Music > Live Reviews
Wild Paths Festival
01/11/19
For three years in the mid-twenty-teens, the Norwich Sound + Vision festival was the highlight of my gig-going year. For three days every October, 100 or so bands and artists descended on Norwich to play gigs all over the place. Wild Paths takes that and expands it to an extra day with almost double the number of performances at three times as many venues. It may not be quite at the level of Brighton’s Great Escape, let alone Austin TX’s South by South West, but it is still a brave and ambitious undertaking.
Of course, it isn’t perfect. What event of this scale is? There are clashes that inevitably mean I miss several acts that I really want to see. For this - unfit ol’ bloke - the distances between some of the venues is daunting. Some weekend pass holders were turned away from venues. This was, however, very much a success. Go to any festival - be it Glastonbury, Latitude or, more in the style of Wild Paths, Tramlines or Camden Rocks - and there will be clashes, it will be a trek between shows and people may not be able to get into everything they want to. That is the nature of these things. If Wild Paths does take place again - oh please let that happen! - the only thing I would ask is that the ticketing options are simplified.
And now to the music. I managed to get to see 28 bands or artists in six venues. The beauty of this was it gave me a chance to see a good number of artists I had never seen before and to go to venues I had never previously been to. Of the performances, only one really sucked. As it was that band’s debut performance, I won’t name them here and will give ’em another chance. Oh, and I’ll definitely be visiting all of the venues again.
Things kicked off in mighty fine style on Thursday night at Voodoo Daddy’s Showroomwith three bands I’ve been wanting to see for what seems like ages but have never managed to catch. First up, FRONT BANGS are a guitar driven combination of garage rock, surf and alt.rock with a touch of funk. Despite some technical issues theirs is a very strong, confident performance that somehow reminds me of both Lloyd Cole& The Commotions and Talking Heads without sounding like either. Next up, BAG OF CANS deliver a gloriously surreal mix of old school indie, Weimar Berlin cabaret and the Kinkscirca Village Green Preservation Society. It is scuzzy, sleazy and bloody good fun. Closing the night, MILLIE MANDERS & THE SHUT UP suffer the worst sound I have ever heard in this room. For large swathes of the set, the bass is inaudible and there is nothing at all coming from the PA stage left. Despite this, I am completely won over by Manders and band’s mash up of ska, 2Tone and punk. Here’s to next time for all three bands.
Friday starts at what is arguably my home from home, Norwich Arts Centre. LYLA FOY is a new name to me and, being honest, I only catch her set as I really didn’t want to miss Pom Poko. I am wholly glad I went, though. The shoegazey electronica brings to mind (a less eccentric) Kate Bush and School of Seven Bells and I am impressed enough to buy the album. POM POKO take things to another level. The rhythm section Ola and Jonas are as heavy and intense as anything from the hardcore and post-hardcore scenes, coming on like Fugazi. Martin’s guitar is all No Wave New York-meets-Keith Levene wild discordance. Yet, for all that, the songs are joyously pop: twisted, skewed pop, maybe, but POP nonetheless. An absolute ball of energy, vocalist Raghnild doesn’t stop moving all set and this is quite possibly the performance of the whole weekend.
Up atVoodoo Daddy’sand HEAVY LUNGS aren’t that dissimilar to Pom Poko musically but, due at least in part to the vocals of Danny Nedelko (yes, him of the Idles song title), there is no way I can call them pop. Cathartic? Yes. Angry? Definitely. Enjoyable? Absolutely. Pop? No way.
Back at NAC, I manage to catch the tail end of ANNA MEREDITH’s set. What I hear is an enticing mix of soundtrack composition and the less aggressive end of post-rock. Sadly, I do not see enough to form a definitive view but I will definitely be keeping an ear out for Meredith.
Saturday starts at Voodoo Daddy’s with the shoegaze of the Peterborough-based SUDS. The three gals and one lad - their words not mine - aren’t doing anything particularly new but they do it with some finesse and are having fun so are definitely a band to look out for. Down at the Last Pub Standing, SLEEMO also do nowt particularly new but they play a decent, grungey mix of alt.rock and mathrock.
It is up toKarma Kafefor the rest of the day. WRECK hit the stage and take me straight back to my misspent youth. Not only do they look like proper grebos but the sound transports me to the late 80s and nights out at th George Robey or Tufnel Park Dome or Bull & Gate. It is all Gaye Bykers and Crazyhead riffage and Zodiac Mindwarp lyrics. It is not all retro-grebo, though, with hints of Jim Jones and the post-punk likes of Membranes or Cravats in the mix. It may be dumb but it is dumb in a way that is genius and I want more.
