Northwest Gig Highlights – May 2014

Things are starting to hot up nicely, at least as far as gigs are concerned. May looks very promising indeed with some eminent acts coming to the Northwest this month: Neutral Milk Hotel, anyone? Sadly those two nights at Albert Hall have long sold out and we’re not quite at the ‘tipsy on cider while wearing wellies’ stage yet, but there are a few indoor festivals to keep your thirst quenched for now.

The party pre-drinks obviously start in Liverpool with Liverpool Sound City (1-3 May) offering absolutely loads of artists for you to gawp at over the May bank holiday weekend: 360 in fact, across 25 venues. Headlining acts include Jon Hopkins’ ambient IDM at Nation (1 May), Fuck Buttons’ alien electronica at the same venue the following day, and drunk-rock storytellers The Hold Steady at The Garage (both 2 May). There’s also space at the Zanzibar for Aussie avant-gardener Courtney Barnett (1 May), and Merseyside up-and-comers Bird and All We Are are scaling the Anglican Cathedral (both 3 May). There are so many performers that we can’t possibly list every one of them, so you’d better head over there and sample the diversity for yourselves.

If not being able to catch all those acts makes you want to yell your throat raw, there’s always the punk and hardcore all-dayer Fury Fest at East Village Arts Club on 10 May, where anthemic New Yorkers I Am the Avalanche (also at Manchester’s Sound Control, 13 May) and dirty Brighton pop-punkers Gnarwolves are spurring the nodule-hammering gang chants. Incredibly this month, EVAC also finds a spot for Speedy Ortiz (19 May), the knotty indie quipsters making their Liverpool debut after a promising first UK tour back in February, along with Smoke Fairies’ bluesy folk harmonies on 29 May (also at Band on the Wall, Manchester, 27 May). Good going, guys. The Kazimier puts in a respectable shift too, giving the impressively-bearded Action Bronson the stage to assert his distinctive trashy hip-hop on 13 May before I Am Kloot’s John Bramwell’s wistful kitchen-sink acoustics on 17 May.

Keen not to be outdone by Liverpool’s zeal, Salford’s Chapel Street hosts Sounds from the Other City for the tenth time on 4 May, piling bands into an assortment of venues along the strip. Japanese no wave three-piece ZZZ’s conduct their aural assault at student favourite The Old Pint Pot, and twangy minstrels The Travelling Band refashion Neil Young’s On The Beach tucked beneath a railway arch at First Chop Brewing Arm. Meanwhile, PINS scour Peel Hall for local post-punk girls like them, and Lee Gamble and Karen Gwyer lead the ever-rebellious St Philip’s Church in an AV rave ‘commemorating’ the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. (Those are just the programmed highlights – look out for hashtag #SFTOCSkinny on Twitter for some special secret gigs.)

Islington Mill are doubling up admirably in May, not only acting as SFTOC’s central hub but also serving up The Lost Weekend, a two night residency curated by Leeds psychedelic noiseniks Hookworms (30-31 May) – more on that below. It’s bound to be a groovy end to the month.

On the other side of the Irwell, the Manchester Psych Fest at the Night & Day Café (31 May) looks to match Hookworms’ wriggle, embracing the spaced-out in all its woozy splendour with a line-up featuring the colourful TOY and two (yes, two) sets by Pete Bassman, formerly of seminal genre reps Spacemen 3, just to give even more atmosphere to proceedings. Lineage seems to be a theme at the moment, as Malian kora legend Toumani Diabaté passes the torch to his son Sidiki at the RNCM on 24 May (also at St George’s Hall, Liverpool, 27 May), and Scotland’s gloomy shoegazers The Twilight Sad (2 May, Deaf Institute) play all of their accordion-lunged first album Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters in honour of its rerelease back on Record Store Day.

Finally, there’s a horrible dilemma in store on 22 May. Should you go for the pummelling transcendence of Swans paired with Norwegian experimental voyeur Jenny Hval at Manchester Academy, the clear winner of May’s Gig Most Likely to Spark a Quasi-Religious Orgy award? Or, if you prefer something less wilfully torturous but equally confrontational, Cloud Nothings will be yowling their disaffected noise punk at the Deaf Institute on the same date. Speaking of the Academy, you still have the chance to witness futuristic funk’s leading lady Janelle Monáe (7 May), and Adam Granduciel’s The War on Drugs (28 May), whose dreamy Americana drifts us down the highway of personal discovery. If all this splendour just makes you long to take to the open road, tents shoved in the back seat, in search of sun and music beating across a far-off field, try to be patient. Summer will be here soon enough. 

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DO NOT MISS:

The Lost Weekend @ Islington Mill, Salford, 30-31 May

Not content just searing through our insides with their caustic horror-psych, popping up in mates' bands or running a recording studio, Leeds-based five-piece Hookworms are now curating their own mini-festival, taking place in the suitably trippy environs of Islington Mill, home to Salford's leftfield hivemind. At the encouragement of promoters Grey Lantern and wotgodforgot, MJ and crew have brought together a two-day programme featuring forbidding sounds from Manchester, London, Brighton and beyond – and will unleash their own melodic scourge, showcased on last year's runaway hit LP Pearl Mystic, on both nights.

Friday plays prelude to Saturday's somewhat heavier programming, with Novella, Ultimate Painting and Sex Hands bringing as much light as they do weight – the latter Mancunians are an especially fun experience, bringing jokes and genuine tunes to their keen-eyed slacker racket. Meanwhile, Novella's rough, beachy pop looks just the right amount of askance; and you may know Jack and James of Ultimate Painting better as two of Veronica Falls, here giving their new project an early outing.

Saturday takes things up – or perhaps more accurately, down – a notch, with Cold Pumas' lurching paranoia, the lethal scree of Vision Fortunes' fragmented rock, and Brighton's Sealings' anxious electronics (in their first show in the North of England). Elsewhere, locals Mazes' allergic pop should keep bodies moving – or if you're totally strung out, which let's face it you're probably gonna be, you can contemplate the infinity of space and time on a sofa at the back to the tiered, tessellating synths of Moon Gangs. Friday starts at 8pm and tickets are £8.50; Saturday kicks off at 5pm for £9.50, or you can nab a weekend ticket for just £15. Props to the band and promoters for thinking big, but remaining discerning. [Laura Swift]