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9 October 2024

Ash Birch

Float Along delivers its most ambitious programme to date with a frenetic Saturday of live music across three Sheffield venues.

Returning for its third year, the festival has taken it to another level this year, with tonnes of bands across three venues, six stages, Steve Lamacq knocking about the festival and holding talks with bands, and all capped off with a raucous Shame set at The Leadmill.

As well as The Leadmill, the triangle of venues also includes Corp and Sidney and Matilda, and it’s at the latter where we started our day, with Lamacq in conversation with two of the lads from Shame, a post-punk five-piece that hails (inevitably) from South London.

Float Along 2024
Shame. Photo credit: Jam Burrito

Three albums in, Shame have some interesting and genuinely funny anecdotes and they set up their headline slot (more on that later), as well as tease their upcoming album plans very nicely.

The multi-venue system is a fun way to take in the festival, and the venues are only a short walk from each other, making it easily accessible and giving you plenty of choice.

After the Shame chat, it was over to Corp’s small room, which was packed out of the door for the hotly tipped Dog Race (tipped by resident Float Along interviewer Lamacq, no less). With lead singer Katie Healy sounding like a breathy Karen O, and jerking around like a hunched over Ian Curtis; and with songs as catchy as “The Leader” and “It’s the Squeeze”, it’s easy to see where the hype is coming from.

Float Along 2024
Pyncher. Photo credit: Jam Burrito

Next up is Manchester four-piece Pyncher in the main room at Corp. Another up-and-comer fuelled by plenty of hype, they are first on the main stage today, and it isn’t until about halfway through their set, as people eventually file in, that the four-piece really hit their stride. There’s a lot to like about Pyncher. They’re full of energy and it’s not quite what you’re used to from post-punkers of a similar ilk, but it’s not quite indie either. I leave for The Leadmill intrigued and curious to hear more from them.

Over in The Leadmill’s little room, Leeds sextet Van Houten spray their lo-fi, indie shoegaze earworms across another busy room, but I ditch early to catch Ugly over at Sidney and Matilda. It’s here where I bump into James Watkins of Jarred Up, who is also waiting patiently for Ugly. It’s he who notes that the Cambridge six-piece weirdly sound like many of the bands coming out of Brighton at the moment – and he’s got a point.

Float Along 2024
Ugly. Photo credit: Jam Burrito

Their sound is still pretty hard to completely pin down. Their eclectic and dynamic set veers all over the spectrum, seemingly based on which member of the band has had the defining influence and which ritual they’ve been exploring as a theme that week!

Swiftly following Ugly is one of the festival’s biggest draws, Crack Cloud, and it’s another yomp back to Corp for a band I’ve been excited to see all day. Formed in a Canadian rehab as a sort of coping mechanism, members have come and gone in the decade since they formed, but that insistent, straining punk energy remains.

Tonight, it’s drummer and singer Zach Choy who is utterly hypnotic – I’m not really sure how he’s doing some of it tbh! It’s basically ’70s punk in a time machine. There’s touches of avant garde and new wave but stick it on, you’ll get it. It’s a lot of fun.

Float Along 2024
Crack Cloud. Photo credit: Jam Burrito

Finally, it’s time for Shame. They last played The Leadmill in 2023, and in all honesty, my review hasn’t changed much in that time. It was, after all, pretty much the same set. While there was plenty of energy, shirtless crowd surfing, and genuine bangers mixed in, for me, the set was once again longer than I need from them – or longer than they can justify.

It was fun, though, and even without Exposed office favourites Fat Dog, who pulled out at the eleventh hour, the event really found its feet this year, and is a very welcome addition to Sheffield’s festival calendar.

Tickets for next year’s event, held on 27th September, are on sale now.