Local heroes OTHER HALF play a storming set of post-grunge alt.rock. I dunno how three so (seemingly) lovely people can get so riled up on stage but I am glad they do. It may be 5 or 6 years since I first saw them but they get better all the time. With their grungey sound, HEX FRIENDS are relative newcomers as a band but Josie, Duncan and Connor will be known to most on the Norwich scene. I’ve only seen them a few times yet but they are getting better each time and Pinkie Promise is a future classic.
Seemingly, Karma then gets taken over by Bury St Edmunds’ (excellent) Washing Machine. Londoners (but Washing Machine regulars) FIGHTMILKdeliver a cracking set of indie/alternative rock before heading off to BSE Rock City for another gig. TUNDRA thenplay the set of the day. There is something stoner rock about them without any of the negative, bad Metal connotations that may imply and with an amazing amount of energy, humour and joy de vivre. Someone really does need to buy bassist Elliott a set of strap locks... BEACH RIOT take things in a Mary Chain fuzz-drenched direction, with some glorious harmonies. SUPERGLU then do what they do best - blow the roof off with their high-energy, slightly surreal, Half Man Half Biscuit-meets-the Fall-covering Buzzcocks punk-pop. How this band is not absolutely massive I will never know. Songs like Diving Bell are simply superb and I have never seen them do a show that is anything less than brilliant. GAFFA TAPE SANDY close the night in fine style. By this point, I am dead on my feet and I wouldn’t have stayed for many others but GTS’s frantic garage rock will always get me going.
When Sunday dawns, there are more than a few aches and pains but I manage to get myself down to the Birdcage for the first 15 minutes of BUG TEETH. Emotional dreampop of the highest order, I would have stayed for the whole set but for the fact that the mighty WOLF NUMBER play their last but one show (for now, at least) at the Shoe Factory Social Club. Perhaps because they know this will be one of the last times they play together, Kevin, Jack and Oz seem to play with more freedom and enjoyment than I have seen before. The classic rock meets post-rock instrumentals sound better than ever and Jack even does a shimmy or three. They will be missed.
The Shoe Factory Social Club is nothing more nor less than a disused - abandoned? - shoe factory. It is a dusty old concrete box with steel girders and a glass roof. By some accident of fate, surely not design, the acoustics are AMAZING. After the Wolf Number it is upstairs for the jazz-soul-pop of THEO. What she does is a million miles from my usual tastes but she does it well and it is an enjoyable way to while away the time until BIRDS OF HELL play downstairs. For years, I said I admired what Pete did as BoH but didn’t actually like it. A year or two back, something clicked and I finally got it. Subsequent shows, with a band, showed how blind I had been. Experimental and challenging, serious but with a sense of humour, Birds of Hell must be one of the most inventive and bravest bands on the Norwich scene and this was the best gig that I have seen them play.
After a quick run - well, jog and stagger - to Last Pub Standingit is time for GALLI. The playing is superb, the songs are decent but it is a little too soul-jazz for me and I prefer Ash’s other band HANK. That said, I think I am in a minority of one and I will certainly give them another chance. I head back to the Shoe Factory Social Club where NEBULA SUN play a decent set of jazz-tinged reggae rock. It is good enough but more suitable to a hot summer’s afternoon outside than an empty factory on a cold, dank and rainy day.
Time to move on again and it is back to where I started on Thursday night and Voodoo Daddy’s. I have heard a lot of good things about HISTORY & LORE and I can understand the appeal of their anthemic arena/indie. They are clearly talented, they write decent songs with memorable hooks and the vocals are outstanding but it doesn’t move me. Again, I suspect I am in a minority of one as the audience loved them.THE GLITTER SHOP alsocome to me with high recommendations. This time, the recommendations are bang on and I fall heavily for their grunge-pop, despite the technical issues they encounter. Before tonight I had never heard of Chicago’s DEEPER but their spiky, angular mix of Girls Against Boys, the Pixies and the Cure, topped off with David Byrnes style vox, is a winner with me. SICK JOY follow with a set that brings to mind a grungier God Machine or a heavier Nirvana. This is how I imagined Drenge would sound before I actually heard them.
There are more sets at other venues but I am absolutely wiped out. As a friend says, I am too old for this shit. I know what he means but I wouldn’t have missed this for the world. Here’s hoping there is more of the same next year (and that I manage to get my bike fixed between now and then). Kudos to Ben and the team for putting it together.