Spring is in the air and Supersonic rolls around early this year. Heaven knows our weary hearts could all use a little lift. As well as a change of season the festival is slimming down to a two-day event but will still be bringing its familiar rich feast of musical flavours. There will be doom, drone, haunted folk, experimental electronics, fierce bass music, trans-hardcore and plenty more besides. A multiplicity of voices raised in joy and defiance, anger and sorrow.
No doubt the reduction in scale is at least partly due to the venue struggles of recent years, and the festival is on the move again, this time back to The Crossing, a fine space that you’ll be familiar with if you attended back before the pandemic. The tenacity and adaptability of the festival is inspiring, and rather than just do a slightly smaller version it is now the crowning jewel in a string of shows they’ve booked into the summer (Sumac, Colin Stetson, The Ex, Agriculture, SUNN O))), The None). If you want to extend your stay they’re putting on Orcutt/Shelley/Miller the Tuesday before…
As for the actual weekend, the mighty OXN return and beloved drone team Bong resurrect as Bong II, now with Dan Foggin of Smote in the line up. There’s compelling Arab noise-rock from Prostitute, fierce hardcore from Traidora, and the delirious noise of Guttersnipe. On the quieter side there’ll be folk-based explorations from Greet, Milkweed and Ancient Hostility. A couple of new collaborative trios as well, with an AV show promised for MMM’s performance and whatever Microplastics (featuring last year’s star turn aya) bring to the table.
All this and more, much more, on the sun-kissed streets of Digbeth, amongst a crowd of charming, well-dressed, music lovers. Come gather with your people, feel less isolated and weird – it’s good for you. Weekends like this are a beacon of light in darkening times. It has previously been my habit to pick a handful of less obvious choices off the bill and suggest you catch them. The universe has responded to this by throwing obstacles in the path of those artists with comedic regularity, so this time, I shall refrain. The paradox of this is it doesn’t matter who is playing because the programming is of such a high standard it never fails to surprise and amaze. Supersonic is a gem, don’t take it for granted.
