Support was from Jack Watts

Thankfully my mood was lightened late afternoon when I stumbled upon a line-up change at the Tube, Kill Moon who played an excellent set helped by the fantastic venue. (It really is a tiny tube in the Brighton sea wall)

After that things improved with an ‘off festival’ show featuring The Physics House Band, Slow Club and the Amazing Snakeheads, a band I failed to catch due to the long queues outside of the tiny Hope the night before.

The evening was closed off with some ‘knowns’, White Lung, a disappointing Mazes, an interesting performance from Arc Iris, a band who clearly listened to too much Frank Zappa and watching too many Yes performances. Finally my festival closed with Trans.

I managed to catch:

Josh Flowers and the Wild – great performance in the challenging Hub Tent

Hollie Cook – great voice

Gallery Circus – Energetic performance but the music didn’t work for me

Audience Killers – didn’t like the lead singer’s voice

Boy Jumps Ship – skater rock of the Biffy Clyro book of music. Exactly!

Kill Moon – great performance

The Physics House Band – sound like a complex equation imagined in music.

Slow Club – good performance, though fairly bland

Amazing Snakeheads – great live

Kieran Leonard – hard to judge. Singing unaided in a museum

Charlie Cunningham – as above

HSY – lots of energy and shouting. Great if you like that sort of thing. Personally not my cup of tea.

White Lung – not as pissed of as the first time I saw them, but still good.

Mazes – disappointed. Too much new material that doesn’t sound as interesting as their earlier material

Arc Iris – lots of really talents musicians living out the 1970s prog scene through the filter of Frank Zappa. Definitely a marmite band. I quiet enjoyed it. But I won’t rush out to see them again

Trans – sound issues aside, another great performance.

The day was advertised as ‘curated by Fearne Cotton’. However, as there was a Jubilee happening elsewhere in London, Fearne bailed on the charity to cover the event. Even as a Republican, I can understand why she might have done this, it was an event in a lifetime and (should have been) good for her career. However, as somebody who believes in honour and doesn’t understand why people were fussing over an overpaid inappropriate piece of heritage, I’m glad she has been singled out as one of the reasons why the BBC’s Jubilee coverage was so appalling. You don’t bail on charities.

Anyway, enough about Fearne. I wasn’t here to see Fearne but to give some new bands a chance to win my interest.

The event took place at the Queen of Hoxton. I’ve never been here before but it seemed the usual ‘run of the mill’ (i.e. up it’s own arse) Shoreditch bar. The music was spread over three floors. Downstairs, amplified music, the ground floor, well I’m not really sure what was on here, and upstairs unamplified acoustic. That last point is important. It seemed to me that many people weren’t there for the music, but as a way of spending a Bank Holiday so were sitting around eating, drinking and talking. Not unexpected. So why was the acoustic sets unamplified? Ridiculous.

Musically, other than Slow Club, the day wasn’t particularly strong. But I did leave early to go and see the Chapman Family. It wasn’t terrible. Just not good.

Dog is Dead

Yes Sir Boss

Ukelleles

Kyla La Grange

Cut Ribbons

Lazy Habits

Slow Club

More photos from Festifeel on Flickr