Looking at Saturday night’s full-to-the-brim line-up for Lancaster Music Festival, my friends and I found it tricky to narrow down the first destination for our outing. After catching a glimpse of how packed Sphere was and hearing that our dear housemate from last year was not on shift there, we decided to head a few baby steps down the road to the Crafty Scholar. We were welcomed by the acoustic guitar playing of Felicity Harris, a singer songwriter from Lancaster, who played a number of covers and whose voice reminded us of the legendary Duffy. One of my friends wasn’t so sure about her at first, possibly like others in the pub/bar, due to what I’d label as an adorably imperfect style. I particularly liked her Bob Dylan cover though and I think it’s fair to say she won everyone over by playing, if rather quickly, ‘500 Miles’ at the end of her set.
We then got a few more craft beers in before the drum-heavy Deadset Dream’s set kicked in, just after 8pm. A bit of a shock to the system following a rather relaxed acoustic set. Hailing from Sheffield, the rock band played original material and induced some enthusiastic jumping around and head-banging. They even got a few (probably slightly inebriated) members of the audience to yell back their lyrics to them and all in all Deadset Dream were really well received. Not the best live music to try and hold a conversation during, I’ll admit, but we approved.
Taking off to Dalton Rooms next, we grabbed yet another refreshment and perched on a stool or three to watch 3D Tanx, a very much keyboard-orientated Indie group with some epic album artwork (as I’ve just discovered). Evidently attracting some existing fans to their gig, the 5-piece act had many bopping around their small stage and the lead singer, Spacey, was milling around them. A great uplifting performance and definitely one to catch live in Lancaster if you’re into feel-good indie tunes.
Our final stop was Penny Bank Pub, which we eventually got into after waiting in a queue to enter (always a good sign when it comes to gigs) and boy, never has the phrase ‘save the best ‘til last’ been more appropriate. The busy-ness was down to The Groovecutters, a funk and soul band who played some amazing covers of the likes of Earth, Wind & Fire and Stevie Wonder. Safe to say they lived up to their name – the groove was strong with this one. 10/10 would pay to see again.
