More ingredients needed
I last caught Manchester based four piece Feast of Fools playing with Sixnationstate on this same stage a couple of months ago, where they impressed enough for me to come back and check out their In The City set.
There is a good sized crowd assembled in Dry Bar by the time Feast of Fools take to the stage for a mid afternoon set. By and large they play upbeat, driven indie rock that's easy on the ear. Much of the material is off beat and punchy and they come across as a good, tight band. The sound isn't the best today unfortunately but that's more the fault of the set up than the band (although playing through tiny amps probably doesn't help), the vocals of front man Ben Hayward suffer in particular but it's good enough to get an overall feel.
The musicianship is good and songs such as 'People Like You' display a knack for cultured song writing. The dodgy P.A means much of the between song banter is illegible and they do seem to sacrifice stage presence in favour a solid performance but the song as are strong enough to hold the interest. Paul Schofield's lead guitar work gives them an added dimension and it's good stuff although it never really pushes the boundaries. It could be argued that the material sounds a little one dimensional after a while but there's definite promise in there and with a little tweaking they could realise their full potential.