The Full Moon / Fuel, Cardiff
Fri 29-Sun 31 July
To some extent, the Red Sun Festival is one which thrives on – exists because of – grassroots, do-it-yourself principles, and possesses a punky fervour to match. Equally, it’s a weekend where bands can come to Cardiff and refer to the people watching them play as “Cardiff!” without this being a lapse in taste and dignity. If Red Sun’s debut, in May last year, is anything to go by, “Cardiff!” will give most or all of the 60 acts playing a warm reception.
Yep, with only three stages (the Moon’s bar and club spaces, plus adjacent metal haunt Fuel) and three days, it’s a right stuffed bill. As in 2015, the promoters draw on a wide pool of ‘heavy music’, with everything from dad-friendly retro-rawk (Honky, semi-regular Texan visitors to the Moon) to indisputably reprehensible goregrind (Mexico’s pithily named Semen). Sludgy doom, chunky stoner, psych-driven noiserock and breakneck metallic powerviolence are among the other adjective clusters I’ve chosen to pigeonhole Red Sun bands with. Of the out-of-town crop, this reporter recommends Slabdragger, Hag and Casual Nun, all from London (coincidentally) but all pretty different. Local talent is repped hard also, with notable turns including Thorun – Cardiff instrumentalists playing their final gig – Tides Of Sulfur, whose debut album of ripping doom/death will have just come out, and Lacertilia [pictured], whose own full-length drops on Fri 29 itself.
Tickets: £10 per day/£25 weekend. Info: www.redsunfestival.com
words NOEL GARDNER
