Manchester Psych Fest. 30th August 2025

It’s Manchester Psych Fest again! Possibly my favourite day of the year and the line up this year looks great. I’m starting today with the much hyped band, Westside Cowboy. We’re in Academy 2, a new venue for the festival and truthfully a bit of a trek from the rest of the venues (well aside its big brother Academy 1 next door). I’d rather be in the smaller rooms associated with day festivals, but Psych Fest is getting popular and a few larger capacities for some bands is pretty handy. Certainly for this lot who pull a big crowd early doors. The hype is warranted, they already sound like alt rock titans. It’s a massive sound, huge walls of melodic guitar and three voices up front that harmonise magnificently. Quiet, loud, open, tight, they switch around beautifully. Well aside the lad on drums who’s ferocious throughout. He’s bloody wonderful to watch. They all are, I’m totally sold inside a few songs and after 45 minutes, I’m wondering if this is going to be the set of the day.

I’m a bit stitched up logistics wise now, due to how far out we are here. There’s 45 minutes before PINS are on next and normally I’d jump to another venue, but by the time I’d get anywhere, I’d have about 10 minutes before having to head back. I’m not sure what the solution is, but I hope they find it before next year. Anyway, to PINS. How long have they been away? Too long, so it’s a joy to watch them again. They’re doing ‘Wild Nights’ but not in full it seems, which I’ll admit feels like a good call. Even a great album often falls a bit flat as a set. They sound good, but I’m not sure they grab the crowd as much as they should and certainly I’d hoped. They sound best on stuff like ‘Too Little, Too Late’ that has a bit more bite and ‘House of Love’ with its driving roadhouse menace. ‘Wild Nights’ too has a slow and sultry tone, which probably sums up the set well. There’s some new stuff that sounds promising and having Abbi from Loose Articles behind the drums is always a good idea. They’re as uncompromising as ever and I’m here for that. Great to have them back.

I make good time getting back to Gorilla in the rain and find I’m early, so pop in to The Ritz to catch the first half of HoneyGlaze’s set. They seem a bit raw and raucous in places, with time signatures that fire off and switch about. It should be my sort of thing, but it doesn’t grab me. Neither does the more controlled twee indie side. There’s a big crowd, they play well, but this isn’t for me.

So it’s a hop back over to Gorilla, where Sydney Minsky Sargeant is playing his new solo stuff. I first saw this lad with an early incarnation of Working Mens Club on the same showcase bill as PINS years ago. That was a very different band than what WMC became and his solo stuff is too. Dark 60s tinged psychedelia melded with a wistful melancholia, its haunting stuff and the freshest sound I’ve heard so far today. His acoustic guitar cutting through a muted electronic soundscape. Loops and modulations underpin tender laments. There’s even some sparse drum machine, but it’s the guitar and his voice that leads and he sounds bloody good. He still seems intense, restarting a song he’s not happy with. There’s a lot of chatter at the back and I wouldn’t be surprised if he launched the acoustic at someone’s head. Frankly I’d applaud. Talking during a set, even at a festival should mean instant reprisal. I’d say about 80% of the audience this afternoon deserves a lifetime ban. The 20% paying attention saw something special.

I’m nearly thwarted getting into Ritz’s basement by a long one in one out queue for Adore, but squeeze into the wings for some tight edgy post punk, which seems to be an Irish obsession right now. They’re a trio and sound good, although the drums are overpowering from my spot, so I’ll have to have a listen on record, but they’re worth keeping an eye on.

Upstairs, Pale Blue Eyes have pulled a good crowd and their music is the calm I need now. I’ve seen these lads before. They belt out wide open synth drenched shoegaze. Walls of guitar, driving rhythm, it depends on your definition of calm of course, but this is a sound I can get lost in. They nail the perfect set, packed with chilled out bangers that I’m sure will win them some more fans. The lad in front of me doesn’t stop dancing all set, he’s definitely on board.   

Blind Yeo pick up the beat back downstairs (I do like multi-stage venues). They’re certainly psych. Driving a lazy but purposeful groove with some guitars, keyboards, some kind of wind instrument that has a lovely tone to it and bizarre matching outfits, that are part Druid, part kids TV. They look and sound brilliant. The bloke leading them looks like he works in the geography department, which makes me love them even more. Add to that that his acoustic guitar appears to be fed through a board that makes it sound fucking phenomenal, means that this lot will be the first band I have a listen to post fest They’re from Cornwall which might explain a thing or two. They’re bloody marvellous and I can’t wait to see them again!!

