Live Review: FOCUS Wales International Showcase Festival..(Part 3)
I'm convinced there is no bigger existential quandary to be experienced that comes close to the final day of a festival; perhaps the last remaining remnants of a holiday, trying to pluck up the courage to get to the airport and not build a rudimentary shack on the beach. The joy you experience as you venture from venue to venue, meeting like-minded souls and experiencing that feeling you can only get in the midst of live music, is sometimes so powerful, it gets difficult to shift your thoughts to this ending.
But end it must.
Day 3 of FOCUS Wales and there is so much to see today, I have to get there earlier than I managed on Friday. Despite staying out later after meeting another delegate on the train home and going out for a pint (as if that was needed), I'm feeling strangely fresh and ready to go. Didn't have that on my FOCUS bingo card.
Neither did I have the weather being is stupidly warm for the time of year as it was. North Wales is not always this hot, it certainly wasn't when I was growing up there. Concrete proof that climate change is real. In fact, The sun had been one of the biggest stars of the weekend.
I'm not apologising for that last sentence, you'll just have to deal with it.
The first set I see is Nottingham's Bored Marsh, which is at The Parish; a venue I had yet to get to this weekend after seeing several shows there at FOCUS 2023. It's a small pub that often gets rammed, certainly early in the day as other venues are getting set up.This is their first gig outside of Nottingham and you can tell there are nerves as they plunge into their opening number. I enjoy the intensity of their performance, singer Joe Need prowling the stage, eyeballing the crowd to the sound of reverb-drenched guitar and a pulsating rhythm section. Unfortunately, the room is SO HOT that it feels like we're trapped in a oven at Nandos and I don't make it to the end because my Celtic blood is imploring for a blizzard.
I take a leisurely stroll down to The Rockin' Chair to catch dynamic two-piece and NNWNF favs Sustinere. They're not a new band to me, but it's always fun to see people discovering them for the first time and headbanging accordingly. They have a collection of songs that draws inspiration from some of the best rock duos of recent years; the ferocious ear for monster riffs of Royal Blood, the passion and intensity of Japandroids and the ability to make you want to lose yourself to dance like Death From Above 1979. Their chemistry is undeniable too as they defiantly wake up those who came to see them out of curiosity.
As I make my way to St Giles Church for the next act on my agenda, it dawns on me that I've never seen a gig in there. It's a stunning setting for what I was about to witness with it being one of the finest examples of ecclesiastical architecture to be found in Wales. There has been a church at that location as far back as the 11th century, though the building as it is now took shape around the turn of the 16th century. I'm here to see an old friend Laura Leigh Dickenson perform a solo set of acoustic tracks and it becomes the perfect change of pace. Laura has been writing songs for over 25 years, but in her words "..still dresses like a toddler." She's an engaging performer who can keep an audience on the edge of their seats with her charisma and gorgeous vocals. Her voice reverberates around the church, and frankly it's a set I will never be able to forget.
For the second time in less than 24 hours, I'm crying openly in public. Perhaps I'm flagging, perhaps I don't want this festival to end and perhaps I'm just a wuss, but it's enough to worry one or two passers-by who check in on me as I venture away from the church to get myself together - thank you by the way, if you happen to be reading. After a suitably awful takeaway pizza, it's back out for one of the busiest periods of the whole weekend. It's CLASH CENTRAL now as I get to Hope St; there's at least 5 acts I want to see all starting within 10 minutes of each other. After careful internal deliberation I go for youthful Galway punks Shark School and it was an excellent choice. The band are barely out of school, yet play a set so full of vim and vigour it almost makes me want to be that age all over again. Almost.
By the time Benefits arrive on stage, they're almost half an hour late due to technical issues. These things happen of course and it only adds to the occasion. What makes it slightly weirder, is their set is in XS, which used to be a nightclub I went to when I was in my early twenties; the floor was sticky and the music was even more unpleasant. Playing tracks from debut Nails plus some newer efforts, Front man Kingsley Hall stalks this stage with more unhinged passion than Martha from Baby Reindeer at a stand-up open mic night. The crowd is laid to waste by the band's explosive noise; Hall's expressive performance resonating far and wide. Someone once sang that "Anger is an energy." and if that is the case Benefits have been drinking it straight from the bottle. Even when one or two moments don't land as planned, he turns it into a joke by claiming "..that went better in Cardiff". A vital voice of working class rage in the most divisive of times.
The night ends for me* in the same venue. Whilst waiting for the technical issues to be ironed out, I had a chat with two members of the band who were playing after Benefits. They were from New Zealand and what they said about their own band made me want to check them out. I was also too tired to move on, but let's gloss over that. As it was still running over and now getting late, it was tough for DARTZ to pull a big crowd, but those who stuck around were in for a treat. With Southern Hemisphere garage punk having a renascence period - the likes of Amyl & The Sniffers and The Chats playing bigger and bigger stages - DARTZ certainly seem like the next to find their notoriety. Their songs cover a range of subjects that all basically have the remit of sticking it to the man; stealing from the supermarket, beating up your landlord and the evil of Captain Cook. They're wildly entertaining and they give everything, deserving of a much bigger turnout.
DARTZ
With that, it's time to finish FOCUS Wales and get back to reality. My head is throbbing, my ears are ringing, but heart is as full as it's been in quite some time.
More of the same next year?
Yes please.
*Not strictly true, I stayed out until 3am and danced like nobody was watching. They were and they weren't impressed.
Take a listen to our Best of FOCUS Wales 2024 playlist below. Featuring some of the artists who made it such a wonderful weekend of music!
Applications to apply to play FOCUS Wales are open now and tickets are already on sale. Found out more at their website HERE
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