Contributed by Jonny Collins
Holy heck, 10 years of the best Punk festival in Manchester called Manchester Punk Festival?? Where has the time gone!
In actuality I’ve only been going since about 2019, and honestly thought it was much older than that, but it is amazing news to hear it celebrating such a monumental anniversary. Manchester Punk Festival is a cultural staple of this city that I’ve been calling home for just over a decade. It turns a Christian appropriated Pagan holiday weekend into a showcase of revolutionary Underground DIY music, underrated international punk titans, and artistry and creatives with a “punk” edge, whether or not it falls into the rigid sonic definition of the genre.
It’s been an event where I make friends, discover bands who have become some of my all-time favourites, and it’s one of the few events in the world where I feel like I truly belong and am welcome. It reminds me why I call this place my home. It’s built up of intersections of wonderful communities of creatives, artists, and all-round nerds (affectionate) all from different backgrounds, intersections and walks of life, all present to celebrate DIY angry and often politically charged music against the increasingly unjust world we are living in.
I look forward to this festival every year, but they have really pulled out the stops with their line up this year. With 120+ bands to choose from, it can be hard to know who to go and see and be overwhelmed by choice.
The answer, by the way, is you can go see any of these bands and you’ll have an amazing time at the festival. But these 20 bands are our personal faves this year and the ones we’re most hyped about, so if you are at a loss for where to start, here are our recommendations!
Unlike last year this year, we’ve been careful not to recommend any clashing bands, so you could feasibly see every one of these bands this weekend (albeit some of them have very tight changeovers!). So a caveat that there are lots of bands we absolutely adore at this festival who we just couldn’t include due to clashing with another band we just gave a slight edge to . In an ideal world you’d be able to see them both. So we will flag when there’s a particularly tight contest what alternative we’d go for if you aren’t able to get in or you just don’t vibe with our first pick, we just won’t go into as much detail.
Below is a playlist featuring our favourite track of each of our band picks if you just want a quick idea of their vibe – but if you want to read more details keep scrolling…
- Deezer: https://dzr.page.link/eeRRjyEkeNoj25jc9
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4FFKwYlQDfwzU3hbCyYwZE?si=4a4063ac22aa4988
- Tidal: https://listen.tidal.com/playlist/bcec1292-3cac-469f-a067-827f4a618081
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGv_OFvoeqQvkb-JRdiEkdhN1rQ1vWWpu
1: Skint Knees
What: Yorkshire Riot Grrrl
When: Friday – 13:40-14:10
Where: YES Basement
For fans of: Pink Suits, Smoking Gives You Big Tits, The Menstrual Cramps
Favourite song: Modern Prometheus
Starting our weekend right with some punk of the angry feminist variety. It’s no secret that if you give me driving distorted power chord riffs and a furious femme shouting politics over the top of it you will have made a fan for life.
Skint Knees provide a pretty stripped back classic instrumental punk formula with a pumping percussive beats, grinding riffs, to the point lyrics, coloured in with unrestrained yelling and pure seething rage underneath. You can’t go wrong with this band if you like anything about punk. They are a supremely solid start to this historic festival anniversary, and if you can get your act together to get your wristband early enough to pop back to YES before 2pm then these folk are well worth checking out.
2: Our Lives In Cinema
What: Melodic Emo Punk
When: Friday – 14:50-15:20
Where: YES Pink Room
For fans of: Spanish Love Songs, The Latchkey Kids, Tripsun
Favourite song: Crushing Low
Now we’ve got the obligatory nepotism section of the playlist – as this is I guess a step-band of our own Kirstie – who plays in a different band with the same singer? Idk, there’s probably a proper word for that. But I’m going with step-band – like there’s not technically anything wrong if you fuck it, but it’s taboo enough to do well on Pornhub.
