No hedgehogs here
Manchester's Sonic Boom Six open the Lock Up stage on Sunday afternoon and only find themselves here due to Paramore pulling out at the last minute. They're not about to let the opportunity go to waste though and they put on a good show with Laila in particular taking every opportunity to stand on the monitors at the front of the stage.
Sonic Boom Six play a light mix of ska-tinged punk and rap and it's just the tonic to get people in the mood for the rest of the day. They do however, suffer sound problems early on, the guitar and trombone in particular are way too quiet on the opening numbers. By her own admission Laila's voice does become a little grating at times, I think the description was something like Minnie Mouse on helium!
They mix the set up well using a good range of samples and interspersing the punkier numbers with funkier rap songs. This is best illustrated with their mini classic 'All In', where they are joined on stage by Itch (I think!) from King Blues. All the band members except the drummer stop playing and pick up mics and it's just the excuse the crowd at the front need to start bouncing. The arrangements are well handled and tracks like 'Apathy Begins at Home' show that they know how to write a catchy tune as well.
'A People's History of the Future' sees them get a circle pit going, not bad at all for the first band of the day! They go down extremely well and everyone, band included, is having a good time. 'Monkey See, Monkey Do' finishes the set and gets the crowd bouncing again leaving me in little doubt that Sonic Boom Six have made a whole bunch of new friends today.