6 Music Festival might be one of the most reliable festivals in British music. While larger festivals scrabble to appeal to everyone, and sometimes no one in the process – 6 Music Festival remains stable. The very fact that a band makes the line-up is a vote of confidence, more often than not.
6 Music have, for better or worse, always felt like one of the more discerning radio stations, choosing songs that you can tell the voices behind the station are genuinely passionate about. That might well be naivety, but we have far too much cynicism on the internet to start questioning that now. Please, just let me have this. Long story short, you can be confident of any running order that the bright minds at 6 Music pull together. Friday night at Liverpool's Mountford Hall was no exception, a striking journey through decidedly different versions of intensity from three wholly unique artists.
We began with an acoustic set from Bill Ryder-Jones, former Coral guitarist. At a first glance, Ryder-Jones gives off the appearance of being the next in a long line of dishevelled singer-songwriters, but to tar him with that brush is to do him a disservice. Backed by the cello playing of Lucy McLachlan, Ryder-Jones' flavour of songwriting is anything but the histrionic, cloying acoustic music that you might have otherwise expected. No, with Ryder-Jones, the night was off to an intense start – even with such a stripped-back presentation compared to his studio albums. The clarity of Ryder-Jones' voice, and the wholly moving accompaniment of McLachlan, together the pair made an already small venue feel even smaller. Intimate, almost. There's a rawness to Ryder-Jones' lyrics, a passion and harmony to their musicianship, that almost makes you feel like you're intruding, overhearing someone pouring their heart out – but never intending for anyone to actually be hearing them out.
Continuing the theme of stripped back, vulnerable and impactful songwriting, we move to Ex:Re – the solo moniker of Daughter lead singer, Elena Tonra. Ex:Re's set was a perfect segue between Ryder-Jones and John Grant, starting in a similar space to Ryder-Jones with the beautifully candid, almost delicate ‘My Heart’, before gradually ratcheting up the room filling power of both her voice, and the pitch perfect accompaniment alongside her with ‘Where the Time Went’, ‘Liar’ and ‘Crushing' in quick succession. It's a transition few singers can pull off as elegantly as Tonra and company do. Speaking of Tonra, and the band she has assembled around her, despite her Daughter credentials – and therefore her comfortable position in the indie pantheon – she refuses to take centre stage. She stands alongside her band mates and never budges. The audience begs for her to take the spotlight but she simply won't relent, and you can't help but respect that.
I'll admit, John Grant was new to me before Friday night – but my God, where has he been hiding? I never knew I needed brooding, strangely sexual and squelchy electro in my life, but here we are. There's a joyous juxtaposition in John Grant. A swagger and unaffectedness in his movements and stage presence entirely at odds with the vulnerability and, at points, bitingly barbed nature of his lyrics. He commands the stage like he's in the Czars all over again. He himself is hypnotic, and the band he has assembled around him paint such an illicit soundscape that being in the room with him is practically sensory overload.
A strong start to the festival, no matter how you cut it – but the best was yet to come...
