#SaveTheDate – 08.09.2022! Unleash your inner vice during this year’s first-ever international editions of ViceFest! The exciting indoor festival – founded by Dutch band The Vices – will take a step into new territory this year as it expands from just its regular Groningen edition to a multi-city spectacle across the UK and Europe! Throughout September 2022, The Vices find themselves joined by a number of special guests at festival dates in London, Antwerp, Groningen and Berlin. Each city will feature a unique line-up across one or two stages, with both national and international artists set to appear alongside hosts The Vices.
Tickets at www.vicefest.com
www.instagram.com/vicefestofficial
The Berlin edition of the ViceFest will take place on September 8th. Bands like bdrmm, Bad Nerves, Shybits, VØR and Ponte Pilas will feature as musical attractions alongside a whole host of extras including a festival market, a skate ramp and anything else The Vices conjures up! ViceFest is a dive into their crazy little world, presenting itself as the kind of travelling circus you just don’t want to miss out on.
Shybits is a Berlin-based post-punk garage rock trio made up of friends Liam from Brighton (Guitar & vocals), Piero from Italy (Bass & vocals) and Meg from South Africa (drums). The fuzzy, feel-good sound is reminiscent of post-punk and 90s garage rock and has been described as “Beach Boys suntan nostalgia meets Beatlesque Bedroom pop”. www.instagram.com/shybits
VØR is a young woman looking for answers in a seemingly pointless world. A great voice that sounds fragile and deep as well as triumphant and high. She comes close to these brief moments of triumph when she finds her own answers and structures in the chaos. When the honey flows over her skin, she learns to love herself in this metaphor. www.instagram.com/voer.music
With her first EPs, “Liminal” (2018) and “Liminal II” (2020), the indie-pop artist has already been able to concede comparisons with Lana Del Rey or Florence + the Machine as well support gigs with musical greats like Y’akoto and Bill Ryder-Jones. Now she is taking the next step and inviting us to emotional threshold hikes at the edges of everyday life. “Honey” is VØR‘s first LP-length release.
The Vices present a contrasting mix of Britpop and surf rock. After a debut album as successful as “Looking For Faces,” a band would usually fly high, but a nasty pandemic put a stop to festival season and a sold-out club tour. But if there’s one thing The Vices aren’t, then it’s defenceless. If you can’t fly, you might as well start running fast; anything to release energy and creative urges. The Vices became the house band on the Dutch talk show “M” (NPO1), were familiar faces at the national radio stations 3FM and KINK, put on a sold-out ViceFest and…returned to the studio! Close to the ground, The Vices went in search of themselves. On the new single “Strange Again” you hear them think and philosophize about an eternal desire for new adventures.
www.instagram.com/wearethevices
Bad Nerves are a 5-piece Powerpop-Rock’n’Roll band from East London. The bastard child of a Ramones/Strokes one-night stand, they play ferociously fast distorted pop songs, with melodies that hook so deep, even the most skilled phlebotomist would struggle to scrape them out. With their debut album due for release on November 20th, the band have released 3 ripping new singles “Baby Drummer”, “Electric 88” and “Palace”. Go check them out and share them on your socials once a day until the world ends (which is likely to be soon). www.instagram.com/badbadnerves
Originally a solo venture for the band’s singer-songwriter, Ryan Smith, bdrmm has since expanded into a five-piece outfit currently based in Hull, East Yorkshire. Comparisons have been drawn across the board to the shoegaze troupes of the nineties, particularly Ride and Slowdive. Although Creation undoubtedly would have snapped them up in an instant, it’s difficult not to point out that there’s much more going on here. www.instagram.com/smellybdrmm
The soundscapes the band create seem more akin to dream pop acts such as Beach House; melodic, searing guitar lines recall Pixies and there’s certainly a hint of Cocteau Twins in tracks like “Is That What You Wanted to Hear?”. Like many of the best new guitar bands, bdrmm coalesces their influences into something that manages to sound both refreshing and familiar, developing on the lineage of rock music rather than repeating it tirelessly.
Brought together by fate and circumstance at a young age, Calum, Daniel, Ralde and Ismael started making music together in 2017 as Indie Rock Band Ponte Pilas – always inspired by their common heroes such as Iggy Pop, The Rolling Stones and Blondie. While their passion for Rock’n’Roll connects them, each one channels this in their own unique way: Artsy and passionate, cool and funny, charismatic and crazy and the introspective musician. www.instagram.com/pontepilasband
In Ponte Pilas they unify these disparate souls into one, especially since they write all their songs together in a collaborative way. Each band member leaves their own indelible mark on the song, which resonates with each listener in a different and powerful way. Ponte Pilas are a passionate, thought-provoking, hilarious and, most importantly, very modest Indie-Rock-Band that you don’t wanna miss live on stage!
Tickets at www.vicefest.com
www.instagram.com/vicefestofficial