Anyway, nepotism aside, and flagging that this isn’t typically a subgenre of punk I’m particularly well versed in, there’s something about the way this band underscores its melodic punk sound with melancholy that really draws me in. This is definitely a take on emo I like, really heavy on the emotion in tone but taking more cues from pop punk in terms of composition and delivery, making the vocal style far more accessible without losing the tonal impact.
They have one of those sounds that really demonstrates the emotional power music can have at its best. They provide both a comforting blanket of support, while also uplifting you with a feeling of solidarity and community, using very personal songs to connect similar souls together. It makes you feel … not exactly safe, but less alone in your unsafety.
Crushing Low in particular I’m drawn to for its musical arrangement and vocal structure. Particularly the chanting choral outro. There have been a few bands that have brought me to tears at MPF, and I feel like Our Lives In Cinema could be added to that prestigious list.
3: Baldhead
What: Dub/Ska Punk
When: Friday – 16:10-16:40
Where: The Bread Shed
For fans of: Dakka Skanks, King Prawn, The Specials
Favourite song: Paw Patrol
Another band distantly related to Kirstie; Cruel Mother’s singer also does vocal duty for this dub heavy ska outfit Baldhead.
Might be a bit of a shift if you’re used to his voice in a Doom Metal context, but man’s versatile. Baldhead offer quite a slow, almost two-tone ska experience compared to a lot of my favourite third wave inspired outfits – but that doesn’t mean they lose the heavier edge of that style. Baldhead are a band with a sense of humour and whimsy in their songwriting, but that doesn’t come at the expense of sincere political commentary and critique. Get you a band who can do BOTH.
Paw Patrol is an excellent example of this – being a silly song calling children cartoon characters class traitors, but also underlining issues of police oppression, corruption and brutality, and copaganda in the media. All with a chorus that genuinely slaps and will have you unironically yelling along “Paw Patrol are Class Traitors” with the appropriate venom by the end.
If you’re looking for a band you can skank to, maybe a little less dangerous to your aging joints than Faintest Idea later in the weekend, but still with a satisfying punch to it, you can’t go wrong with these guys.
Alternatively: Thank are playing at 4:30pm at YES Pink Room. Thank make Electronic Noise Rock, for fans of Austerity Dogs, Idles, Meryl Streek. Their song Woke Fraiser is a genuinely hysterical depiction and take down of far right culture warrior influencers on the internet and the moral panic around all things “woke”, and might be one of my favourite songs of 2024. I will likely be skanking it up with Baldhead, but if that’s not your thing, or you don’t want to be in the vicinity of anyone who says the term “skanking it up” these would also be a solid choice.
4: Follow Your Dreams
What: Experimental Hardcore
When: Friday – 17:00-17:30
Where: Gorilla
For fans of: Iwrestledabearonce, Protest The Hero, Sikth
Favourite song: Fuck This
I didn’t manage to see these guys at MPF last year, despite telling you all to go do so on last year’s blog – but I did see them at Nice As Pie in Leeds in November, and they were just as spectacular as I expected.
Follow Your Dreams are extremely virtuosic musicians, crafting intense hardcore punk with expert technical riffs underlying the whole thing giving it an extra depth but without taking away from the core rage and power at the centre of it. It puts me in mind of a Protest The Hero type band. Musically they take a lot of influence from Math Rock/Mathcore – but the lyrics and the sensibilities are firmly rooted in what makes hardcore great, with frank, clear, explicit lyrics espousing righteous anger at all the bullshit in the world and providing a great soundtrack to rage against that with.
Now that they’re playing at a more sensible time this year, my pushing 30 self is definitely going to make it to their set this year without fear that I’ll crash out and go to bed by 10pm again.
5: Arms & Hearts
What: Indie Punk
When: Friday – 18:20-19:00
Where: YES Pink Room
For fans of: Biffy Clyro, Manic Street Preachers, Maximo Park
Favourite song: Bottom Line
Going a bit more accessible now with Arms & Hearts. This band is new to me, but I found them on the official playlist and this track stuck with me. This kind of punk isn’t typically my jam, but something about the slowed down and almost dreamy instrumentation of this band really swept me up in the atmosphere of it.
