Nottingham folk joined the dots as they made their way to enjoy the local buzz bands and a few more established acts. With multi-city, new music extravaganza taking place across various venues, Platform headed along to see some cool, new bands throughout the day.
Opening Dot to Dot festival down at Rock City was Do Nothing, a four-piece-band from Nottingham. Their frontman looked a little like Ian Curtis and they introduced new material to a room full of people, eagerly waiting to hear them. The setlist featured their debut single Waitress which they released earlier this year and other songs created dashes of Genghar, Grizzly Bear, stripped-back Bombay Bicycle and even Talking Heads vibes. Do Nothing showed to be a group of talented lads and set the bar high for the rest of the day.
A microphone, loop pedal, quick-fire lyrics and beatbox vocals were all Alex Young, aka Motormouf, needed for his performance on Rock City’s Basement stage. The hip-hop hippie wowed the crowd with his disco themes and hip-hop poetry. Motormouf seemed at ease being on the stage by having a bit of a giggle with his audience and being really cool and upbeat.
Scottish indie rockers, The Snuts, graced Rock City’s main stage as the second act of the day for the venue. They describe themselves as “anthemic indie” and are already smashing 2018, building an ever-growing fanbase along the way. Their set featured the song, The Matador, which has dreamy guitar riffs, complementing raw vocals and the toe-tapping disco tunes to create a shoegaze effect. The crowd danced and jumped away to their infamously anthemic, all-encompassing live performance.
Brighton born boys, Chappaqua Wrestling, created an electronic swooning twist and jaunty tones with tunes such as False/Blue and Wait to Form My Head. Creating some Californian vibes, it was clear to see this duo have key influences such as The Beach Boys and Teenage Fanclub.
With a serious 70s groove, a catchy bass line and hip-rock, Bad Sounds gave the crowd a showstopper of a performance. Indie-funk tunes channelling Metronomy, Sly and The Family Stone and all round classic 90s. The five-piece band travelled up from their home of Bath and created a complete party on Rock City’s main stage. Their set featured their latest track, Evil Powers, created a funk-feel with science-esque, alien vibes at the beginning, but went on with carefree drum beats.
Later on in the evening, Rock City was packed out with eager fans waiting to see Mancunian indie-group Pale Waves, however, getting a good view was difficult. The bubble-gum sounding/ 80s inspired band were full of energy, playing all their hits from “Television Romance” and “New Year’s Eve”. They got to crowd into a really great mood, ready for the headliners, The Horrors.
Frontman Faris Badwan swaggered onto Rock City main stage, wearing vinyl head-to-toe, but looking cool as ever. The Gothic-rock band from Essex took us back to the mid-noughties when they were at the height of their career. They played their biggest hits “Gloves” and “Something to Remember Me By”, but the only one song that the fans were dying to hear live was”Still Life.” There was a sudden roar in the audience when the band hinted that it was the next song, and with amazing lighting throughout their set, it was truly a magic moment to hear it.
Although the weather was humid it was a brilliant day for everyone and smiles all around. With such variety and a buzz around the city, we cannot wait to see what Dot to Dot 2019 has to offer.
You can get tickets for Dot to Dot 2019 here.
By Katie Addy and Becky Lumbard