo are the real deal and we will be watching their progress with interest. 10/10
Overall day one at Sound City provided everything you could possibly want from a festival, yeah there were the usual clashes with timings but that happens at every festival. Bring on day two!
Written by: Alan Brown
