The North East is known for its music scene but perhaps not for its festivals. Twisterella however, are here to put the North East back on the new music map, taking inspiration from Liverpool Sound City, The Great Escape and many other events specialising in bringing punters the best in new live music.

Promoters Pay For The Piano and The Kids Are Solid Gold have combined to bring some of the regions, and the UK's, finest new music to Middlesbrough. Both boast excellent rosters, and are well known throughout the North East; Twisterella's line-up showcasing the depth of their previous endeavours. There’s a brilliant breadth and depth to Twisterella’s line-up, here are just a few of our picks from this packed line-up.

Heyrocco are an international addition to the line-up, hailing from South Carolina. They have a pretty distinctive brand of grungey indie rock and are a band tipped for the top, so we’re hoping to catch them whilst we still can.

Happyness have been touring with the likes of Speedy Ortiz of late, another band firmly on the up. We particularly enjoyed their recent show in Newcastle and in our eyes these guys can do very little wrong, especially as they’re labelled as the British Wilco.

Continuing on similar vein, Bad Breeding are another band currently poised to take the UK by storm with a sound akin to early work by Eagulls. The band have put out releases on Hate Hate Hate Records where bands like The Wytches and The Fat White Family have also released their early works.

Capture are an indie rock band hailing from Darlington, the latest in a long line of indie rock bands from the North East. We’re excited to see what they have to bring to the party on first listen; they have a sound that’s close to many of their peers but we shall wait and say.

Not so much new, but still brilliant Leeds’ That Fucking Tank. These behemoths of instrumental rock music are due to set things alight in the middle of the afternoon at Twisterella. We cannot wait for them to light the touch paper with what we’re sure will be a phenomenal day of music.

Another indie rock band hailing from the North East, and making waves all over the UK, are Lisbon. They arrive at Twisterella riding on the crest of a wave having played countless festivals all over the UK, earning a rapturous response at every turn. These guys are set to be huge, definitely a band to catch while you still can.

This is just a small selection of the talent on offer at Twisterella, we cannot wait to get in amongst it. The line-up is truly astounding; a gathering of phenomenal talent, whilst we have our list of who we want to see we can almost guarantee that we’ll discover even better and more exciting acts on the day.

Twisterella takes place on Saturday the 11^th of October at venues across Middlesbrough. Tickets are on sale now priced at a mere £15 and are available here,

Photos: Lee Hammond

Words: Adam Long

Tonight we're here at the Ritz in Manchester for well- established indie rockers Manchester Orchestra. They’ve been touring their arses off in support of their latest album Cope and its subsequent acoustic iteration, Hope; the receptions their live shows have been recently receiving, proving their hard work is paying off.

At first glance the venue doesn't appear as full as we expect, but there's still a sizeable crowd. With the band previously touring earlier in the year it isn't all that surprising they haven't filled the venue, but tonight still proves they have some core fans in the city. Before they take to the stage however, we've the pleasure of Kevin Devine, complete with his full band, though they do have to borrow Manchester’s Orchestra's bass player for a reason we still don’t quite know? But all the same they play a great set, if at times sounding a little samey with minimal crowd interaction. One thing we would mention was their choice of finisher, their whole set was full of energy and pace but towards the end the last few songs dropped off and become a bore for us, and from my observation, everyone else too.

With the support over it's time for Manchester Orchestra who come to the stage locked and loaded with the meaty riff of 'Pride' shredding us to the very core. They instantly grab our attention from the word go. A few crowd-pleasing oldies in, they began reeling off with their latest singles, including 'Every Stone' and 'The Ocean'. These tracks may only have been out a few months but trust me this crowd knows every single word. There's unfortunately a moment at the start of “I Can Barely Breath” in which the crowd were somewhat rude, as the song's played acoustic, and Andy Hull's vocals were lost buried under all the chit chat of the crowd.

