After a very lively first day at Sound City we wondered what delights day two would bring. Our day began at The Shipping Forecast once again where Australian trio Fool Nelson were playing their first ever show in the UK, they will be in the UK for the full month of May that includes an appearance at The Great Escape Festival in Brighton. Fool Nelson are brothers Tom and Ned Broadbent who are joined by best mate Darcy. Two guitarists and no bass made for a unique set of indie-rock tracks that the crowd seemed to enjoy. 7/10
A quick walk down to The Arts Club to interview Australian band Teenage Joans and back to the same venue meant that we caught the full set from Zander who has six band members on what is a relatively small stage working through an entertaining set of songs with pop, rock and folk influences. 7/10. We decided to stay in the same venue for an indie-rock band all the way from South Korea, they have come such a long way to play here in Liverpool so we thought it would be rude not to! Inaekkum are the name of the band who played their first ever UK gig the previous night in Belfast. They are very entertaining too and we are glad to have stuck around, there aren’t many band’s who have a drummer that takes to the stage wearing a cardboard cut out cow mask! 8/10
We decided to head up to The Dome at Grand Central for Kate Nash who was the Sunday teatime headliner, we wish we hadn’t bothered. This really wasn’t our thing at all and Kate even went fifteen minutes over her allocated forty-five minute set that subsequently pushed all the other bands timings back and even led to a couple of shortened sets. Two days after the festival we discovered that Newcastle’s Andrew Cushin had played a secret acoustic set at The Tunnel – if only we had known that at the time it would have saved our ears a little from Kate Nash.
After the previous disaster we had to wait a little bit longer for M60 but the wait was worth it, we had intentionally missed out on their Glasgow show a couple of days before as we knew they were a late addition to the Sound City line-up. The M60 set may have been cut short by one song but the six we did get to hear were explosive and very pleasant on the ears especially the final three of the set – Honey, Darling and I Don’t Mind – while new release Southpaw was sung perfectly by Matthew Morton, I Don’t Mind is by far M60’s most popular track and the crowd reaction is decent in the Grand Central Hall. 9/10
As the weekend had been full on so far a decision was made to stay in our seats for Picture Parlour and we are so glad that we did, Katherine Parlour on vocals has such an energetic stage presence that works well alongside the guitar work from Ella Risi, they deserved a much bigger crowd though although there was some competition with Bleech 9:3 and (Permanent) Joy also playing around the same time in other venues. This is our fourth year on the trot at Sound City and the difference this year is how many bands we saw up at Grand Central Hall, usually the smaller sweatboxes are more appealing, this time around The Shipping Forecast, Arts Club (up and downstairs) and Kazimierz Stockroom were the only others we reached this year. Getting back to the Picture Parlour performance the best for us was Norwegian Wood, a very popular track among their fans. 8/10
After our earlier interview with Aussies Teenage Joans it was now time to see them in action for the first time – quite literarily – as this was their first ever show outside of Australia, we felt privileged to be a part of the show. The minute we walked into the Arts Club Loft the duo were just restarting freshly released track Coming Up From Hell that sounded very impressive, the vocalist and drummer Tahlia Borg and guitarist Cahli Blakers are a perfect pairing as musicians, they work so seamlessly together. Their debut album The Rot That Grows Inside My Chest was released in 2023 to critical acclaim back home in Adelaide where they have a huge following and from this performance tonight we can see why. They were honoured to be chosen to support Biffy Clyro a few months ago when they were in Australia touring, another reason why you should give Teenage Joans a listen. The three takeaway songs for us were Bandit, Candy Apple and 5 Things I Can Taste. We also saw them a couple of days after Sound City in Glasgow, look out for the Bring The Noise review of that one as well as the interview. 9/10
A quick dash back up to Grand Central Hall for Brooke Combe – one of our favourite Scottish musicians – who brings a good hint of soul to proceedings setting us up nicely for the amazing Jalen Ngonda who would be closing the festival for the weekend after Brooke’s performance. We saw her perform in this very venue at Sound City last year and she has released debut album Dancing At The Edge Of The World in January 2025 thus providing a wider collection of tracks to choose from. Brooke had a couple of sold out shows at Saint Luke’s in Glasgow in April proving how popular her music has become, there are gremlins playing out as the microphone needs attention from the sound people as Brooke tells us that she thought she was playing for an hour tonight! The new songs are sounding amazing in this venue that is completely packed out now as everyone awaits Jalen Ngonda making an appearance. How Can I Tell You? (To Love me More) and the album title track Dancing At The Edge Of The World are the two standouts for us from the half hour set, there is no doubt that Brooke Combe will be back headlining Sound City before we know it. 9/10
Jalen Ngonda may have been born in Maryland USA but Liverpool has laid the foundations of his career after enrolling for the Liverpool Institute For Performing Arts, we suppose we could call Jalen an honorary Liverpudlian then? This chap is following on from Olivia Dean who has hit the big time since we saw her playing at Sound City in 2023, Jalen focuses on his debut record Come Around And Love Me from which he plays five songs but there are also a few from the new album mixed in with them including Anyone In Love and Doctrine Of Love. Another new one is Hannah, What’s The Matter? that Jalen dedicates to anyone with the name of Hannah, we have never seen this venue so packed out, everyone is clambering for a tiny space to rest their weary bodies and the stairs seems to be the perfect place for some. Every song gets a rapturous applause from the appreciative crowd who all know that they are witnessing something special and beautiful here. You can just feel this guys talents shining through during songs such as Come Around And Love Me where Ngonda is on keyboards and Just As Long As We’re Together where his vocals bring out the goosebumps. A cover of Aaron Neville song Tell It Like It Is is a special moment as MT Jones joins him on stage much to the crowd’s delight after MT Jones himself attracted a huge crowd earlier.
Last but not least from the thirteen track set is If You Don’t Want My Love, by far Jalen’s most popular song on Spotify with no less than one hundred and ninety five million streams at the last check. Jalen Ngonda is a true soul musician that ticks every box for him to be the next big thing, the superb voice, his guitar playing skills and how easily he can move from piano to guitar and back will stand him in good stead when he hits the big time and is playing arenas. He has now announced a UK tour with no surprise who will be supporting him on the tour: Brooke Combe. That’s one not to be missed, the upcoming album in June will be well worth a listen and should easily achieve the number one slot on the UK album chart. 10/10
Well that wraps up Sound City for another year, we are so looking forward to next year already and we will be watching to see how this years performers fare over the next year.
Written by: Alan Brown