Bottom Line particularly got to me, this track really taps into the I think communal pessimism a lot of us are feeling as the death rattle of late stage capitalism just keeps drawing itself out and getting worse and worse, even beyond breaking point, squeezing more and more out of the poorest in society despite them being next to devoid of any wealth or resources to extract anymore. At what point is inequality vast enough that we do something about it? Every year money is worth less and we all have less of it, except for the select few who own everything. We’re working ‘til burnout if we can, only to wonder if we’ll retain that job for tomorrow, and what we’ll do without the pitiful salaries we try our best to scrape by on despite having to make more and more concessions as the cost-of-living skyrockets out of our reach. The rich stop just short of telling us that they want us dead, but how else are we supposed to interpret the increasingly unattainable “cost of living” and their indifference to it?
While there are plenty of heavy shouty punk bangers on this topic, sometimes it’s nice to have something that strips out the rage and really shows you what breaking point sounds like. Breaking point isn’t rage and anger. Breaking point is despair. The energy of this song and this band’s output here really captures that sound of your spirit waning while your body pushes itself on autopilot to keep up with the same old routine to attempt to just barely survive. I appreciate this take on the tone. While it isn’t my go-to, I respect it a lot and I’m intensely curious to see the energy of these guys live, They may indeed give a pretty nice respite to some of the heavier and dancier bands on the agenda so far today.
Or, if you want something a bit more upbeat, I can also recommend Broadway Calls, who are playing at Gorilla at 17:50-18:30, just before Arms & Hearts but overlap a little bit. You could see a bit of both of their sets for sure, but I know what I’m like and I won’t wanna run across Oxford Road to get between bands that quickly! But if you like your Alkaline Trios, All Time Lows and Offsprings, I particularly enjoyed Broadway Calls on the main playlist. Be All That You Can’t Be is a wonderful upbeat pop-punk anti-war and anti-military-industrial-complex anthem, if you’d like to get a feel for their vibe.
6: Millie Manders & the Shutup
What: Cross Genre Punk Fusion with elements of Ska, Pop and Hip-Hop
When: Friday – 19:50-20:40
Where: Gorilla
For fans of: Less Than Jake, No Doubt, Wonk Unit
Favourite song: Can I Get Off?
I am so glad Millie Manders aren’t clashing with 3 of my favourite bands this time – 2023 was a hard year.
Millie Manders & the Shutup are criminally underappreciated and deserve to be so much bigger than they are. Their most recent album is one of the most polished mixes and well written compositions I’ve ever heard, and all of that whilst being their most cutting and biting lyrical efforts to date.
Not that this territory is new for this band of course, but there sounds like a renewed focus and passion on the new record. Can I Get Off? is I think genuinely one of my all-time favourite protest anthems. It captures the rage and anger of living in an increasingly globally unjust world and the absolute despair and sickness you feel, not only hearing about it, but the fact that our media and even a lot of our counterculture just does not touch or reference the horrific genocides that are occurring overseas, in many cases enabled and supported by our own government and military resources.
At its core this, is a pro Palestine anthem, but it takes care to shed light on many less publicised atrocities occurring in other countries as well.
This is such an important song. It is intensely relatable these last couple of years as we see more and more news and more and more harrowing phone footage of unspeakable horrors committed and at best ignored if not cheered on from nearly all of our most powerful world leaders. This song is an attempt to grapple with that, and to vent frustrations at bands who are quite happy to pay lip service to surface level “Fuck the Tories” sentiments and yet go quiet whenever Gaza comes up.
Generally my view is that I would rather people who don’t know what they’re talking about say nothing rather than say something ill-informed and callous. But the longer this goes on and the more we see, ignorance is becoming an increasingly hollow defence. If you are unable to stand on the basic value that genocide and ethnic cleansing is bad actually, then honestly what is the point of your punk band?