Deadletter next, still in the Ritz. Six guys with guitars, saxophone, tambourine and a desire to lock into post punk grooves for a very busy and very warm Ritz main room. I quite like them and an enthusiastic crowd helps, but the problem is there’s an over-saturation of bands who sound like this. They do enough to catch your attention, the frontman is certainly committed and they’ve got some great songs that have a bit more bounce in them. The longer they play the more drawn I get, but I still think we need to mix it up a bit. I skip the end of their set, not because I’m bored I promise, but because realising I’ve not eaten in seven hours I’m bloody hungry. Time to venture outside.

Refuelled and a little damp, I walk in to a freezing cold FAC251 to watch Yaang. It’s been a while since I’ve been in here, years, it doesn’t look like it changed. Bass, guitar, a drum machine and singer with sunglasses and a tashe, throwing himself around as he yelps along to some solid electro disco rock. The bassist looks like Beck, the guitarist like someone I disliked at school (I’m sure he’s very nice), but try take your eyes off the singer, he’s a snake hipped wild man, even when the guitarist is singing, you're watching the fella next to him dancing like his life depends on it. They’ve one gear and it’s stuck in let’s fucking go! If you don’t like the first song, you won’t like the rest, but the place quickly fills up, suggesting people like me do indeed like it. It’s the injection of batshit fun I needed at this point in the evening. Mosh pits, naked torso’s, Yaang have the lot.

After giving up on a Beryl bike that wouldn’t unlock and still charged me, I instead make the long walk up to Academy 1 to catch the encore from Goat. Crazy stagewear to rival Blind Yeo, some funky percussion and even funkier riffs, they’re great. Honestly the standard today is bloody high, I’m going to struggle to pick a favourite set. It’s not fair to judge a band on a few songs, but if the rest was as good as the encore, it was pretty amazing. I could listen to these guitars wrapping around that rhythm all night, seriously infectious stuff and some of the heaviest stuff I’ve heard all day.

We’re still far from done as we get close to midnight. I’m back where it started in Academy 2 for YIN YIN. From the Netherlands they sound markedly different from anything else today. Americana surf melted into MOR rock. Funky basslines and deep shoulder action, they’re like the evenings entertainment at an all inclusive resort, but cooler. They’re a party band. Try stand still, you can’t. They explode into bonkers europrog and look like they’re having the time of their lives. It’s all instrumental and all about the groove. Am I going go out and buy all their records, probably not, but if you get chance to see them live, do it!

The last long walk done, we’re back in Gorilla for something a little more deadly with Adult DVD. Rhythmic monotone vocals, bruising bass and squealing guitars, backed up with some nasty electronic squelch. Perfect for keeping you awake as we reach into the early hours. Fuck me they’re good. Even better than last time I saw them and that was brilliant. They sound even louder and more brutal in here. That bass alone is worth today’s ticket. I’ve not seen Gorilla this packed in ages, it’s rammed. Hotter than hell with people crowd surfing as the tunes explode. Theres new stuff, old stuff, it’s all lands like a turbo charged adrenaline shot to the brain. Stunning.

The marathon ends with Y at Deaf Institute. After 12 bands my feet are feeling it, but I’m feeling Y too, sort of. They’re like a car wrecking over and over. Utterly chaotic with guitars and sax fighting it out. Where they do tighten up they sound better, but being slightly shambolic seems to be part of their charm. It’s very late and this is pretty much the last slot, but Deaf is full for them as they tear through their set at ear bleeding volume. They’re not for the casual listener and theres several slightly non-plussed faces dotted around. Maybe not for everyone, but I’m glad I made the effort.

I’m sure everyone has found something they love today though. I said at the start that the line up looks good and it certainly was. I think Adult DVD stole set of the day, but Sydney Minsky Sargeant and Westside Cowboy were close. Already excited for next year!!

Adult DVD

Westside Cowboy

PINS

Sydney Minksy Sargeant

Adore

Pale Blue Eyes

Blind Yeo

Deadletter

Yaang

Goat

Yin Yin

Y