Team LOUD WOMEN's adventures at Rebellion Festival continue ... here's Stacy Norman's highlights of Day Two, Friday.
On Friday morning, the seafront is experiencing a burst of colour as the rainbow spiked hair, studded jackets, and even punked-up dogs were waking up and making their way back to Blackpool’s Winter Gardens for Day Two of Rebellion Festival.
Fresh off their acoustic set yesterday, Blackpool/Preston punks Death Trails were back to open the Club Casbah stage. Absolutely bursting with energy, they bounced around the stage and delivered a solid set of raw punk gems, including recent release ‘You Lose, Good Day’.
Following Death Trails, we had NYC’s The Kowalskis. Fronted by the charismatic Kitty Kowalski, as they start their set with First Date, it’s clear how much fun the band have on stage. It’s infectious, and their set flies by.
There’s no reason for me to leave the Club Casbah stage yet, as it’s time for another returning band from last year’s LOUD WOMEN Sunday – SNM. Kicking things off with a cover of Sex Pistols’ ‘Pretty Vacant’ (and let’s be honest – at this point, frontwoman Mimi has more punk spirit in her bass pick than John Lydon does in his entire body), their grungey-punk sound seems to coax passers-by in as they take us through a flawless set that includes recent single Golden Viled (my favourite song of theirs so far!), a fantastic cover of PJ Harvey‘s ‘Sheela-Na-Gig’, and ending on the catchy-as-fuck ‘Borne of My Rib’. Like many of the bands playing this weekend, SNM deserve to be much bigger, and I can’t wait to see what they do next.
Over to the The Old Vic now, for an acoustic set from Jenny Woo. Jenny is a regular at Rebellion Festival, playing at least one set every year I’ve been here. When she’s not performing, you can often see her round Winter Gardens at some point over the weekend, either in the crowd and supporting other bands, or just hanging out and chatting to friends and fans. She delivers a cheery, stripped back set that works perfectly in the pub setting of this stage.
I stop by the Introducing Stage next, to check out Dead Sheep. They seemed a bit nervous as they first took to the stage (very understandable!), but seemed to relax once they got a couple of songs in, and looked like they were enjoying themselves by the end of their set. Music-wise, their songs delivered – now that they’ve got those first-timer nerves out the way, I’m looking forward to seeing how they develop and where they go next.
It’s not an understatement to say how excited I was to see my next band, Save Ferris. A staple of the 90’s third-wave ska scene, I’ve personally been a fan since teenage me watched 10 Things I Hate About You – that film basically changed my life, by introducing me to Save Ferris, and also Letters To Cleo. Finally getting to see them live was more than worth the wait. The band sounded fantastic, and Monique had the crowd in awe at her vocals. They looked so happy to be here, and they managed to squeeze so many songs into their set. Their set ended with their iconic cover of ‘Come On, Eileen’ and, honestly, I never wanted it to end.
I stuck around the Empress Ballroom for my final band of the day, The Meffs. This is their fourth year in a row here, and this is undoubtedly the biggest crowd they’ve drawn yet. They filled the Empress to capacity, resulting in an impressive circle pit for ‘Everything’s Gone’. From the moment Lily and Lewis took to the stage, the crowd didn’t stop moving. Things get especially crazy as they go into one of my favourite songs of theirs, ‘Clowns’. It honestly felt like the building was shaking, as an endless stream of crowd surfers made their way over the barrier.
This was another fantastic day of Rebellion Festival – roll on Day Three!
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