Millie Manders & The Shutup are going from strength to strength, and if you haven’t already seen them, you definitely want to catch them now. If there is any fairness in the music industry (which, we know there isn’t tbf) this band will be much harder to see in future as demand soars for them. Seriously, watch this space, I would be very surprised if they aren’t headlining before long.
7: Call Me Malcolm
What: Ferocious Ska-Punk
When: Friday – 21:00-22:00
Where: Gorilla
For fans of: Half Past Two, ‘Till I’m Bones, We Are The Union
Favourite song: All My Nameless Friends
And closing off our Friday plans are another band who I missed in 2023 because of the SAME CLASH THAT MILLIE MANDERS HAD. Still not over that. This year has a few rough clashes, but the least that impact me specifically for a little while, so not complaining.
Call Me Malcolm are quintessential modern ska punk – immaculate arrangement, excellent musicianship, and emotive songwriting that buries its way into my very core.
All My Nameless Friends in particular is a track that never fails to move me. It is community solidarity distilled into a 4-minute ska punk banger. It is an anthem ode to gathering and partying with all of your friends, even friends you maybe haven’t and will never meet, but are sharing a moment dancing and singing along to a band you both love. I am a sucker for any band who can capture the feeling and joy of live music on a meta level in their own music and Call Me Malcolm may be the absolute best at that.
This song makes me cry every time, idec.
Beyond that as well Call Me Malcolm just are one of the best going, and if you like Ska Punk and you aren’t already following them, you need to fix that IMMEDIATELY.
8: Electric Press
What: Aggressive Hardcore/Metalcore
When: Saturday – 14:00-14:30
Where: The Union
For fans of: Architects, Enter Shikari, Fever 333
Favourite song: Leave The Kids Alone
Moving onto Saturday now, bit of a later start today, but at 2pm we have the absolutely electric…Electric Press, who you do not want to miss. I can’t remember where I first heard of these guys, but I got to see them headlining at Nice as Pie in November, and they absolutely blew the roof off the place.
I was slightly put off by how bastard young they all look and how old and decrepit I felt in comparison, but once they started playing I was absolutely hooked. They didn’t even play my favourite song, and I didn’t even care I’d had that much fun.
Electric Press really put the “hard” in hardcore – with riffs, shouts, beats and energy that pushes the genre to its listenable limits and is bound to get a mosh pit going in even the most timid of audiences. Expect big crunchy riffs, pure unfiltered rage, and one of the most energetic parties of your life while these guys are on stage.
I particularly love Leave The Kids Alone, their trans liberation anthem calling out and making fun of the growing moral panic around children’s ownership of their own gender and right to express that and seek non-permanent treatments for dysphoria they may be feeling. In many parts of the world, trans rights are being very quickly rolled back or at least campaigned strongly against. Nowhere is this more obvious than with trans youths, who are now denied access to puberty blockers for no real scientific basis, and who are societally having any feelings of gender fluidity or feelings outside of their assigned one heavily railroaded and quashed as much as possible by the same sorts of people who tried to use kids as an argument against gay marriage.
As someone who in hindsight first knew there was a disconnect between myself and my assigned gender as young as 12 years old, and didn’t even have exposure to the idea of transgender people as a concept let alone non-binary or the knowledge that treatments existed to help alter your body in a way to make it feel more gender comfortable – I am horrified that in a world where there is so much more accessible knowledge on this subject that it’s being actively suppressed and taken away from kids, who, like me nearly 2 decades ago, are beginning to discover themselves, and in a cruel twist of fate are having access to healthcare taken away from them at this key developmental part of their life.
Plenty of people don’t realize until they’re much older of course, and you’re not any less valid as your gender if you thought it was something different into your adulthood. But for those kids who do find this stuff out about themselves, the fact that they are being forced to progress through a form of puberty that will trigger intense dysphoria in them just because of a bullshit moral panic enabled by fickle politicians of a bygone generation – is frankly fucking awful.
