Idles performing at Are You Listening 2018? (Photo: Sam Chamberlaine)
City festivals are starting to spring-up everywhere from Brighton, Cardiff and Leicester; last weekend we headed off to Are You Listening? to find out what the fuss is about.
The festival, which has partnering up with Mencap to raise over £49,000 so far, is like a mini Great Escape; a smaller, scaled down version without the panels, perfect for hopping across town to different venues.
From local acts like Tiny Giant and She Makes War, to the more established who are getting loads of attention right now like Mush and AK/DK, the festival was bustling and by far the busiest yet, with the Oakford Social bursting at the seams and Purple Turtle full to capacity, with queues forming outside Sub 89 for bigger acts like Idles. Part of the appeal is that like the bands, this is a slightly undiscovered festival where everything is close together, perfect for sampling as many new acts as possible, on what is this year a gloomy, rainy day.
She Makes War is Laura Kidd’s new project, a talented multi-instrumentalist producer as well as visual and performance artist. We arrive at the Oakford, enraptured in an instant barrage of guitars, immediate and enticing, infused with spangly pop tones. Laura depicts everyday experiences – relationships, interactions, love and dialogue. The ideas and music, exploring the intricacies, are still harmonious and filled with colour and glitter. There is a certain authenticity to her stories that make them interesting, perfect performance art dialogue in a similar vein to Kate Nash and with a definite vibe of Garbageor Olympia.
Next we stumble across Hers. Gaining lots of attention right now, they are Stephen Fitzpatrick from Barrow in Furness and Audun Laading of Norway, a pair who met while studying in Liverpool. They create dream-pop musings, sweet slapstick combined with sparkling harmonies and moments of Shadows-infused charm. Fitzpatrick’s style comes complete with vocal variations that are as unpredictable as his facial gurnings. With a sweet satirical twist on sounds of the 50s right up to the 80s, they create bright pastel colours in the sky and an imaginary bauble of delight is left to take away.
The Lovely Eggs deliver another delightful and crazy perspective on the world as they share their take on life with an interplanetary, gonzo style punk merged with psychedelic pop. Created by Angelica Holly Ross (formerly of Babes In Toyland) and husband David Blackwell on drums, they take us on a trip to outer-space with tracks like Wiggy Giggy. Angelica shares with us her ideas and experiences of travelling around the country doing gigs – shockingly without a manager, agent or label – proper DIY. She encourages us to ‘release your inner dick’ on Dickhead, while plenty of silly dancing breaks out across the floor during their recent single Wiggy Giggy as Blackwell hums ‘Wiki Kiki Kiki’ like a ticking clock in the background.
Next up are Idles. We arrive to them performing their soundcheck live to a 300-capacity packed room, and mosh pits are starting to break out. Joe Talbot strides onto the stage and kisses each band-member on the lips. Their message is about expression, hope, love and compassion and giving a s**t – all delivered with a brutalist and courageous passion. Idles are the heroes of today’s counter-culture, their set is alive with rage – a rage that’s transformed into something positive and inspirational, giving a voice, expression and backlash to a world of austerity and cutbacks.
While Adam Devonshire moves like a dancing matador across the stage, Talbot leads up these modern-day heroes with a war cry, tackling issues from the dismantling of the NHSto the comical take on government rhetoric of Well Done and Exeter’s tale about growing up in a dead-end town without much on offer.
As they breathe some hope into a dispirited world, they provide a voice for a disenfranchised society, lighting a fire for change and something better with their astute observations. They jolt you into reality, away from an escapist dream, giving a sincere and full throttling to a society falling apart at the seams, with a certain truth we just don’t get from the carefully controlled media.
Heading back over to The Oakford we catch the 3-piece finish act Have You Ever Seen The Jane Fonda VHS?, These dream bubblegum, riot girrrrrl surf pop artists choose keys over guitar, as Susse Stemma-Siholva fronts, bringing to mind Dum Dum Girls lead singer Kristin Gundred. The sound emanates a laid-back New York charm, with a Scandinavian kookiness delivering this candi-crush indie dream pop.
As Animal House have been cancelled, we are delighted to end the day with the way we started, with an extra dose of Twin Sun. Somehow a bit inebriated, the act take to the stage and just want to throw a party. Sun-drenched electronics and digitised sound guitars lift us up to an Ibiza sky, carried by effervescent tones and big beat guitars.
Later at Milk, the shack like parlour in the back streets, there’s dancing to Plump DJs and Gilbert DJ, both as great as ever; a brilliant end to a fantastic discovery into new artists.