After that solitary sour note, the rest of the set continues to twist and change with a good mix between acoustic and powering riffs. By the end we're truly left stunned at such an awesome set. The sound's been brilliant all night and Andy’s vocals spot on. Despite the new album not doing brilliantly with critics and fans alike, their newer material mixes perfectly tonight, showing a band at their strongest and preparing to take over the world. If you thought that wasn’t enough then their encore is the cherry on the top; an acoustic cover of the “Fresh Prince of Bel Air” which was just sublime, played with supporting artist Kevine Devine back on stage for added vocal harmonies. It was fresh and inventive not to mention nostalgic and a perfect way to end a near perfect night.

All in all it was a real shame it wasn’t sold out, as those in that venue witnessed one of those rare sets. Those sets where the sound is bang on, the band are loving it and everyone's locked in and note-perfect. It showcased exactly why these guys are where they are, and you should go and catch them on this tour before it’s too late.

With a new album freshly released via the phenomenal Rocket Recordings and a triumphant headline set at this weekends’ Liverpool Psych Fest under their belts, the almighty behemoth that is Goat make their way in to Newcastle in high spirits. But first, the not so small matter of Lay Llamas who, apart from being a photographer’s worst nightmare, these guys don’t half know how to make some noise.

This Italian duo, backed by a hefty psychedelic army, are also fresh from a triumphant set at Psych Fest and boy does it show. They bring Newcastle to their knees. The bass punches you in the stomach as these guys hammer out some pretty heavy psych rock; they can only be described as a gut wrenchingly brilliant support act for the impending madness.

With little relent a set packed full of high octane guitar riffing, we were not left with much time to wait as Goat’s masked crew clear the stage ready for their impending arrival. The majority of the band enter the stage first and fire up their instruments before the two front ladies bound on to the stage in particularly spectacular fashion as always.

Opening up with the lead track from current LP Commune ‘Talk to God’ is a long sprawling psychedelic jam, as both ladies bound around the stage often edging toward the crowd baiting them. Before dancing away. The lights dance almost as fast as the ladies on stage, creating a tripped out feeling as this Monday night crowd looks on in awe at the amazing band before them.

The shamanistic nature of the music lends itself to a ritualistic head nodding from the crowd. We look round and we’re not the only ones who are completely mesmerised and entranced by Goat. They’re not holding back this evening and ‘Disco Fever’ is a krautastic cosmic disco trip, their inimitable style could only be likened to Fairport Convention on a ton of hallucinogens; they flit through the musical landscape, space and time with little regard for convention.

There is something so special about Goat that it’s hard for us to pinpoint exactly what it is, perhaps it’s the mystery behind the masked individuals or perhaps it's their aforementioned disregard for any convention. That said we’re not overly bothered we’re having far too much fun completely giving ourselves up at the alter of Goat.

What we should praise them for though is their impressive array of songs with Goat in the title. Our personal favourite being ‘Goatman’, perhaps the wildest of the goat-based tracks, the awesome swirling guitars that precede the ever-brilliant chanted vocals. With the drums and the percussion it gives off a brilliant tribal feeling; a mainstay in so many of Goat’s songs.

There is however, one track which stands atop of them all, the mighty ‘Run To Your Mama’ from their first album World Music. This track sums up this evening that tribal feeling is ever present the chanted vocals. It has every member of this packed crowd chanting along with them as the band get up to their usual crazy antics bouncing around the stage.

Words cannot express the brilliance of Goat, they’re on of a kind in so many ways they have their own style their own niche. What a fine niche it is to, they command respect and their stage presence is faultless the two front ladies put in an awesome shift at every opportunity this evening. Leaving with our jaws firmly on the floor at the phenomenon we’ve just experienced we cannot praise this band enough.  

Day two of this year’s Liverpool Psychfest kicked off in fine style with Newcastle’s The Glass Moths laying it on thick with their organ drenched, extended workouts. You have to make the effort to get in early to see the opening acts at these things, at least when you’re already in situ, and the rewards for the early birds were here today across all three rooms. Temple Songs tore it up in the Camp with their set very much being at the frantic, manic end of the psych spectrum whilst Rennes’ Sudden Death Of Stars were first on stage in daylight in the Furnace (a criminally early slot for a band this good) and wowed the lucky souls who’d made time for them with their sitar-infused, tambourine-heavy output.