Leave the Kids Alone is an explosion of rage with a very simple message, telling these legislators and campaigners to stop being fucking weirdos about this and stop pretending this has anything to do with protecting kids and more to do with the fact that they find the whole idea of anyone being trans gross and scary and don’t want us to exist.
It’s an ancient tactic that has been deployed many times in the last few decades. Thankfully it rarely worked before, and I’m confident it won’t work now. But that doesn’t mean that in the short term there aren’t lots of casualties to be had. We absolutely need to push back against this rhetoric as much as possible now, not just wait for the gender criticals to implode amongst themselves. Leave the kids alone, fucking weirdos.
Anyway, Electric Press are phenomenal, and they’re bound to wake you up for a full Saturday full of Punk goodness if you need that extra energy.
9: Throwing Stuff
What: Hardcore Punk
When: Saturday – 15:40-16:10
Where: YES Pink Room
For fans of: 25 Ta Life, Million Dead, Minor Threat
Favourite song: No Gods, No Kings
Next up over at the YES Pink Room we have some more hardcore, a bit more stripped back and traditional but no less wonderful from Throwing Stuff.
Throwing Stuff are local titans of the hardcore scene, and really no MPF is complete without them. If you’re after music to lose yourself to, really let out your social and political frustrations with the world while letting yourself go in an intense onslaught of hardcore riffage and moshing – then really there are few bands better. They sound like a band called Throwing Stuff – what more can I say? This is a book you can and should judge by its cover. You get what you’re given, and you’re going to have a great time with it.
We have a bit of a gap here in bands to recommend, so we’d encourage you if you need some downtime after a pretty intense afternoon to go see Blizzard faves Katie Mitchell and Eddie French on the comedy stage at Salutation – along with Andrew O’Neill’s History of Heavy Metal – which is one of my all-time favourite live comedy shows I’ve ever been to. Good excuse for a sit down if you need one.
If you’d rather continue with the live music however, The Union has a pretty decent run of bands during the same time frame, including Redeemon at 4:40 and Knife Club at 5:40. The former is an intense and innovative Jazzy Ska-Metal combo who sound like nothing else I’ve ever heard. And the latter, a TNS records supergroup who represent many of the great things about the label and the festival – a true collaborative punk party who you’re bound to love if you like Punk music to any degree (and if you don’t, why are you reading this blog or attending this festival?). I always mean to check them out live but they either clash or are on too late for me to catch. One year I’ll catch them I’m sure, but if you’re not as much a fan of comedy as we are (which again, why are you on our blog? That’s kind of our thing) you might as well go and check them out.
10: CHERYM
What: Pop-Punk/Riot Grrrl
When: Saturday – 18:40-19:20
Where: The Union
For fans of: Bikini Kill, Fresh, Paramore
Favourite song: Alpha Beta Sigma
Whether you stay for the comedy or head to the Union early – make sure you’re at the Union by 6:40 to catch our next highlighted femme rage legends, CHERYM.
They provide a very 00s take on Riot Grrl that bridges the gap between Bikini Kill and Paramore, taking musical cues from later pop-punk/emo with the lyrical sensibilities from feminist empowerment punk. If, like me, you’re a gay femme aging millennial emo, (and once again, if not, why are you here? We’re marketing very specifically to people who are exactly like me, and no one else, this is definitely a sustainable business practice, shut up) you’ll fucking love them.
11: Oi Polloi
What: Anarcho-Oi! Punk
When: Saturday – 19:50-20:40
Where: The Bread Shed
For fans of: Angelic Upstarts, MDC, The Restarts
Favourite song: Boot Down The Doors
After that, we’ve decided to butch it up a little bit with Streetpunk legends Oi Polloi – another band who I keep missing here but who are quintessential British Punk. Anarchic, chanting choruses, uncompromising lyrics and values, and a band who will take you right back to the golden years of this kind of Punk the moment they play those first few chords. No one does it quite like Oi Polloi, and a world without their music frankly isn’t one I want to live in.
