Sun Club at The Castle Hotel review

Image: Sun Club 

A new wave of fresh faced, scruffy looking, guitar spanking indie upstarts have seemingly revitalised a grunge scene buried in the nineties. Gone are the days of converse, eye wateringly tight jeans and leather jackets, only to be replaced by baggy t-shirts, caps and loose fitting pants. 

In England, Liverpool is at the forefront of this scene, led by The Coral’s estranged talisman, Bill Ryder-Jones. Alongside the likes of Hooton Tennis Club and a host of other dressed down dreamers, the city’s scene is a prime example of this undercurrent in indie music.

On a miserable January evening, Manchester’s Castle Hotel welcomed Baltimore five-piece Sun Club, who showed that a similar scene is bubbling away in America too. 

Guitar troubles had blighted opening number ‘Worm City’ but once they had been dealt with the band were able to continue on with their unusual concoction of summery indie music and warped vocals.

 There were pop hooks aplenty but the band don’t stop at this, there was also whirring keyboard tones and looped voices created by three different synthesisers.

The rampant guitar and drums suited the small venue well, quickly immersing the crowd in their sunshine sonics amongst entirely wooden surroundings. 

On-stage, there were more scatty vocals and animated expressions on the face singer and guitarist Shane Justice McCord, whose intricate fret work was punctuated with yelps and hollers.

He and percussionist Kory Johnson joined fellow guitarist and singer Mikey Powers in a vocal trio whose voices often belied the sound their fingers made. It was this shimmering racket however that carried Sun Club throughout. 

This was particularly true with ‘Summer Feet’, a song that had the band’s curly mops, as well as the audience, bouncing in unison.  

No doubt this is reaction the band are greeted everywhere particularly their native Baltimore which, according to Justice McCord, “Is the coolest city in the world.” 

He also seemed to have fallen in love with Manchester saying that it reminded of him of his origins and had helped with his homesickness. 

Though this may be something he has to get used to if Sun Club continue their journey into rock’n’roll. With their debut album out and a European tour well and truly under way, there may be years on the road ahead of them.

Whether this will bring them to England often in the future remains to be seen as vocals on the likes of ‘Tropicoller Lease’ (listen above) are something quite removed from the status quo of this country’s indie scene. This showed amongst a crowd perhaps expecting something a little more reserved, particularly from the singers. 

With the fast-emerging DIY scene in city's like Manchester and Liverpool however, bands like Sun Club could have a new route - where they would ordinarily only succeed in the states.

If the fashion sense becomes popularised too, it could lead to a shake-up that British indie may not necessarily want but perhaps needs.

Read: Album snapshot Sun Club 'The Dongo Durango'