I’ve been attending Infest since 2000, and this was my twenty-fourth edition (including the two mostly-online editions, one of which I DJed at, and I contributed video interviews with bands to both of them). It’s seen a lot of change over time – both as styles of music within the wider alternative/electronic/etc scene have come and gone, and people within the scene have come and gone – but perhaps no change had been more dramatic than the one forced on the festival after the 2022 edition, when it became clear that the University of Bradford was no longer available.

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So, last year, Infest moved into the centre of Bradford, and it remained here for 2024, based in the spectacular surroundings of the Victorian St. George’s Hall, one of the finest buildings in the city, with satellite events after the bands at Nightrain and the Underground. A few lessons were learned from last year, that was for sure – everything at St. George’s Hall ran smoothly, with their staff a friendly bunch that dealt with all these weird looking punters with a smile. Even the volume at Nightrain – a major complaint last year, as it was far too loud – was more manageable this year.

Bradford itself is undergoing change, too. Most notable at the moment is the vast amount of roadworks, as the core of the city centre is pedestrianised, and it was notable how much quieter (from lack of traffic) the area was, although sadly the numbers of empty shopfronts seem to be increasing. Much of the work is geared towards sprucing the city up for it’s starring role as City of Culture 2025, and one that is intended to showcase the radical history of the city, something highlighted in an informational mural on the corner of Westgate and John Street – it is a city that led the way in societal change from the 19th Century.

But the likely impact of that change has hastened more change with Infest, too, and for the first time, Infest will leave Bradford in 2025. Announced on Sunday morning, Infest 2025 will be a week earlier in August, but most notably, as a two-day event at Manchester University. The change is understandable: the City of Culture events have already squeezed hotel availability in Bradford for next year, while the move to Manchester pushes things a week forward due to avoiding clashing with Manchester Pride over the August Bank Holiday.

The announcement did leave open the possibility of returning to the Festival’s spiritual home in West Yorkshire, but it was notable the number of people who commented feeling that they would feel safer in Manchester than Bradford, and I do wonder if it will ever return, especially if the move to Manchester works out (the first, limited, batch of early-bird tickets released on Sunday are available now, and apparently selling well).

Enough about the future, then, what about the present, and what happened over the weekend? As is usual, I saw something of every band, in many cases stayed for the entire set, and in others…well, I at least saw a few songs. All photos here are by me, taken on either my Canon 7D or my Pixel 7 Pro, and all of these opinions are my own too. It’s exceptionally rare for me to like every band at a festival – and is probably the case for you, the reader, too – so bear with me. I might have liked bands you didn’t, and vice versa.

The line-up this year was a weird one. Of the eighteen artists playing across the three days, I’d seen just four of them before. That’s perhaps, in hindsight, a good thing. We need new bands to keep coming through, to keep the scene moving forward. In fact, it’s now a necessity – the bands that have been regular headliners for many years are now beginning to call things quits, and there will doubtless be more in time. There was perhaps a symptom of this at this year’s festival, where – in my opinion at least – the headliners were some way from the strongest artists of the weekend.

It is also a tradition that my wife counts up how many women play the festival. It was actually less than last year: just eight, and there was no artist where there was more than one woman in the group.

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/Infest 2024 /Friday /St. George’s Hall

/Republica
/ICD-10
/Matt Hart

/Infest 2024 /Friday /Nightrain

/Agency-V

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The festival proper (we weren’t in town for the Thursday night Twisted Firestarter #4 lineup at Nightrain) opened with two of those newer breed of artists. Matt Hart opened proceedings with an excellent, energetic show – and hilariously a good number of the crowd were wearing fake moustaches, a nod to Hart’s personal style. His futuristic, sci-fi-leaning industrial comes across well onstage, and his tireless work in recent years – probably the hardest-working artist in the UK scene, you’ll see him at every event he can, flyering and making himself visible, not to mention online – has paid off in recognition and an ever-growing fanbase.

Rather less visible – literally – were ICD-10, this year’s representative from Hands Productions. The group hail from the ancient German town of Marburg, Hesse, and while their techno-fied industrial noisiness was impressive, they were almost invisible onstage. The St. George’s Hall stage is a whole lot bigger than the one at the University was, and for some baffling reason, the group set up right at the back of the stage, and with dry ice billowing onto the blue-lit stage, they vanished into the gloom, which unless you were there to dance, made for something of an unengaging show.

