Discover the best of SŴN Festival 2023 in Cardiff with our roundup of live reviews, from Mickey Callisto to Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs.
SAT 21 OCT
MICKEY CALLISTO
Providing wonderfully flamboyant flair, Mickey Callisto fills out the Moon, with a brand of euphoric and joyously queer genre-fusions. Despite being the only person onstage, the performer seems to effortlessly command the crowd to confidently sing and dance to songs like Homospace – a liberating anthem about a gay nightclub on another planet. This proved an amazingly spirited start to the day’s proceedings for this writer, and an extravagant reminder of the value of unashamed self-expression.
BRIAN CHRISTINZO
Perhaps proving the least-secretive of the day’s ‘secret sets’ was that by Brian Christinzo, upstairs in Clwb Ifor Bach. “I was determined to play this damn show” the BC Camplight frontman says at one point, referencing the train delays afflicting many artists billed to be playing Sŵn. The songs do occasionally come across as incoherent ramblings set to a piano, especially with the way Christinzo frequently stops playing to recount amusing anecdotes; still, the on-brand sardonic nature adds an ironic charm that keeps these 40 minutes from feeling tedious. While it’s hard to tell whether his scattered, disoriented nature is an act or not, it’s a quality that makes for an intriguing performance.
JOYCE
Igniting the ground floor of Clwb Ifor Bach with a zealous burst of frenetic hardcore, Joyce’s vivacious yet richly melodic take on the genre draws a crowd larger than that even expected by the band, who remark, “we thought there was going to be about three people here!” Indeed, their humour and near constant liveliness was key to their appeal today, immediately gripping the attention of those who hadn’t heard of them, and serving as a case in point as to how Sŵn provides a vital stepping stone for smaller artists.
PORRIDGE RADIO
In a case of a secret set seemingly far better concealed from festivalgoers, Porridge Radio charmed the Tramshed with an hour of incredibly well-crafted pop-rock songs. Despite their audience interaction being limited, they appear expertly dedicated to their craft as the songs swell from humble, stripped-back beginnings to cathartic, theatrical finales. In spite of the crowd being somewhat sparse, those that are here seem stunned by the intricate musicianship and confessional lyricism. “What were they called?” I ask an audience member after their set, previously unfamiliar with this band; on realising I’d seen (and largely ignored) Porridge Radio gig posters on multiple occasions, finally seeing them live this afternoon felt like making amends.
CHROMA
The basement of Jacob’s Antiques Centre is not the first place you’d expect to be hosting bands, owing to my slightly late arrival to see Chroma. The venue proves the perfect underground setting, complementing the band’s raw, unfiltered style of performing, the lower frequencies resonating through every surface and exemplifying the visceral nature of the music. This alternative rock trio are quickly making a name for themselves as one of south Wales’ most celebrated live acts, and by the end of Chroma’s set there is no doubt in the room as to why that reputation exists.
THE FAMILY BATTENBURG
Perplexing with their mixture of grimy post-punk and wraithlike psychedelia, The Family Battenburg’s songs can occasionally suffer the fate of blending into one and sounding indistinguishable from each other. However, with the band playing a short set in Jacob’s Antiques, they use the limited time available to them to impress the audience with a combination of styles that’s arresting, noisy, and chaotic.
PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS
Taking the stage to For Those About To Rock (We Salute You) by AC/DC signals that one intends to make a strong impression, and thankfully, that’s exactly what Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs do across the duration of their Tramshed headline set. Everything from the deeply experimental, ferocious nature of their songs to the stage presence of each of their band members showcases why they’re revered for their live shows. Whether the band are improvising moments of their songs, or unashamedly mocking themselves and their outlandish name, there’s a strangely joyful quality at play, even as the compositions themselves are brooding and cavernous. There were some Pigsx7 fans here seeing them for the first time, others for the third or fourth: whichever you may be, the Newcastle act bring an untiring stoner metal quality to a performance that’s both memorable and invigorating.
