After a year’s break, Cardiff’s multi-venue new music festival made a welcome return, bringing with it buzzy new bands and a few established heroes to boot.
London-based quartet Vant slide to their knees during an energetic set at the Jack Rocks stage.
The rising rock band delievered a punchy performance featuring sugar sweet single ‘The Answer’, ‘Parasite’ and ‘Parking Lot’.
Indie veterans The Go! Team proved that they hadn’t lost their knack for party-starting, with frontwoman Ninja parting the crowd and indulging in some call-and-response.
The Brighton group turned the Jack Rocks stage into their own mini party with tracks like ‘Grip Like A Vice’ and ‘Blowtorch’.
Punk trio Skinny Girl Diet sandblasted the bustling audience with serrated noise, playing tracks from their series of uncompromising EPs.
Frontwoman Delilah Holiday landed hammer blows with raw-throated yells and heartfelt lines like “I don’t feel OK”.
Two-piece Lusts cut a striking appearance on the Jack Rocks stage. Shaven haired drummer, James Stone, dressed all in white, stared out his brother, Andy, who was clad in black leather with a shock of bleached hair and round dark sunglasses, looking undeniably cool.
Lusts’ music is similarly striking, and surprisingly dynamic for such a simple set up; James’ guitar drips with reverb but has just enough biting distortion to cut through and accent the huge choruses of songs like ‘Mouthwash’ and ‘Temptation’.
Rebecca Wilson and Rebekah Pennington showed off their best dance moves during their set, which included songs like ‘Last Chance To Dance’ and ‘7AM’.
Beth Jeans Houghton, aka Du Blonde, previewed new material during her performance, featuring thundering blues riffs galloping beneath earthy vocals.
The rest of Houghton’s set saw her rattling through tracks from ‘Welcome Back To Milk’, her first record since leaving behind her former band The Hooves of Destiny.