There is no doubt whatsoever that Republica‘s Friday night headline show will remain in the memory, but sadly it won’t all be for good reasons. Republica were a striking presence back in the late 1990s, with a string of hits and in particular one song (Ready to Go) that blew up on both sides of the Atlantic and remains a track used on TV and at sports events to this day. But like many bands of the time – particularly as a string of independent labels failed around the millennium – they faded away, only to reform later on. Republica at least have begun releasing new material (with a new album coming in the autumn), so it’s not just a nostalgia trip.

Things started very well indeed, with the punchy one-two of the toxic-man-takedown of Bloke (which sounded phenomenal) and the swagger of From Rush Hour With Love (a song that should have been a far bigger hit than it was). But it quickly became clear that all was not well onstage – they’d arrived later than planned thanks to the travel problems everyone else experienced earlier in the day, thanks to Storm Lillian, and then Saffron’s in-ear monitors failed pretty much as soon as they kicked into Bloke, and the rambling between-song speeches from Saffron suggested someone who’d had a couple of drinks too many.

The problem for them, too, was that many in the audience were there for the hits, so weren’t exactly enthused by lesser known songs, or indeed the new ones: which is a shame, as Republica at their best were a punky, electronic band with great songs. Needless to say, the crowd came back alive for a rampaging Drop Dead Gorgeous mid-set, and even with a sound that deteriorated by the end of the set, the inevitable close of Ready to Go had many hands in the air.

This is perhaps best-described as a bad night at the office. There had apparently been some very recent personnel changes in the band – longtime synth player Tim Dorney, who was originally in Flowered Up and was part of Republica from the start, left recently, and clearly some things went wrong that they couldn’t control. Not every band can be perfect every time, but it’s always awful to watch when things snowball like this.

After that, it was over to Nightrain, as I wanted to see some of Agency-V. Pete Steer has history with Infest, having played as part of Tenek back in 2012 (! – Jesus, where does the time go?), so it was great to see him back with a new project and line-up. Their excellent single We Can Erase You was featured on this site on /Tuesday Ten /549 /Tracks of the Month back in March, and I had high hopes for this show, but it didn’t quite feel right. Nightrain as a live venue doesn’t help: the band are marooned on a low-stage, physically separate from the crowd, which can make it difficult for the band to make a connection – indeed, they may have fared better at the main venue. But as well as that, unlike the physical energy that Tenek had live, this was a somewhat static performance that didn’t do the band’s excellent songcraft justice. I will be seeking out future shows, as I’ve no doubt that time and more shows (this, I believe, was only their third live show as a group) will mould them into an exciting live proposition.

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/Infest 2024 /Saturday /St. George’s Hall

/REIN
/KOLLAPS
/Ductape
/Divine Shade
/Llumen
/The Royal Ritual

/Infest 2024 /Saturday /Nightrain

/The Memepunks

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Saturday started on a more subdued note, and one of keeping a memory alive. Our friend Tails – long the Infest compere and ringleader of all kinds of chaos at the festival – died in 2017, and since then, Daisy and I have made the short trip south to the hills above Huddersfield every Infest, to leave a box of Yorkshire Tea on his grave and reminisce a bit. For some reason doing so this year hit particularly hard.

After that, getting into the right mood for the bands can be difficult, particularly if they aren’t bands I’m familiar with on what can be something of a difficult period to get the crowd engaged. So kudos to The Royal Ritual for a fascinating opening set on Saturday that certainly kept the interest. It turns out that David Lawrie has quite the resumé – a noted sound-designer and producer, he’s returned from time in California back to the UK – and this musical project (on the eclectic roster of Analogue Trash) is one that takes in proggy electronics, fierce industrial rock and a melodic edge that certainly stands out (check out recent single Modes of Violence for an idea of what to expect, and it was certainly a highlight live, too). Not to mention the outstanding use of visuals that added a whole lot more to the experience.

Llumen were one of the bands on the bill that I’d known nothing about: my attention has drifted a bit from some parts of the scene in recent years as tastes have changed, but there was something of a comfortable throwback in hearing solid, Belgian electro-industrial. There’s a lot of bands that produce this kind of sound, and at points perhaps they struggle to stand out. But their latest release – apparently written in the aftermath of a serious health crisis – seems to have jolted a rush of emotional songs, the most striking of which was the wrenching power of Bring Me Flowers, a song that brought back uncomfortable memories of visiting my (then) desperately ill father in hospital a couple of years back.

