There are few things certain in life: death, taxes, and (after last weekend) the Misery Loves Company festival being an absolute must in the Bristol music calendar for many years to come.
The team at MLC have been working painstakingly for a year to formulate the perfect alt scene festival that would put Bristol on the map and attract ex-scene kids, rockers, punks, skaters, and goths to the city like a moth to a flame.
Cultivating the perfect balance of local and national talent, with an emphasis on gender-balanced booking and mental health awareness, they crammed it all into four venues geographically closer than a North and South Korean guard in the DMZ.
Tickets had been hotter than Frodo’s ring in the bowels of Mount Doom. So, all that was left for the organizers to do come Saturday was to sit back and watch it play out, safe in the knowledge that “if you build it, they will come.”
And come they did. An army of black t-shirt-clad music lovers with colored hair, ink, and piercings flooded the center of the city. For once, it was the outcasts’ turn to take control.
We sang, we danced, we moshed, we sweat, we drank enough for a five-day festival. The atmosphere was electric and, most importantly, utterly joyful. If you could have bottled the feel-good factor inside SWX, The Lanes, Rough Trade & The Station, you’d put Prime out of business.
There was no slow burn on offer to ease you gently into the day either. The Menstrual Cramps were insistent on melting our faces off from the get-go as a packed Station played host to the unapologetically, beautifully brash 4-piece. We remained in the Station to capture Bristol’s best shade of pink GURL, who delivered a razor-sharp taste of what to expect from their upcoming headliner at The Exchange this November.
The festival’s biggest venue, SWX, then threw its doors open to the masses as hometown heroes
R X P T R S bedazzled the throng with their unique blend of grit, melody, and inflatable dinosaurs. A packed crowd roared in appreciation as we got to hear the new single “Hellbillies” live for the first time.
Another venue switch followed as we sampled the delights of the acoustic stage in the Lanes yard. This would be the only time our backsides felt the embrace of a seat all day. The respite was short-lived, however, as the star power of Chester starlet Lizzy Farrall drew us and many others back to the floor of SWX for some quirky, honest pop-rock.
Our first trip to Rough Trade was waiting, as there was no way we were missing Bristol-based dynamite candy metalheads Kite Thief. It seems a sizeable percentage of the festival crowd felt the same way, as a queue that could have filled the pitch-black room twice over greeted us.
A sprint across the road followed to ensure we were front and center for one of the hottest tickets in UK metal right now, Lake Malice. This is a duo that will not be gracing venues as intimate as the Lanes for much longer, and both band and crowd seemed to sense the occasion. A truly blistering performance met with the rowdiest of crowds from the whole day.
Our final venture into the expanse of SWX was to see, quite honestly, one of my favorite three bands on planet earth: YONAKA. This band alone was enough to sell me a ticket for the day. Armed with the new album “Welcome To My House,” they set about owning the venue with a performance that showcased their readiness to headline the biggest venues the UK has to offer.
It all finishes where the day began, back at The Station, where our day’s headline act of choice, The Hara, were the perfect closeout to a perfect debut for Misery Loves Company. With anthems like “We All Wear Black” and “Friends,” it seemed very fitting. MLC is here to stay, and the city is very much the better for it.
Oh and we are not quite finished purring over the MLC masterclass in how to put on a festival just yet.
We’ll be dropping individual reviews and galleries for each of the acts we caught during the day throughout the rest of the week.
📝📸 The Bristol Nomad
@thebristolnomad / @bristolnomad_gigphotography
Role: Photographer / Reviewer / Interviewer
Chief, the one that bugs the team for team for their reviews and images. Creator and founder of The Bristol Gig Guide. Can usually be found swamped in admin or getting cramp kneeling at the front of a gig.
Available for: Gig Shoots, Gig Reviews, Photo Shoots, Album and Single cover shoots, Videography work, Interviews and Touring
First attended gig: Republica, circa 1996.
First gig shot: Hands Off Gretel, at The Louisiana!
Dream gig: Huge metalhead and my ultimate dream gig would be shooting my heroes Slipknot at a huge stadium gig, or as festival headliners. And to experience shooting a headline tour outside the UK