Local quartet Strange Collective were next up at the Blade Factory, with their guitarist having just high-tailed it over from a wedding. Bringing to mind the Beta Band at times they plough a nicely fuzzed-up furrow when they get into their stride. Traams were then briefly witnessed back at the Furnace, leading to one of the weekend’s regrets that we’d not seen more of their thrillingly intense 30 minutes. By now most people had made it out of bed so upon heading back round the corner it was only possible to take in the fact that Cantaloupe had attracted a substantially larger crowd than saw them at Threadfest in May so things look to be going well for them. Islet rounded off the pre-dinner session for us back in the Camp (Nueva Costa were unfortunately a bit too weedy for us and a great amount of the other punters it seemed). Starting off by wandering through the crowd with handheld glockenspiels it was clear that the bigger venue afforded them the scope their ideas required to a better degree than witnessed at Long Division in the middle of the month.

Post-scoff our first stop was back at the Blade Factory but Cheval Sombre came across as being rather too much low-key acoustica for the moment so the visit was brief. Likewise Orval Carlos Sibelius, deemed “too Britpop” by Mr. Allen, got little of our attention in the same hall a couple of hours later. Far more up our street in the same space was Theo Verney, who can pretty fairly be hailed as a UK Ty Segall. As expected after seeing the band’s Long Division performance (albeit with I think a different bassist) they were ideally suited to the smaller and far more intimate confines of the Blade Factory, inspiring crowd surfing and general energetic movement amongst the front few rows of the audience. Big things should deservedly come the band’s way. September Girls were the final act we took an interest in at the Blade Factory but again we were at the tail end and so could see no more than the tops of their heads. Sound-wise though they were as expected from multiple listens to Cursing The Sea and far better than the moronic “Calendar Girls” comment made by some passing fool.

The larger two halls panned out for us largely as one LOUD and one quiet for the nighttime sessions. The Furnace hosted returnees The Lucid Dream whose thundering crescendo of sound & strobes provided one of the undoubted highlights of the two days but then things calmed right down with the harmonious sounds of Grumbling Fur, a solo-filled but rather straightforward set from Sleepy Sun who were hard to hear at the rear of the hall and were not the same exciting prospect as when last seen in Edinburgh a couple of years ago. Quilt, however, with their balance of male & female vocals were another highlight in a night that produced a few of those. Their light undimmed after a month on the road in Europe they were another oddly under-viewed act but pulled off a deeply affecting performance. Closing out our involvement with the Furnace came Woods, whose set featured all the songs you could have hoped for from Bend Beyond as well as a good dollop from current album With Light And With Love and their back catalogue.

The Camp therefore was clearly then the place to be if you wanted to endanger your hearing tonight. Lay Llamas enjoyed some of the best visuals of the day as their set wove, Live At Pompeii-like, from mesmerising to cacophonous. The backdrop technology failed for a short period during Anthroprophh’s set but by this point it was all about your ears as the pounding backbeat and extreme solos took on a physical form to churn your guts. Teeth Of The Sea took things further off down the track towards techno whilst simultaneously making excellent use of brass and maintaining the guitar solo quotient on a classic flying v. By this time the projections were of quite a menacing nature and the sound was flattening out the heads on the pints.

Gnod, augmented by Dave W. of White Hills, added further mayhem & madness to the already volume-laden atmosphere. Like watching Kim Fowley fronting space rock escapees from an off-world cult, the disparate Mancunian bunch elevated things to a whole new level of freakery. Who knows what they actually played – such things as discernible songs were no longer important by this point.

White Hills themselves were the final act of the night for me (so I’ve not a clue about the kerfuffle that apparently went off around the Goat show) and they topped off the entire event to perfection. Energetic, appreciative of the audience, waffle-free and fantastically overdriven the trio thrashed and fuzzed their way through to 01:30 as if their lives depended on it. The crowd were far to polite at the end to clamour for further songs (aware maybe for a change of event time constraints) but if any act that appeared here during the day’s 14 hours deserved an encore it was these guys. 

Our full set of photographs from this year's event can be viewed on Flickr.