CityLife

Hungry Pigeon 2010

Festival-goers in Piccadilly Gardens

Festival: Hungry Pigeon 2010
Northern Quarter
May 28 and 29, 2010

Hungry Pigeon, the music and arts festival based in the Northern Quarter, returned for a second year.

Meticulously organised, it's a shame that Saturday's showpiece event at Piccadilly Gardens suffered due to the adverse conditions, though if the organisers can't be blamed for the weather, they can be held to account for expecting Athlete to be any kind of pull.

You had to look eleswhere for the diamonds, but they were there to be found and, for the most part, local. Though hampered by terrible sound, the Longcut prove even now few can match their epic soundscapes, whereas The Travelling Band's lack of mainstream success continues to baffle, their unbilled Friday show a thrilling display of melodic, ramshackle rock'n'roll.

Yet the weekend was dominated by female performers. May68's sleek electro-pop may be played by four boys, but it is singer Judy Wainwright who helps elevate their disco-stompers.

Two performances towered above all else; first, Kirsty Almeida's packed show at Band on the Wall, which had the feel of an artist on the cusp. With a brass section, double bass and beehive-hairdo, aesthetically at least, Amy Winehouse comparisions are easy to make, but Almeida's voodoo pop is her own warped creation.

While some of it falls into the pleasantly safe, dinner party soundtracking, oh-wasn't-she-good-on-Jools-Holland territory, much of it - the manacing Scares Me and forthcoming single Spiders - points to a genuine talent.

The same applies to The Jessie Rose Trip; a prodigiously talented 22 year-old, Rose is equally sassy and ballsy, managing to merge her love of Hendrix, Nina Simone and charity shop-chic into a live show that is already so acomplished, stardom surely beckons.