The Sound City Stage was a bastion of new and a few local bands, well at least before the festival it was. The stage played host to the competition to win numerous promotion based prizes (see the article here).
It was therefore ironic that the stage suffered from a lack of promotion. Indeed it was only on Saturday that the sign appeared and that was firmly attached on the inside of the tent. The stage never appeared on the App or lanyard (We can understand the lanyard issues about line up but not location, and don’t get us started on the App. very poorly laid out and updated). We guess that this could easily have been remedied had there been a running list board, which would have helped given the various delays as well.
The size of the stage (attached to the Jagermeiester lorry) was small as you can see, the stage was er tiny (not in a pub sense!). Reports from some of the bands were that it was a good stage to play on, and even the nine-piece Leonard Jones Potential managed admirably.
Indeed it was LJP that grabbed our attention (not because of the ability or otherwise of the competition) but everything conspired in their favour; the sun was shining, the mood was upbeat, the more mature Paolo lovers had descended and the Inverness folk had come along to support their own.
It was the only time we witnessed an encore in the tent and the tones of Big Baracuda, certainly fitted the moment.
The Boosts certainly hit a chord or two with a clear emphasis on enjoying themselves and the interaction with the crowd,echoed this. Arguably however the tunes transcend locality, with Jake and co’s pop indie blend attracting more than a bit of support.
The other act that we saw in the tent was the sublime Iain Mclaughlin and the Outsiders. What caught us unaware was the familiarity that the crowd had with his work (and some great moshing from James Mackenzie). Someone for Everyone, sounded as fresh as it ever does and was certainly one of our highlights.
It is only with reflection that despite the fact that it felt that the whole stage and indeed the competition was tacked on, it worked and worked well. We would still argue that some of the acts would have warranted a bigger stage and better slot.
Who do we think should win, well we changed our mind, but we’re not telling anyone!