Alternatively, if you’d rather keep on the femme punk train, head over to YES Basement for 7:30 to catch Period Drama combining slutty lesbianism with Emo music (also same). Bees is one of my favourite songs I discovered in the last year or so. Their whole vibe is intense and emotional lesbian love songs, which I already know most of you routinely crave, so if that’s more your vibe, they are a great choice.
12: Faintest Idea
What: Skacore Oi!
When: Saturday – 21:00-22:00
Where: Gorilla
For fans of: Popes of Chillitown, Riskee & The Ridicule, Sonic Boom Six
For haters of: Random Hand
Favourite song: War To The Palaces
Closing off our Saturday is the first band I ever saw at MPF and probably the band that made me fall in love with Ska Punk – and understand that the genre had much more to offer than Madness and Less Than Jake.
Faintest Idea really emphasise the Punk in their brand of Ska, prioritising high energy, high anger bangers that you’re never sure if you should skank or mosh to (the answer is both, simultaneously. I will be out to the side as I’ve seen their pits, and I would be destroyed).
The proud owners of the honour of releasing one of my favourite albums of 2023, 2016 and 2012 respectively, Everything this band has put out in over a decade is gold – from Mutual Aid being the ultimate collectivist solidarity anthem, Circling The Drain managing to make the crumbling of the NHS sound like the most skankable thing ever, and War To The Palaces a fast paced modern punk classic that all but manifests bricks in your hands to throw into the windows of homes of the billionaire classes.
There aren’t too many bands that I think truly deserve the label “revolutionary” – but Faintest Idea are one of those bands. When we get our act together and finally commit the revolution over this increasingly unequal system in society, Faintest Idea will be soundtracking that, and purely from that fact we can be confident that we’re going to win.
Who do the billionaire’s have? Kid Rock? Fuck’em, no chance.
13: Grail Guard
What: Hardcore Street Punk
When: Sunday – 13:40-14:10
Where: YES Basement
For fans of: Discharge, FACE UP!, Incisions
Favourite song: Our Streets
Kicking off the final day, we have another early start with Grail Guard at 1:40pm. Grail Guard play a very gritty throwback Streetpunk sound, which is a favourite of mine.
Our Streets stuck with me as an ode to the communities who are racially abused on the streets of this country and in particular those who face off with the bigots on the streets, giving a nice twist on “We don’t want them in our streets” but directed at the racists. It’s such an empowering sounding song, and the energy radiating out of the music is incomparable.
These guys are fucking awesome, definitely check them out.
14: For I Am
What: Driving Pop Punk
When: Sunday – 14:50-15:20
Where: YES Pink Room
For fans of: Billy Talent, The Meffs, The Von Tramps,
Favourite song: Power Behind The Throne
Next up, head to the YES Pink room for “For I Am”, a Belgian pop punk force with an edge that contends with the titans of the genre. With driving drumbeats, lively power riffs, and immaculate pop punk woah-oh-ohs, this band truly showcases the greatest tropes of the genre in the best way.
They remind me of Billy Talent’s best work, combining memorable melodies with a raw punk force that will have their earworms stuck in your head for hours. They’ll have you signing along to songs you’d never even heard before, before the end of their 2 minute run time, just from how infectious their hooks are.
Alternatively, we have one of my all-time faves in The Sewer Cats playing The Union at the same time slot. I have seen them several times in recent months, so I may give them a miss this year so I can see For I Am, BUT if you haven’t seen them live I highly recommend going to see them as well. They’re a Riot Grrrl punk duo who have enough raw stage presence and energy to fill two whole bands’ of people, and who manage to create such a full punk sound with only a drumkit, guitar and vocals. They are so fucking good, and you need to check them out if you haven’t already.