Surprise of the day were French band Divine Shade. Randomly checking out a couple of songs online can often be deceptive, as I found out here. The first song I heard (Ashes) suggested a synth-based band not unlike /amodelofcontrol.com favourites Seabound, but it turns out that was an outlier. The driving rhythm of that song should really have clued me in, though, as live they have a percussive force that immediately brings to mind Swiss legends The Young Gods, and their whole set was absolutely amazing. The pair of recent singles released by the band were both played: the grinding, slower groove of Oublier was written with Gary Numan’s guitarist Steve Fox-Harris (and it shows), while the freewheeling, rippling power of Heaven (think Jaz Coleman fronting TV Sky era Young Gods, and you’re nearly there) was the best song I heard all weekend. There’s always one mostly unknown band that blow away the festival, and Divine Shade were that band this time around. They play in London in November (although I’ll be at Whitby that weekend).

Due to a need for more substantial sustenance beyond another vodka and coke, I only caught the first half of the set by Turkish duo Ductape, but even that clued me into a striking onstage presence. Like a great many younger darkwave bands right now, they really want a time machine to take them back to the Batcave, but particularly thanks to Çağla Güleray’s fearsome stage presence and powerful vocal delivery, they are at least trying to stand out within what right now continues to be a very crowded darkwave field.

Then, there was KOLLAPS. Probably my most anticipated artist of the weekend, they were originally booked for the Infest in 2020 that didn’t happen in person, and going on what we saw here, the wait was worth it. For a start, an online show wouldn’t have got across just how ferocious this band are live. Aussie ex-pats from Melbourne that are nowadays based in Berlin, their name should give a hint that there is something of the spirit of early Neubauten in their sound. But it is a long, long way from simply aping their ideas.

Instead, with a sparse stage – floor-mounted drums and sheets of metal with contact mics, downtuned-bass and screeching noise – they unleashed a visceral, deafening cacophony unlike any other band over the weekend, and to put it mildly were divisive. But it wasn’t only the volume and power – there was also vocalist Wade Black, smartly dressed in a black suit, with what appeared to be a large kitchen knife attached to his microphone, swiping it around like a weapon (as well as screaming into the microphone, and using said microphone to create screeching feedback from his monitors). An absolutely brutal set of scorching noise, sheer rhythmic force and a distinct sense of danger, for those that like this kind of thing, it was amazing. For those that didn’t, well, it gave them a chance to sit down and get away from things for a bit. For me? It was an almighty, thrilling rush of a set – and one that my Pixel Watch told me had my heartrate about 20-30bpm above normal for the whole time.

It took a couple of attempts – they couldn’t play Infest 2022 due to visa issues – but finally, REIN made it to Infest this year for a show that an awful lot of people were excited about (and indeed raved about afterwards). I’ve now seen REIN three times – in three countries – and I’m still not feeling it. It should be great – punchy, anthemic EBM should be – but it just felt rather flat to me. Or, more to the point: much of it felt flat. Second album God Is A Woman was to these ears dreary and forgettable, and it was notable that here things truly came alive when the earlier singles were played: REINCARNATE, as it always is, was fantastic and everything I wanted from REIN live. It’s hard to get excited when there’s little emotion onstage: they are hardly the only artist in our scene with this problem, but it all felt a bit too polished and mechanical. So once REINCARNATE was done, it was time to move on.

There was vastly more energy over at Nightrain, where The Memepunks whipped up a big, enthusiastic crowd with their take on alternative/goth/pop live mash-ups – something those of us in the London scene have been familiar with for many years – and clearly made a lot of new friends with their performance. I missed the latter part of the set, but I’m told that Psyche managed to deal with a synth failure on their traditional closer Slimelight 2000 by…switching to Kazoo.

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/Infest 2024 /Sunday /St. George’s Hall

/Hatari
/Xotox
/Plack Blague
/Emmon
/Dancing Plague
/Mark Hex

/Infest 2024 /Sunday /Nightrain

/Corlyx

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Like, it seems, many others, we partied rather harder and longer than anticipated on Saturday night, which resulted in a lie-in before our traditional – and potentially last – Sunday lunchtime curry at the ever-excellent MyLahore on Great Horton Road, to set us up for the final day of Infest 2024.

Judging on the sparse crowd for Sunday opener Mark Hex, we were far from the only ones struggling to get going early, and I must confess that I wasn’t especially taken with Hex’s man-and-a-guitar schtick (although the Touch & Go Records sticker prominent on his guitar suggests we probably like more than a few of the same bands). Perhaps it was just the wrong place to watch him.

After that, Dancing Plague was also a solo act, and one that I’ve seen quite a buzz for lately (as I recall he only played in London a few months back). If you like goth-influenced darkwave, he’s great – and presumably named after the 1518 phenomenon, and although I saw a good number dancing to the set, they were able to stop. But as per Ductape, I’ve seen a great many similar acts in recent years, and while it was perfectly good, I’m not sure I want to see it again.

