Liverpool Calling 2018 review

Liverpool Calling, a festival which has been firmly rooted in the city festival scene since 2014. Keeping this in mind it’s refreshing that this 2 day festival hit the happy medium between heralding established indie acts such as Pulled Apart By Horses and The Wytches and maintaining an underground vibe to the proceedings.

Friday evening saw the festival take over the city centre almost as a warm up for the Baltic Triangle gigs the day after. The Friday night showcased new venue Jacaranda Phase One on Seel Street, which has a DIY atmosphere but has potential to be one of the bigger venues on the independent scene.

Up and coming Liverpool outfit The Holograms took the Phase One stage by storm with their dark, funk take on psychedelic rock. There’s a very Scouse twang to the vocals worked perfectly with experimental guitar solos, with Foals-esque moments in between.

Ferocious trio Hey Charlie stormed over Studio 2, with tight vocal harmonies, an unforgettable grungey pop sound with an aesthetic straight out of the film Clueless and definitely the highlight of the Friday.

Maguire’s Pizza Bar hosted Sauce, who again followed that heavy psychedelic blues vibe, but more rock and roll than tropical indie, if we were to compare them and The Holograms. 

Saturday in the Baltic Triangle promised to be an excellent one, and it certainly delivered that promise. Here, The Wytches offered what they do best: a grimey Gothic grunge sound. They played some old hits such as 'Gravedweller,' which the crowd went wild for. After that, the newer songs were still of good quality, but felt like a slow burn rather than an adrenaline rush.

The Eggy Circus, which culminated in a never ending jam of Sister Ray by The Velvet Underground was by far the highlight of the entire weekend amd was a true showcase of Merseyside’s emerging label Eggy Records.

For those in the know, the likes of Jo Mary, Wild Fruit Art Collective and Beija Flo are names that keep appearing within the gigs of Liverpool and this Circus certainly proved their madness and talent, and cemented their place as rising stars not only in the city, but nationally.

Headliners Pulled Apart By Horses offered their well established indie grunge sound, with a mosh pit and crowd surfing from the crowd. A rescheduled gig for Psychocomedy followed after, a band that has grown and progressed exponentially within the last few years. Within this set, they merged together poetry and punk, and offered a Fall-esque vibe to the end of the festival.