15: Drunktank
What: Melodic Power Punk
When: Sunday – 15:40 – 16:10
Where: YES Pink Room
For fans of: A Wilhelm Scream, Iron Maiden, The Human Project
Favourite song: We Want More
Next up – staying in the Pink Room we have the riff heavy “Drunktank” – a band who take the energy of Hardcore punk and the melodies of NWOBHM for an immaculate crossover that will have you banging your head like there’s no tomorrow. These guys are truly skilled musicians, but also retain an accessible punk force that gives them a broad appeal for anyone into really any heavy rock music at all. The perfect soundtrack to let loose and mosh to.
Or if you need a break from the music at this point, we have more Blizzard fave comedians Maxine Wade, Tony Basnett and Sully O’Sullivan taking to the comedy stage at Salutation between 15:45-16:50 – so if you need a sit down in a bit more low volume environment, MPF have you covered!
16: Pizzatramp
What: Chaotic Crossover Thrash
When: Sunday 17:40-18:20
Where: The Union
For fans of: CLOBBER, Green Jelly, Raised By Owls
Favourite song: Stop Being A Racist Cunt
Pizzatramp might just be one of the most entertaining live bands working today. They are utter chaos incarnate. Gobby shits and heavy riffs combine to give us bangers on everything from how stupid knighthoods are to how cunty racists are, to how much their back hurts. I wouldn’t call them a comedy band as such, but they have such a great sense of humour in their attitude that means you’ll have just as much fun whether or not they’re even playing their instruments.
Is that a compliment or an insult? Yes.
Seriously though there are few bands who rival Pizzatramp in the fun factor, and on top of that they play genuinely catchy hardcore/thrash punk. And very few of the acts on the comedy stage can say they do both – so what are you waiting for?
17: PUSSYLIQUOR
What: Feminine Punk Rage
When: Sunday – 18:50-19:30
Where: The Bread Shed
For fans of: Comeback Clit, Queen Zee, The Sewer Cats
Favourite song: MY BODY. MY CHOICE.
After that you should head over to The Bread Shed for our next few bands with a killer run – kicking off with the rage filled “PUSSYLIQUOR” who, to their credit, sound exactly like their band name (in a good way). This is more angry femme punk, and I cannot get enough of it.
PUSSYLIQUOR have very defined, percussive riffs that make them an excellent band to dance, headbang and mosh to. There are loads of great femme punk bands on at MPF (as there are every year), but PUSSYLIQUOR are one you absolutely don’t want to miss.
18: Gen & The Degenerates
What: Anthemic Rock
When: Sunday – 19:50-20:40
Where: The Bread Shed
For fans of: Hole, Problem Patterns, Witch Fever
Favourite song: Kids Wanna Dance
Next we have something a bit different in flavour by name of Gen & The Degenerates. Gen & The Degenerates take a bit more of a synthy-new-wave approach to rock, with big anthemic performances that would do well in stadiums. They have a larger-than-life sound that gives an almost spiritual atmosphere to their music. I find them a fascinating band that have vibes that really burrow deep into my soul to get my whole body bouncing and moving whatever else I’m doing when it’s on.
This might not be the sound you first think of when you hear “punk” but that’s one of the great things about this festival. “Punk” is more than a descriptor of sonic identity – it’s an attitude, it’s an ethos, and it’s a vibe that goes beyond the tangible, and this band truly embodies that.
I’m particularly fond of Kids Wanna Dance as a nihilistic despair anthem but also make it dancey and upbeat. It’s 100% my vibe and I think realistically how a lot of us our feeling right now. The world’s problems are insurmountably terrifying right now – sometimes you just wanna dance and forget all about it, and honestly, sometimes that’s just what you need. Gen & The Degenerates have composed the perfect soundtrack to that exact desire.
They’re such a cool band and I’m so excited to see them.