SUN 22 OCT
MURIEL
Zak Thomas’ solo-project-turned-band Muriel could reasonably be called lo-fi in its conceptual state, but the album which came out a week before this show was recorded with due care, and you wouldn’t glean a sense of amateurism or sparseness from this mid-afternoon set either. Thomas is the evident bandleader, doing all the talking between songs, but is accompanied by musicians on violin, lap steel, synth, shruti box and saxophone, making for a sound that bounces between Midwest emo, alt-country and post-rock with a greater depth and sense of experimentalism than on record. Filling the upstairs of Clwb Ifor Bach to most of its capacity, it seems like things are happening for Muriel.
THE TUBS
A band of, in their current incarnation, three-quarters Cardiffian origin (the exception, recently-joined drummer Taylor Stewart, is a Scottish musician who released one of this era’s great memeable singles as a solo artist), The Tubs are a London-based concern whose sound has found rightful favour in Europe and the USA as well as domestically. The appeal could be in the impeccably crisp jangle of the twin guitars, creating a sound that ought to appeal to fans of mid-80s REM or later-80s Wedding Present; there’s also some 70s folk in there, not least courtesy of Owen Williams’ vocal manner. Enthusiasts could also have been drawn in by some of the Cardiff set’s previous bands, Joanna Gruesome being the best known. In Jacob’s Antiques’ gallery space, they play their lovely songs with a spirit perhaps helped by the revelation that one hungover member threw up a short distance from the venue.
MARIA UZOR
Norwich’s Maria Uzor was also a member of Sink Ya Teeth, a duo who did a sort of postpunk meets British club music hybrid, and is returning solo with debut album Soft Cuts and some live shows. Her Sŵn one, in Tiny Rebel Cardiff’s function room, is my favourite of the day. It’s a live electronic set, with a laptop, keyboard and some other stuff crammed on a table, but when I say lengthy stretches of it are essentially backing tracks, I seek not to undermine Uzor’s skills but to note how this allows her to be a great and dynamic performer. She croons, growls, gestures, prances and joins us in the crowd for a clutch of songs which split the difference between electro, pop, industrial, techno and punk; at the risk of seeming self-centred, I co-promoted a gig for Special Interest in this very room, a few days before the first lockdown, and was sometimes put in mind of that evening during this one.
TVAM
This Manchester band played a festival set here in Clwb Ifor Bach last year to a dwindling crowd, and I don’t know if they were nobbled by clashes on the day or have since become more popular but have people crammed to the room’s extremities on this occasion. Probably the loudest band I watch at Sŵn today, I’m nevertheless left a little frosty by TVAM’s blend of Spacemen 3-type hypno-rock and blockier, rockier synth sections. A new song (Ephemerol, I think) sounds decidedly inspired by Blue Monday and has its lyrics relayed on a projector screen in a somewhat hubristic move.
SAGE TODZ
MCs chiding their audiences for not reacting as enthusiastically as they should is a common fixture of live rap shows, whether or not it’s deserved. When Sage Todz – bilingual drill rapper from north Wales now living in Cardiff – does it, we probably do deserve it to be honest. His Jacob’s basement show starts strong, though, and finishes with him hopping into the crowd to regale its most enthusiastic pocket up close, and in between there are some guest appearances from Mace The Great (for Welcome To Wales, a song partly about an S4C programme caption mixing up the two rappers a while back) and some spirited if rougher’n’readier MCs from Sage’s old patch. Endearingly, there also appears to be a group of Norwegian fans present who he met when performing over there.
THE UTOPIA STRONG
A great way to round off the weekend in the Moon with a trio of gracefully ageing synth caressers given to progressive rock outlandishness. The Utopia Strong might have crossed the paths of people otherwise unlikely to investigate them, thanks to the presence of snooker icon Steve Davis on modular synth (one of those things that’s either all but unbelievable, or a long-established fact of ‘weird music’), but the Sunday night crowd seem like the type to earnestly drink in their wailing, cosmic excursions. Of the three members, it’ll be vocalist and guitarist Kavus Torabi you can’t take your eyes off, combining flamboyant movement with frazzled riffs, while Michael J York – whose long musical CV includes the iconic Coil – breaks out flute and bagpipes for some bucolic headiness.
Sŵn Festival, various venues, Cardiff, Sat 21 + Sun 22 Oct
words ALEX SWIFT (Sat 21) / NOEL GARDNER (Sun 22) photos JAMIE CHAPMAN / REN FAULKNER / NADINE BALLANTYNE