I was told that Swedish electro artist Emmon has been around for some time, but somehow this was their first UK show: and on this evidence, they are going to be asked back – a lot. This was everything that many other electronic-based sets at this festival were not: full of energy, great songs and an artist who seemed to feed off the enthusiasm of the crowd to go even harder. Songs here were full of powerful EBM basslines and kicking beats, while Emmon themselves’ vocal delivery was a delight, and song after song was absolutely fucking marvellous. The back-to-back pairing of EBM-anthem Machines and the ominous power of Dark mid-set was something to behold.

After that brilliant exhibition of EBM power, it was time for the Leather to take over. That is, the leather-bound duo of Plack Blague, fresh from…Lincoln, Nebraska. Their set was enormous fun, as Raws got right up in our faces, worked out on stage (and he’s put in the time in the gym, going on his squat game) and delivered song after song celebrating his scene and queerness generally (something he shouted out later). In addition, the sparse electro of the songs on record are jacked up onstage – the steady beats of Man on Man turned into a rampaging, electro-punk attack, while the closing Leather Life was unapologetic and frankly fucking joyous.

If you’ve heard them on record, get to one of their shows. It’ll be forty-five of the most enjoyable minutes of your musical life.

It’s amazing to think that the earlier wave of industrial-noise artists – particularly those from the surge of popularity in such artists in the early 2000s – are now reaching significant anniversaries, and some are still making abrasive electronic music. Such as Andreas Davids, who began Xotox in 1998 and marked twenty-five years last year, when xotox were meant to return to Infest. Issues with his flights nixed that last year, but happily, he returned this year for a high-profile set on the Sunday night, and a big crowd was there to see it.

I’ve not kept up with everything Davids has done in the meantime, so not all the set was familiar to me, but it was still an impressively bouncy, energetic set – and his furious anti-Nazi speech between songs was hugely popular, too – and the biggest surprise to me was a fun cover of early-seventies Moog classic Popcorn as the set came to an end (trust me, you’ll know it as soon as you hear the synth refrain). I may not listen to this kind of industrial noise as much as I used to, but this was a generally enjoyable throwback to a time when I did.

Festival headliners Hatari were probably a first in at least one way. Certainly not the first Icelanders to play the festival – both Legend and Kælan Mikla long since did so – but I’m pretty certain that this was the first band to have played to millions as part of the Eurovision Song Contest which have graced the Infest stage. They describe themselves as a “anti-capitalist, BDSM, techno-dystopian, performance art collective”, and the lengthy, slightly baffling intro tape (with rambling, overlong speech) certainly suggested the former bit. Their striking outfits – part dingy BDSM club basement wear, part Warhammer 40k re-enactment – also grabbed the attention. But a somewhat static performance onstage, with grimy industrial beats, and one vocalist in a high register, the other bellowing things like Dansið Eða Deyið (“Dance or Die”), got old for me pretty quickly.

That said, it was certainly different, and many other people I know were raving about it afterwards. It just wasn’t for me.

Back over at Nightrain, Corlyx closed out the live music for the weekend. A striking presence, particularly from vocalist Caitlin – who definitely had the feel of Katie Jane Garside onstage, although thankfully without the random violence – and they sounded great, too, with a dramatic, gothy edge to their darkwave sound. As per previous nights, the sound at Nightrain didn’t do them any great favours, but they certainly kept the attention of a tired crowd and put on a great show.

So, that could be the last time I go to Bradford for Infest. I won’t miss the 270 mile drive each way on a Bank Holiday weekend – although that said, it’s about as far to Manchester – but it’s one of the few times I regularly return to the wider region where I grew up, and we’ll have to think about how we go and see Tails each year from Manchester in the future, too. I know there are perceived issues with the city – and particularly issues around LGBTQIA+ acceptance when moving between venues – but a smaller city, with relatively cheap accommodation and food has always been a good place for the festival. But times move on, and the Manchester move should work well for Infest.

As for this weekend? I perhaps wasn’t especially enthused beforehand with a line-up that I’d not had a lot of time to research, and so I was pleasantly surprised when I made a number of “new favourite band” discoveries across it, not to mention time spent with friends that in many cases, I’ve known for over two decades and I rarely get a chance to see away from this one weekend a year. I genuinely cherish my time at Infest, and I’m so happy that I will get to see my twenty-fifth Infest next year. See you all then.