Went to the new (ish?) Jacaranda Baltic on Saturday night - Feeder were in for an album launch performance & signing (album was out on Friday). The venue had also had The Libertines in earlier in the day.
Great to have another venue open in the city that's small but also big enough to accommodate touring artists, after what had felt like a tough couple of years for venues. Also went to Content to see Bill Ryder Jones a couple of weeks ago.
Still got the slight challenge of geographic location when it comes to drawing artists into the city (where, for example, they don't need to do
both Liverpool & Manchester and so tend to play Manchester), but between Jacaranda Baltic, Content, the re-opened Arts Club, the Invisible Wind Factory, the Academy, and the university, there feels like a good range of small- to mid-sized venues again (in addition to the Phil, the Olympia, and of course the arena). Starting to have some faith in all that 'music city' promo again