Sound City celebrated its 15th anniversary in style earlier this month, with some truly exciting up-and-coming artists taking to the multiple stages across city centre venues.
First up on Friday, Sound City+, the festival’s industry conference took place, with some fascinating panel discussions, talks and interviews happening in various venues. We’ve always found Sound City+ to be a great learning and networking experience for those involved in the music industry.
Then, on Saturday the music took over in the likes of Phase One, Jacaranda, Jimmy’s, Zanzibar, the Arts Club and EBGB’s.
The Lathums were on hand at Phase One in the afternoon for an exclusive interview and short acoustic set before headlining at the Arts Club Theatre at 10pm to a full capacity crowd.
In the late afternoon we were lucky enough to catch Brooke Combe in her first of two festival performances. The Arts Club Loft was packed to the rafters with the majority of the audience singing along to Combe’s tracks. A testament to how much of a star she is becoming and will continue growing into.
Yard Act set the scene for the the Arts Club theatre from 6.30pm, with an at-capacity crowd waiting with eager anticipation for one of the most talked about bands of the moment. Luckily for the attendees, who were packed into the venue (including us) the Leeds outfit did not disappoint and delivered one of the sets of the weekend.
The audience remained in high spirits throughout the night and that very much continued for The Lathums closing set.
Across the road at the Zanzibar Club The Royston Club brought their highly appealing alt-indie vibes to another full-capacity crowd. We can’t wait to catch the lads again in the future.
Sunday provided another jam-packed day of quality music, starting with More In Luv, who pulled off an impressive set with their upbeat songs. They delivered a high energy performance which had the crowd bopping along. We’re sure we’ll be catching them live again on the local scene.
We managed to squeeze into the Arts Club to catch the wonderful Alfie Templeman take to the stage. With a huge crowd of adoring fans, the nineteen year old is an acomplished musician as well as being a pure joy to watch. Hannah Grae was another top notch artist to take to the Arts Club Loft stage, with her pop-rock songs, giving us Melanie Martinez vibes.
Baby Queen blew us away with an exhilarating performance, she has all the confidence in the world up there on stage and she made the evening a truely special affair for everyone in attendance.
Headliner SELF ESTEEM locked out the Arts Club Theatre for what will go down as an unforgettable Sound City performance. Her stage name really did ring true with the empowered crowd shouting and singing back to Rebecca Lucy Taylor.
The festival atmosphere was incredible, with there being a real buzz around the city for the entire weekend. Roll on 2023.
Sound City 2023 Super Early Bird tickets are on sale now for just £25, so don’t miss out!
