Orla Foster is back with the rundown on some of the best gigs happening in Liverpool this November.
Egyptian Blue (3 Nov)
EBGS
Tickets
Championed by IDLES and Birkenhead Library alike, Egyptian Blue have built up a lyrical odyssey out of political despair and bon mots overheard in the pub. After swapping Colchester for Brighton, they’re at the forefront of a buzzy, East Sussex scene, and have just welcomed their debut album A Living Commodity into the world. With their understated confidence and taut, melodic riffs, they’re certain to pack a fierce punch on stage.
Talvin Singh (5 Nov)
The Tung Auditorium
Tickets
Don’t miss the headline act of Liverpool’s INDIKA Festival, a twelve day celebration of Indian arts and culture. Acclaimed composer Talvin Singh brings a multitude of influences into his richly-textured music, in which traditional instrumentation sits alongside electronic soundscapes. With a Mercury Prize and an Ivor Novello under his belt, rest assured he knows exactly what he’s doing with all those drums and dials.
Chartreuse (9 Nov)
The Jacaranda Club
Tickets
After a slew of EPs, at last you can pick up Chartreuse’s debut full-length album Morning Ritual at their special launch event. This genre-fluid four-piece from the Black Country were inspired by information overload when writing the new songs, but if previous releases are anything to go by, they’ll have found the most spare, haunting way possible to explore the dangers of technological excess.
The Murder Capital (11 Nov)
Invisible Wind Factory
Tickets
As the days grow darker, it’s only right that the music should too. Dublin band The Murder Capital are set to bring melancholy to the masses, with their cavernous, poetic post-punk stirring awake your inner 80s goth. Recommended for anyone with an Echo & the Bunnymen-shaped void in their life.
Worriers and PAWS (14 Nov)
FutureYard
Tickets
Formerly a group effort, Worriers is now writer and singer Lauren Denitzio’s solo vehicle. Bandmates aside, all the other ingredients are present and correct: bruised songwriting, piercing honesty, paranoia ramped into feelgood choruses – though that New Jersey DIY sound has been sweetened a little with some new-wave synths. They share the bill with PAWS, a 90s-flavoured Glasgow indie band who like to “turn [their] woes into singalongs” – surely a perfect pairing.
Tom A. Smith (14 Nov)
Kazimier Stockroom
Tickets
Having just unpacked his bags from Hard-Fi’s UK tour, Tom A. Smith returns mercifully alone for this headline show at the Kazimier. Still in his teens, the Sunderland lad already sounds the complete indie package, having turned songwriting into his full-time job after COVID cancelled his GCSEs. With a style that draws on the likes of Alex Turner and Miles Kane, his music wouldn’t have sounded out of place in a Liverpool basement circa 2006.
The Mary Wallopers (18th Nov)
O2 Academy
Tickets
Breathing raucous new life into traditional Irish rebel songs and ballads, The Mary Wallopers are the most fun thing to happen to folk music in a long while. Yes, it would have been nice to catch them playing sessions in the snug of a Dundalk pub, but in the wake of their meteoric rise, count us in for a warm pint of grog at the academy. Nothing could dilute this band’s chaotic, unbridled energy either way.
Liverpool Punx Meeting (18 Nov)
Outpost
Tickets
Outpost continues to provide maximum bang for your buck, serving up five bands for just six quid. There’s Jawless, a female-fronted thrash band from London, Newcastle veterans The Fiend, and homegrown acts like Snakes Among Us, to name but a few. Wash them down with the venue’s peerless pizza and pint selection and you might still have change for the bus home.
Agbeko (19 Nov)
Quarry
Tickets
Agbeko are an 11-strong collective of Manchester audophiles on a mission to update the sounds of 1970s funk and jazz. Focusing particularly on music from the African continent, their new album There Must Be Another Way will strike a chord with anyone possessing a prized copy of Mulatu Astatke. Pause the needle for now though, and go hear some Ethiojazz-indebted sounds in a live setting instead of your living room.
Kneecap (28 Nov)
Camp and Furnace
Tickets
Irish music is well-represented this month in Liverpool, but brace yourself for Kneecap, a trio whose Belfast bravado is served up with balaclavas and a pinch of salt. Switching between English and Irish, the rappers tell hard truths about their complicated identity and the trauma of growing up in a divided country. It’s hit a nerve, if the amount of ruffled feathers is anything to go by: they’ve already upset the DUP and been banned by RTÉ – which has only put a spring in their step.
Orla Foster
