Sound City and Light Night – In Pictures
Photographer Andrew Abrahamson gives his take on Liverpool Sound City and Light Night Festivals…
Thursday’s highlights
I was asked to cover Death in Vegas, a band I’d heard of but didn’t really know anything about. Surprised to see how jam-packed it was in there, every available space, rail, and step, had been taken. As the music started I realised why. The smoke machine was on full (a theme that would echo across the festival) and the lighting in the Kazimier created wonderful patterns of colour around the band that perfectly complimented the music. Dogshow are in many ways my favourite group in Liverpool. Their performances are always passionately given, yet the true measure of their creativity lies in the shows they design such as the Triathlon; original and fun.
Friday’ s highlights
Friday was hectic. There was simply too much to do and see with Light Night by itself, let alone Sound City. The Baltic Triangle was fantastic, with the Adult Youth Club bringing fun and games to a Friday evening, Threshold Lite providing arts and crafts as well as fantastic music, and even Andy Warhol upstairs of Elevator Studios to help you create your own piece of art, all nicely washed down with some great old-skool nostalgia back at Camp and Furnace. And that was just one small area of the city. I rushed to FACT, hoping to take part in the Augmented Reality Disco (and more importantly find out what on earth an Augmented Reality Disco actually was) only to find it finished. The exhibitions on Avatars and Robotics more than made up for it, with some great interactive activities for everyone to enjoy. Both Eugene McGuinness and White Denim at the Kazimier were highly visual and great fun to shoot.
Saturday’s highlights
Jazzhands was a suggestion from several friends. More performance than gig, the band use three drum kits, a saxophone, a guitar and a cow bell. The energy and unbridled fun of the show was completely contagious, even if you didn’t quite get what it was you were actually experiencing. The Thespians played a great gig, despite technical difficulties (including a stolen guitar) in the Brink. Maybe too tranquil a venue for their particular style of punk/pop, but it was well received. It was a nostalgic joy to see Space. Their new songs were good, but perhaps the highlight was a video singing head of Cerys Matthews for the duet The Ballad of Tom Jones. I stopped in on Dan Croll at The Epstein Theatre, as much to see the venue as anything else. It was crowded, possibly with people waiting to see James Vincent McMorrow, but Croll left an impression on everyone there. After shooting some pictures of D/R/U/G/S – great, but I couldn’t have stayed and danced to after such a long day on the clock – in fantastic temporary space, The Garage, I was about to head home when I saw a group play on the Academy of Arts stage. It looked like there were about 20 people there, and feeling bad about a small crowd, I thought I’d head in and see what they were like. I am so glad I did. The Jamie Mcvey Official Closing Party was amazing. By the end, the crowd had swollen to hundreds. CantMixWontMixShdntMixDontMix filled the gap keeping the punters dancing. Slamboree followed with a set of live drum and bass with electric violin, clowns and acrobats. A ‘Neo Balkan Rave Circus’ according to their website. They are certainly worth seeing as it was a fantastic performance; they certainly were the perfect thing to end my Sound City, and although the sky was lightening as I walked wearily home, I was happy.
Andrew Abrahamson
