With five weeks remaining until Party in the Pews gives indie, pop, post-punk, psych, and rock fans to get pious about, the ticket supply for the hotly anticipated two-day festival in Christ Church in Macclesfield is close to running dry.
The inexplicably impressive line-up curated by Jo Lowes, who is quickly becoming Manchester’s contemporary answer to Tony Wilson, comprises two well-known headliners who need absolutely no introduction; Badly Drawn Boy and The Futureheads. As stoked as I am to hear their iconic alt-indie hits, it is the supporting artists that are making me shake off my usual levels of festival-going apathy.
The psychedelic visionaries Heavy Salad always warm the soul with their endearingly cultish stage presence, Pavement-ESQUE cruising riffs and harmonised to the nines vocal arrangements. If Stephen Street was keen to produce their upcoming sophomore LP, you should be stoked to witness their mind-altering aural conjurations live.
Sam Scherdel on the line-up affirms just how on the pulse of current breakthrough artists Jo Lowes is. It is only a matter of time before his enigmatic indie rock anthemics that amplify his ruggedly affectionate everyman blues establishes him as one of the top indie rock artists in the country.
After a series of sell-out shows and acclaim from just about everyone who matters in the industry, Dirty Laces will tarnish Christ Church with their grimy vintage rock rancour that proves the extent of their reverence to the proto-punk past and seriousness about sealing guitar music’s place in the future. They’ve got psych grooves and razor-sharp dark hooks by the execrably exhilarating smorgasbord.
You might want to dress up warm for the Manchester-based supergroup, Sea Fever. There will be an atmospheric chill in the air when they spill their scintillating darkwave synthetics into the venue. Members of the five-piece banding together after working with Johnny Marr, Section 25 and New Order is infinitely less exciting than the coldly transcendent tones they subject their live audience to through their pulsating beats and hypnotic strings.
The final few full weekend tickets are available via Skiddle.
Check out the Party in the Pews event page on Facebook.
Amelia Vandergast
