To quickly sum up the festival for those in the dark; six stages set in seven acres with acts including; Frank Turner, Darwin Deez, The Futureheads and The King Blues, as well as an array of local bands and DJ crews. The festival organizers seem to have made a conscience effort to get local and up and coming talent involved as well – with Norwich’s own indie-pop champions The Kabeedies taking to the stage on Saturday.
With plenty to see this weekend at Play Fest, so I thought I better put together a list of some of the ones which we have caught over the year or just love and are worth a watch/listen… (Full line-up here).
Play Fest – Catch Them If You Can
Being from the fine city of Norwich, I first saw The Kabeedies’ interpretation of catchy indie pop years ago and I am still genuinely impressed by their live shows. Their debut album Rumpus fell easily into ‘Artrockers 20 Albums of 2009′, and was inspired by “The Cheek, Charity Shops, Talking Heads, Call of Duty 4, Velvet Underground…”. The band is still flying high from their track Come On and its selection for the Xbox 360 Kinect adverts. It’s a catchy one.
The Kabeedies – Santiago
I discovered the band while up in my university city of Leeds last year and have been following them ever since. Classic indie, clearly drawing influences from bands such as The Sunshine Underground and Bloc Party, the angsty tones of Club Smith certainly give a sense of a young man against the world. With catchy lyrics, driving heavy bass and clear guitar riffs, they’re ones for the youngsters. Rough Trade creatively describes the forthcoming release No Friend of Mine’ as sounding like a call to arms. I Caught them performing an exciting live set at The Waterfront in Norwich on their UK support slot for The Pigeon Detectives. Definitely a crowd pleaser.
No Friend Of Mine by Club Smith
Another Norwich band who have been around for a while, but are still pretty damn good. Cleary drawing from a range of influences from Radiohead to Cold War Kids, the band’s interpretation of almost British nineties indie is inspiring. Well known for their exciting live shows, they would be a tragedy to miss.
Another Leeds based group, Dinosaur Pile-Up have finally come into the spotlight with their new album ‘Growing Pains’. Many have focused on the band either being grunge rivalists of just nineties copycats. Although there is clearly influences drawn from Foo Fighters, Biffy Clyro and Ash the band is something a little different, fusing rawness and brutality with clear melodies and well thought out lyrics. With only three of them, they put on a loud and proud live show.
MONA LISA by Dinosaur Pile-Up
There sound is very unique, a delightful mix of country and folk. Louise from the band have recently been working with Laura Marling on some exciting stuff, so we will have to wait and see what comes of that. Unfortunately just missing out on the Glastonbury Emerging Talent competition but were fantastic at the Blue Walrus/Joe Bloggers live event last week and will definitely be worth a look, especially as they are playing on the tiny acoustic stage.
http://soundcloud.com/louiseandthepins/melancholy-feat-laura-marling/
Louise & The Pins – Melancholy feat. Laura Marling
Last but by no means least, we come to singer/songwriter Matthew P. The Suffolk born acoustic artist is pretty fantastic. He has been described as crafting clever acoustic tracks, lyrically diverse and particularly humbling with his intriguing voice. Perfect festival music, definitely something to sit in the sun and enjoy.
Matthew P – The Breakfast Song