If you spent last month hud­dled under a duvet, Inde­pen­dent Venue Week at the end of Jan­u­ary is always the per­fect way to dive straight back into gig life. The #IVW ini­tia­tive sheds light on the chal­lenges faced by grass­roots venues, urg­ing us all to show sup­port, ‘buy a fuck­ing tick­et’, shell out for some love­ly merch and gen­er­al­ly enjoy ourselves.

I spent the week at Heb­den Bridge’s The Trades Club which kicked off #IVW25 on Tues­day with an inti­mate seat­ed per­for­mance by Illi­nois gui­tarist Ryley Walk­er, show­cas­ing his emo­tion­al and beau­ti­ful­ly craft­ed com­po­si­tions – and closed on Sun­day with a par­ty atmos­phere, cour­tesy of joy­ous Afro-funk col­lec­tive Ibibio Sound Machine.

Hull band LIFE played on Thurs­day; the band’s front man Mez is an expres­sive pres­ence on stage and their per­for­mance man­aged to be pow­er­ful yet still inti­mate. They played sev­er­al tracks from their lat­est album, North East Coastal Town clos­ing with Friends With­out Names and they’ve def­i­nite­ly gained a new fan.

I also chat­ted with one of the IVW vol­un­teers, Eva Kiss. She’s on stage at the Trades next Sat­ur­day as part of Elec­tric Bloom.

On Sat­ur­day, the excel­lent Sun King band played all out rock that shifts from retro to now. The Lounge Soci­ety played to an ecsta­t­ic home­town crowd with fans at the front mosh­ing dur­ing the clos­er, Gen­er­a­tion Game. The band has grown in matu­ri­ty, and they’ve mas­tered the art of build­ing excite­ment on stage.

Ibibio Sound Machine cranked things up anoth­er notch on Sun­day and every­one was bounc­ing by the time they played Fire. Vocal­ist Eno Williams was gen­uine­ly thrilled by the recep­tion from the Trades crowd. She signed albums after the show and gave fans as much time as they need­ed to chat and pose for pho­tos. The col­lec­tive are also play­ing a sec­ond, sold out night on Mon­day, giv­ing them plen­ty of time to soak up the joys of a day in Heb­den Bridge.

Main pho­to: Sun King on stage at The Trades Club. All pho­tog­ra­phy ©oliviarosen/gourmetgigs

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