Following a successful opening year, Edinburgh Psych Fest expanded to be bigger and better than before. Whilst still not quite as large as its sister event (the longer established Manchester Psych Fest), the addition of The Queen’s Hall, The Mash House and The Caves as venues make it feel less obviously a secondary event when compared to its older sibling. For all these new additions Summerhall remains the festival’s hub, with the courtyard offering food, drinks, a record shop and a chance to mingle with the like minded festival goers and the acts.
Gruff Rhys is on first at 1 pm at The Queen’s Hall, billed as “The Curtain Raiser” - a clever move by the festival in booking a top act to kick things off managing to fill (if not pack) the largest venue when punters might have been tempted to extend a lazy Sunday morning at home. It did however lead to starting off with a somewhat subdued crowd. Gruff and his band emerged dressed in white overalls with Gruff holding aloft one of his trademark signs saying “GENERIC FESTIVAL REACTION” to what was certainly a more muted response than they’d have received later in the evening. They open with the first two tracks from the new album Sadness Sets Me Free with a brief pause during Bad Friend to introduce the band and explain the outfits “and together we are… a fictional logistics company. Delivering ephemeral things like ideas, songs, and feelings.” The last of any lazy Sunday morning cobwebs were blown away by a rendition of Pang! with ex-Flaming Lips drummer Kliph Scurlock rising from his kit to ensure everyone is barked at into joining in. Throughout the set Kliph is a stand out performer hammering away with such frenetic energy as to really keep things moving. Older material like Shark Ridden Waters and American Interior is now met with delight from the crowd and by the time the Welsh-language fan favourite Gyrru Gyrru Gyrru ends the set it is clear GR Logistics have successfully delivered a cracking start to the day at Edinburgh Psych Fest.
Summerhall’s Dissection Room is the only performance space in Summerhall with a bar inside and is the most regularly used for gigs, so is well set up for the first band on - local lads Logan’s Close from Dunbar. They start just as Gruff finishes round the corner leading to a crowd that swells during the first couple of songs. Wide collars on open buttoned shirts and hair to match ensure they look the part for their 60s influenced jangly guitar pop sound. Their manner is charming whether revealing their last Edinburgh gigs were an embarrassing stint at the St James shopping centre during the Fringe or raging against the “spicy” guitar they’d just picked up before the gig. Highlights of their set include the Cavern Club-ready pop perfection of Hot Blondes In Your Area and the woozy more psychedelic offering of Mock Marble Linoleum.
Next up in the Dissection Room are the punkier and more raucous sounds of female fronted three piece Hot Wax. With punchy riffs and a slick sense of style they would have fit in well in the early noughties rock revival, yet remarkably would only just have been born when the band’s idol Karen O was putting out Yeah Yeah Yeah’s first album. The festival is treated to a couple of new songs that are just as fun and danceable as the more familiar tunes from last year’s EPs. In a world where guitar music was at the forefront of pop, this photogenic trio might well have been on a course to super-stardom as they are a lot of fun and worth checking out wherever they end up.
The Main Hall in Summerhall is a beautiful space with a lovely ornate painted ceiling, but with no fixed stage so it cannot help feeling like the set up for a band at a classy wedding. This space plays host to Hello Mary, a Brooklyn based three-piece who cite influences as varied as black midi and Aphex Twin for their expansive shoe-gazy sound. These girls are loud, highlighted by two new songs off their forthcoming album Three building to a deafening post-rock crescendo with the thunderous bass on 0%thumping in to give the room a pounding not dissimilar to the way Dominic AItchison’s bass on Mogwai’s Xmas Steps can really give a room a shake. A blistering performance by a band who will hopefully return to these shores soon.
Lo-fi Welsh guitar poppers The Bug Club take to the stage at The Queen’s Hall looking like the average punter at this festival had wandered on. The easy banter between guitarist Sam Willmett and bassist Tilly Harris does nothing to dispel the idea that these guys are at one with their audience and someone you’d like to share Quality Pints with. Often juxtaposing the surreal and mundane, The Bug Club’s lyrics are their strongest asset but in the live environment some of the little quips and quirky turns off phrase are lost to the fuzzy punky guitars - but these two’s ear for a tune more than makes up for the missing smirks and there is still fun to be had shouting along to the likes of Short and Round and Cheap Linen. These guys are so prolific that when they play Fixer from their 2021 debut album Pure Particles, they have released an incredible 86 more songs across four more albums and marks the three year old tune as an oldie. All this productivity gives the music a freshness that months of time holed up in a studio could blunt but it also means if you like their latest release go see them now before they’ve more new material to promote in six months.
Laidback French cool and an inexplicably large hat were up next in the Dissection Room with Juniore. More 60s nostalgia but with less affable smiles than Logan’s Close manages to get the evening crowd swinging along nicely even if the French lyrics are beyond most of the audience, which may not be a bad thing not knowing the English translation of En Retard and just enjoying the surf guitar bringing the vibes of summer in Provence to fog covered Edinburgh. They close out their set with two as yet unreleased songs from their forthcoming album and they have just as much groove as the rest of the set.
Down the warren-like corridors of Summerhall the Old Lab feels like a dingy basement club as Glasgow punks SOAPBOX finish the night. A viewing choice described by Logan Close’s Carl as “certainly alternative” compared with the bigger name options like Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs and Temples, this shouty orgy of sweaty men in a small room barking and swearing along with these catchy tales of working class life in Glasgow is the perfect climax to the evening. Latest single The Fear might hold particular relevance for anyone present working in the morning.
All in all Edinburgh Psych fest was a great day out in what can sometimes be a cultural desert in Edinburgh between the end of The Fringe and the students coming back later in September. Offering a huge variety of acts and Summerhall continuing to be an ideal venue, let’s hope it can ensure its place as a permanent fixture to the Edinburgh calendar.
A celebration of psychedelic music and arts held annually in Scotland's capital, featuring multiple venues and serving as a sister festival to Manchester Psych Fest.