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Here are the best acts playing at this year’s Tramlines Fringe

Venues across the city are free entry


It’s been 95 days since the last student loan, money is becoming scarce, there’s only so much longer you can eat your flatmates food before they finally snap and the post World Cup hangover is making everyone look and act like the cast of the Walking Dead.

In this brave new world where football isn’t coming home, at least not till 2022, Tramlines Fringe offers a shining beacon of hope that sometimes the good things in life can be free. So here at The Tab we thought we would compile a handy list of the best Fringe acts to allow you more time crying like Gazza at Italia ’90 into your empty pint glass, wondering why good things always had to come to an end.

Rainbow Maniac – 8pm Friday at The Forum

Little known Cardiff based band Rainbow Maniac stand out as a hidden gem amongst the fringe bands at this year’s festival. Their swaggering brand of rock and roll exudes an arrogant edge matched by their own on-stage swagger, lends them a uniquely distinctive style that mixes the best of the arrogance and debauchery of early 2000’s rock with a powerful 60’s pysch-rock sound. Rainbow Maniac epitomise a spirited alternative to the mainstream, soulless rock and roll evident from four-piece lad bands, in a scene become increasingly sterile.

Red Rum Club – 11pm Friday at Café Totem

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Picture the scene, it's 10:30pm, the Stereophonics have just played Dakota as their last song, it’s the only Phonics song you knew, and you come to the realisation that you just stood through their hour and a half set for average indie and some pretty flashing lights, when instead you could be stood in Sheffield’s warmest basement, being pushed around by strangers to the unique sound of Liverpool’s ‘Tarantino-esque’ rock band.

In truth, Red Rum Club are just really cool and altogether unlike anything you will see at Tramlines weekend. If that can’t convince you to go watch them then I don’t know what will. If anything, it will be worth it just to watch a six piece try and fit into Totem.

Kicklips – 8:15pm Saturday at Café Totem

On the Saturday of Tramlines, Café Totem plays host to the always excellent This Feeling stage, which showcases the hottest upcoming acts. Following on from the equally excellent Alex Ohm, Kicklips driving blues rock delivers a refreshing 60’s style with a modern edge. Similar in style to early Jake Bugg, but with mountains more stage presence this Sheffield three piece showcases exceptional musical talent and potential to grow to a main stage act.

Youth Killed It – 10:20pm Sunday at Record Junkee

As the music on the main stage draws to a close, Youth Killed It’s anthemic punk and bouncing riffs offers an ideal last stand for weary festival goers to have one last mad bounce around before we return to our dreary everyday lives.

Corella – 5.30pm Sunday at Plug

Summery indie pop at its finest, Manchester band Corella have grown ten-fold in the last year, and look set to continue on that path. Similar in style to Cassia (7.30pm Friday at Plug), they bring a danceable guitar sound to Sheffield and are just one of several notable bands performing over the weekend at Plug.

LUCIA – Sunday 7pm at Bungalows and Bears

Potentially the most exciting band on this list, LUCIA successfully combine a punk sound with a darker more distorted undertones, creating an eerie, distant sound with echoes of the best of the 1980’s post-punk movement. LUCIA’s music exudes pent up aggression, evident in their explosive live performances. Coming to Sheffield on the back of multiple festival appearances, their performance on the punk-dominated Sunday at Bungalows and Bears is not one to be missed.