Everything Everything, LIFE & Sløtface bring Reeperbahn Festival to a thunderous close

The final day of Reeperbahn kicks off with pop anthem expert Tom Grennan, who’s found himself playing outside the white double decker N-joy Reeperbus on the central Spielbudenplatz. It’s safe to say it’s much cleaner and more welcoming than the previous night’s Reeperbahn’s activities, even considering Tom’s come straight from the plane, still in his traveling tracksuit and claiming to smell.

Next up, Everything Everything get forcefully precise in another, y’know, bog standard German venue, Flak Towers; a re-purposed World War Two overground bunker that looms over the city, also housing the uber cool Uebel & Gefährlich venue on the fourth floor. While queues snake down the street and micro-raves with strobes pop up in the lifts heading up to the part-Tron, part-medieval ballroom, it’s got a grandeur and drama to match the Manchester band’s set.

It’s hotter than the surface of the sun in the Molotov Skybar and although frontman Mez has spent most of his day vomiting, LIFE are on form and deliver a short, brutal barrage of noise from their debut ’Popular Music’, complete with Mark E. Smith-like snarls, stage divers and mosh pits. In contrast, the safe retreat of a dark and moody Nochtspeicher sees Marika Hackman run through a good mix of old and new offerings.