Alternatively, if you’d rather nip over to the main stage for a bit, you can see the creative Canadian skate punk legends, Belvedere. I don’t actually know this band super well, but they keep coming up on various algorithmic suggestions. Elephant March may have one of the greatest riffs in all of punk rock history. They’re such an intricately brilliant guitar band, and I can only imagine how wild the crowd at one of their shows must go. If you want something a bit heavier and more traditionally punky yet riffy, these guys are almost guaranteed to put on a great show. 19:40 at The Union.
19: Onsind
What: Wholesome Acoustic Punk
When: Sunday – 21:00-22:00
Where: The Bread Shed
For fans of: Laura Jane Grace, She/Her/Hers, Worriers
Favourite song: Heterosexuality Is A Construct
And going straight into our penultimate recommendation, we have the wholesome Durham gays of Onsind.
Onsind are my go-to feel good band. Even the songs that aren’t overtly feel-good have such a comforting warmth and companionship to them that they just make me feel so happy and loved and together. And if feeling a sense of love and community even in the hardest most hostile times isn’t punk then I don’t know what is.
I saw them last year and they are another one of the bands who are able to bring me to tears without fail in the best way. They are the loveliest folks, and there are few feelings that compare to a crowd full of people singing along to “I’M NOT A HETROSEXUAL MAN” “LOVE IS NOT A CRIME” “NEVER TRUST A TORY OR A TORY IN DISGUISE” or “YOU JUST TAKE IT DAY BY DAY (BY DAY BY DAY)” or any of their other most memorable choruses and hooks.
I don’t think I realised quite how much I loved this band until I first saw them band, but they are very much Chuck Tingle levels of “The fact that you exist makes me cry happy tears”. I love them so much, and I could not leave them off this list of bands I most want to share with you, as I genuinely think if more people listened to and liked Onsind, the world would be a better place.
20: Jawless
What: Thrashcore
When: Sunday 22:15-22:55
Where: YES Basement
For fans of: Minority Threat, Poison Idea, Suicidal Tendencies
Favourite song: Police Bastard
And finally, closing off our festival recommendations, our only specific afterparty recommendation (although do check out more of them if you have the stamina) in the form of Jawless.
Bit of a tonal shift from Onsind, granted, but Jawless are among my favourite of the heavier bands I discovered from the official MPF playlist this year. Heavy, chuggy guitar riffs, angry shouted hardcore vocals, a noisy onslaught of percussion. If you have any energy left after 3 days of MPF, these folks are sure to decimate it after 40 minutes of their set.
Hardcore is a bit of a hit and miss genre for me. It has to hit just right for me to properly get into it, but Jawless’ music makes me want to punch a cop in the fucking face. This is the kind of music you curb stomp racists and abusers to. In a way, just like Onsind. these guys put so much good energy into the world as well, just on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. We need multitudes. Wholesome queer shit, and ACAB the police don’t protect us, we’re more likely to get attacked by a cop than have a cop prevent/solve a crime committed against us by anyone else, the whole institution is corrupt and needs dismantling from the ground up.
We cannot have a thriving society without both of these artists, and I am so happy to live so close to a music festival that platforms bands from both ends of this spectrum and everyone in between.
And that’s it! Those are some of our recommendations for bands to check out at this year’s MPF! Once again there are loads of bands not on this list who we just couldn’t fit on while keeping this broadly plausible to actually do. Even if you only use this as guidance for those stretches of time where you’re undecided on and ignore the rest of it and go and follow your own path you’re bound to have a great time as basically every one of the bands on the line-up this year are KILLER.
If you’ve enjoyed what you’ve read here and like our vibes but aren’t already keeping up with us – we are (barely) a comedy club based in Manchester’s Northern Quarter who also stream and do online shows occasionally. If you’d like to hear more, why not follow our socials or subscribe to our mailing list if you’re done with all the techbro dominated social media spaces now. Details of everywhere you can find us can be found on our Linktree.
Thanks for reading, and hope to see some of you at the festival! Say hi if you see us ❤
