Live music in Liverpool this week: 3 - 9 Aug

We dive into the listings to bring you the essential guide to gigs in Liverpool this week – plus the latest news on festivals, tour announcements and more. Think we've missed something? Hit up will@theskinny.co.uk with the details... 

Wed 3 Aug

The week gets off to a spectacular start as slowcore progenitors and general indie rock heroes Low visit Liverpool. Last year's Ones and Sixes effort demonstrated that they're still masters of their craft, even with their career now well past the 20-year mark, but live performance is the area where they truly come to life.

Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker's eerily precise harmonies lend emotional heft to their sparsely sombre wares, while the near-silence that characterised their earlier work is replaced by a denser pallette that can leave their shows feeling like spiritual experiences, rather than musical ones. The week's must-see.
Epstein Theatre, 7pm, £22.50 

Fri 5 Aug

Berlin-born, London-based Roxanne de Bastion makes an appearance at Leaf, showcasing her rich yet delicate compositions. There's a keening melodicism that underpins her folk-tinted pop, topped off by an intelligent lyrical angle that doesn't so much tug at the heartstrings as paw at them deftly, prompting the sort of yearning philosophy that any singer-songwriter worth their salt should be reaching for. It's been two years since her Seeing You EP; expect new songs among old favourites.
Leaf, 8pm, £7-10

Sat 6 Aug

A night of local heroes comes to the Buyers Club on Saurday. Toxteth indie rockers Polar States head the bill with shimmering Bloc Party guitars and skyscraping melodies; they're joined by the rather more brusque sounds of nattily-dressed garage rockers Spares, Runcorn retro-rockers Factory and the math-inflected musings of Herbivore Men (who've doubtless heard a Minus the Bear album or two in their lifetime – lovely stuff). All for a bargainous £6 too.
Buyers Club, 7.30pm, £6

Over at Maguire's, the Riverside Rebels roller derby crew host their fourth birthday party. They'll be raising money for Action for Trans Health with the help of a duo of local punk faves: Elmo and The Styx take infuence from the likes of NoMeansNo and the Minutemen, lacing their angular fury with a smattering of funk. Meanwhile Katy McGrath appears fresh from last week's debut appearance as a member of new trio Snakes Everywhere, returning to her singular brand of acoustic punk rock in the meantime. Can't argue with that.
Maguire's Pizza Bar, 8pm, £5

Sun 7 Aug

Up'n'coming Skinny faves Rongorongo lead the charge at another impressive evening of local talent: their dream-psych-kraut-pop-rock-noise loveliness makes for an excellent spectacle, but Deltasonic signing Tom Low is also starting to come into his own, with this year's Phone EP showing off the more off-kilter elements to his effortless McCartney melodies.

Of a simillarly wonky bent are A Lovely War, who take the notion of chamber-pop down some thoroughly twisted paths, and the tripped-out whisperings of Mary Miller, on whose ethereal talents we advise you all to keep a very close eye. Hmm, maybe this is the unmissable one...
Buyers Club, 7.30pm, £5

Sun 8 Aug

Remember pop-punk? Well, of the Blink-182 variety, at any rate. Cardiff's Junior certainly do, and they bring their pogo-ing party to Maguire's with help from Sheffield's Fierce Morgan.

The latter describe their sound as "music to skate to, made by people who can't skate", and anyone still pining for the late 90s explosion of chequerboard sweatbands and fratboy movie soundtracks will almost certainly get their jollies here. Local speed merchants Meet the Robots and Manchester posi-hardcore types AVAS complete the bill.
Maguire's Pizza Bar, 7.30pm, £5

Still, if you prefer your ears blown out, your outlook resolutely bleak and your bones ground down to dust (...and who doesn't?), there's always Cattle Decapitation.

Now somehow 20 years into their career, the San Diego deathgring quartet bring last year's opus The Anthropocene Extinction to Liverpool, and as endless millennia of Tory reich slowly reveal themselves as a grim inevitabity, we can think of no better way to revel in the hopeless futility of it all. Plus they're dead good. Plus support from Creptiation, Exhumation and Deified.
The Magnet, 7.30pm, £12

Mon 9 Aug

Speaking of 90s punk (well, two shows back), ska-punk veterans Big D and the Kids Table make a long-awaited return to the UK this month. Iron your baggy pants (or on second thoughts, maybe don't) and prepare for an evening of skanking and general merriment. 'Pick it up, pick it up,' as they say.
Arts Club, 7pm, £14

Now booking...

Honeyblood, photo: Haydn Rydings

Glasgow-based grunge-pop duo Honeyblood hit the road again in November, and their viscerally addictive racket makes a stop in Liverpool on 18 November. With second album Babes Never Die prepped for released earlier that month, it's another surefire victory for local promoters EVOL. Buy tickets here.

Also returning to action that month are motorik shoegazers TOY, whose third album is now well underway following a three-year wait since previous effort Join the Dots. Catch 'em at The Magnet on 24 November, and get your tickets here.