FAT DOG, OPUS KINK, AND GANS LEAD A HIGH VOLTAGE LINE UP AT LIVERPOOL’S NEW ALL DAY FEST ‘SO LONG GOOD FRIDAY’

LIVE REVIEW | SO LONG GOOD FRIDAY | BALTIC TRIANGLE, LIVERPOOL | 3rd April 2026 by Lucy McLachlan

In city where local acts and indie lad bands will always draw in bigger crowds than those out of town, it was refreshing to see a line up as exciting as So Long Good Friday come to Liverpool. A new all dayer in various venues around the Baltic Triangle where the schedule brought the best in hotly tipped new alternative music.

Camp & Furnace was the main draw; a large warehouse space split into two rooms with an incredibly efficient team. There was no waiting in between sets, you just needed to shuffle in between rooms, an act started as the last one finished.

Lost Art, a small skate shop around the corner had the biggest buzz around it. Only having four bands on all day, two of them were at capacity and the venue ran out of beer twice. Having been to a few gigs in Lost Art, we’d always recommend. The bands are set up in the middle of the merchandise, skateboards, clothes, shoes it makes for a great back drop. Local band Sunda Blue, viral Scottish You Tuber JJ Bull, London’s fast rising Little Grandad and Leeds’ Gravy all played Lost Art making it the place to be after the main stage.

District and Hangar34 hosted Chicago’s Brigitte Calls Me Baby, London indie trio Honeyglaze, Irish rising singer Dave Lofts, Edinburgh’s Curiosity Shop amongst many more. With District carrying Good Friday on into the early hours with various DJ sets from festival acts after the headline set.

Worried about the old one in one out rule with these multi venue festivals hitting capacity – Sound City we’re looking at you – we opted to shuffle between Camp & Furnace stages, starting off with Manchester based Silverwingkiller. Recently supporting Mandy, Indiana at a tiny BBC 6 Music Fest show just last week, the electro punk duo seem to have their name everywhere right now. If at lot of the acts we’re seeing today are fast paced and energetic, Silverwingkiller are triple that. Vocalist Yushang Ni screams in a hyperactive mix of English and Mandarin barely keeping still whilst sunglasses clad James Baca is an absolute powerhouse at the back on drums.

Jeanie & the White Boys are up and armed with some almost theatrical trashy punk to the Furance stage. Bringing bags of diva energy, vocalist Jeanie Crystal prowls cat like around the stage draping herself over her sunglasses clad White Boys. As a guitar goes down (“Are you ok honey? We’ve got a White Boy meltdown!”) Jeanie explains to the crowd of her band “I’m like the Black Mark E Smith, I go through so many of them”. Guitarist tantrums aside, the set is a blast of punk energy with a side of sultry cabaret.

Having last caught sweet indie Scousers, Monks, around 5 years ago during the pandemic, we did wonder why they made it so far up the line-up. Confessing “oh, they’ve gone cool now”, Monks lined up onstage grown up and fully electronic. With 70’s style sunglasses and matching black fur trapper hats, they were dancing and pacing around onstage with the energy of today’s headliner, Fat Dog. The room was bouncing and was so packed that the sound guy had to pull back the curtain partitioning off a large part of the room to accommodate more people. Nice one guys, great to see you again.

Black Country two piece GANS have had their name thrown round a lot over the past year and are quickly becoming a must see live act for their fast pace and wild crowds. A flight case sits on stage with the words “FUCK EM ALL” printed proudly on the front facing the crowd. It’s the vibe of the set and the vibe in the crowd and we’re here for the energy. Tonight they’re a trio, a flautest/saxophonist joins them commencing the sax part of the evening on the Furnace stage which will later be followed by Opus Kink and Fat Dog.

Manchester based TTSSFU – who played as part of the BBC 6 Music Festival last week – is creating a huge buzz on the local scene. Bringing beautifully captivating dream pop vocals and shoegaze guitars, their set was the ultimate hazy chill out after Monks’ dance party.

Like others on today’s line up (GANS, Fat Dog) Opus Kink are known for their wild stage presence. Having recently caught all six of them crammed onto the tiny stage at London’s Haggerston Brewery, this evening they can spread out and still manage to fill the Furnace stage. Despite having singles and EPs floating around for the past 7 years, this week they finally announced their debut album for July.

Opus Kink fans go hard, and for a band with so many fan favourites, their set feels cut short. There’s a request for 2019 b-side “Mosquito” (“but they’ll never play that”). Kicking off with new single (released just 4 days ago) “Come Over, Do Me Wrong” the fans already know every word off by heart. “St Paul of the Tarantulas“ is one big brass knees up with keyboardist Jazz crowd surfing whilst absolutely beating the shit out of a tambourine. With only two minutes left on the clock Opus Kink manage to blast through the four minute long “1:18” and left the crowd suitably riled up for the next and last whirlwind coming right up.

We felt like Camp headliners The Orielles were a bit of an anomaly in the day at Camp & Furnace. They were the only band to have a clash on the set times with Opus Kink still blasting away next door. Then having main event Fat Dog on after them in Furnace, the room looked less than half full for the first time since much earlier in the day.

Monks had really bought the party and TTSSFU had been one of those must see new acts, The Orielles felt like quite a dip. Not a reflection of their performance at all, but as a band that’s been active since well before their 2018 debut, they lacked that frantic ‘new act’ energy. With their fourth album, Only You Left, having dropped just three weeks ago, they felt more like established veterans than the hyped-up newcomers currently dominating Camp & Furnace. That being said, they’re fresh and tight onstage, filling Camp with shimmery guitars and laid back atmospheric vocals. A great chilled out end to the festival if you didn’t fancy your head pummelled by the Furance headliners about to go on next door.

London’s Fat Dog are one of those bands that you can’t really describe with words, you really just need to go to pone of their shows to understand. Having first witnessed their beautiful mayhem at Wide Awake last year, we were ready for the signature madness: aggressive dance-punk meets riotous saxophone, to a crowd full of rubber dog masks. Lead singer Joe Love remains the ultimate instigator, frequently abandoning the stage to climb the barriers and get face-to-face with the crowd. Meanwhile, keyboardist Chris Hughes dives into the crowd for a roam around, just to take a seat and see what’s going on. Closing out the set with their huge rave punk anthem, “Running”, Fat Dog have officially won Liverpool over.

So Long Good Friday felt like a turnaround moment for the city. While Liverpool is too often bypassed for Manchester on the touring circuit – and with other city festivals feeling increasingly stale – this lineup felt like a genuine ‘step up.’ It was a refreshing reminder that Liverpool can successfully curate and showcase the most exciting, hotly-tipped alternative acts on the scene.