The event, on Saturday 2nd September, will see Manchester City Centre effectively transformed into a festival ground, with multiple live music venues, scattered up and down, being employed as stages. The Albert Hall, on Peter Street, will act as main stage, while other venues, such as YES, Gorilla, the 02 Ritz, Canvas, Manchester Academy 2 and Deaf Institute, will act as the other, smaller stages.

Headlining Manchester Psych Fest 2023 will be American psychedelic rock legends The Brian Jonestown Massacre, who will be the last band to perform on the night at the Albert Hall. Fans of the psychedelic rock genre will need no introduction to BJM and the great Anton Newcombe who fronts the group, a group who, to this day, continue to be an ever-evolving vehicle for musical experimentation, having released their 20th studio album, The Future Is Your Past, in February this year.

Another main act comes in the form of American singer-songwriter Ezra Furman, who has previously said this will be her last European tour for a while. As such, this will be one of the last chances British fans will get to see Furman live in the flesh for the time being, and will therefore be a show not to be missed. She will be playing at the 02 Ritz and will be the last act at that venue.

Other acts that will feature at this year’s Psych fest include The Kundalini Genie, Allah-Las, The Lovely Eggs and Flamingods, all of whom are psychedelic rock groups. English indie rock band Sorry will be in attendance, as will the predominantly instrumental Cumbia-inspired London group Los Bitchos. Noise punk outfit Benefits will raise pulses in the White Noise room at Canvas, while post-punk bands Deadletter and The Murder Capital will electrify elsewhere.

A rather late addition to the line-up are The Murlocs, an Australian rock band hailing from Melbourne. They will play at the 02 Ritz at 4.30pm. This will not be the only show, however, for Ambrose Kenny-Smith and Cook Craig, frontman and guitarist respectively, as the talented duo are also an integral part of fellow Australian group King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, another group who needs no introduction to the fan of the psychedelic rock genre. The latter group will also be performing in Manchester on the same night, with a headline midnight gig at the Manchester Academy. The show, unfortunately, is not technically part of the festival and separate tickets are required to see the Aussie psych rock heavyweights.

There will also be several film screenings in addition to the multitude of music options, including a UK festival exclusive screening of Chunky Scrapnel, a road movie featuring King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, and Dig!, a documentary on the love/hate relationship between American groups The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols.

You can purchase tickets here.

Stages and set times below:

Albert Hall
Sorry – 14.00 – 14.45
The Lovely Eggs – 15.15 – 16.00
Allah-Las – 16.30 – 17.30
Los Bitchos – 18.15 – 19.15
Snail Mail – 20.00 – 21.00
The Brian Jonestown Massacre – 21.45 – 23.15

The 02 Ritz
The Mysterines – 13.00 – 14.00
Jeffrey Lewis – 14.45 – 15.45
The Murlocs – 16.30  – 17.30
Bodega – 18.15 – 19.15
Loose Articles – 20.00 – 20.45
The Murder Capital – 21.30 – 22.45
Ezra Furman – 23.30 – 00.45

Ritz Basement
Atmos Bloom – 14.00 – 14.30
Lei Hope – 15.45 – 16.15
No Windows – 17.30 – 18.00
Cruush – 19.15 – 19.45
The Kundalini Genie – 20.45 – 21.15

Manchester Academy 2
Teke :: Teke – 15.15 – 16.00
The Underground Youth – 16.45 – 17.45
Panic Shack – 18.30 – 19.15
Flamingods – 20.00 – 21.00
Kokoko! – 21.45 – 22.45

Canvas Room 1
Viji – 14.15 – 14.45
Pray For Mojo – 15.30 – 16.15
University – 17.00 – 17.45
Benefits – 18.30 – 19.15
Say She She – 20.00 – 20.45
BDRMM – 21.30 – 22.45
Maruja – 23.30 – 00.15
Stealing Sheep – 01.00 – 02.00

Our debut album NAILS is out on April 21st on Invada Records. Come see us play it live!
“Benefits are something different, something primal and essential that needs to be heard.” @NME
“An urgent combination of noise rock and spoken word fury.” @RollingStoneUK pic.twitter.com/vphuWXmj2x

— Benefits (@Benefitstheband) March 1, 2023

The scolding LP has already received a great deal of praise, with The Quietus describing it as a “work of volatile physicality and penetrating sincerity“.

Sincerity, indeed, comes to the forefront as the record progresses. In a prophetic mix of Mark E. Smith, John Cooper Clark and Sleaford Mods, Benefits frontman Kingsley Hall’s rageful and blistering attack on the British political and cultural status quo is a brutally honest one. But it is not only the governmental and monarchal oppressors of this country that are the targets of Hall’s indictment; the everyman, and their blissful unawareness of the corroding of the society that they live in, are too apprehended.

“Marlboro Hundreds“, the album opener, acts as a call of arms, of sort, to the ignorantly bliss, and a plea to engage with their problems (“Formulate your own ideas“, “Question everything“, “Don’t let them break you“). This optimistic rhetoric, however, is shrouded and enclosed in a bleak and decrepit setting; alongside the screeching sound of electronic industrial noise, Britain is made up of “industrial wastelands” in “Empire” and is a “prison island” in “Shit Britain“.

Watch the music video for “Shit Britain” below:

The futile and illogical love for nostalgia and past glories is another central theme to Nails. Flags are a recurring motif, and this “musty relic” (“Flag“) is a symbol of the patriotism that is being wielded as a weapon by the powers that be to keep its people in line, making them focus on past glories rather than their current woes. The album, then, is a picture painted by Hall, a picture that shows the disregard that we, as a society, have for our society’s well-being.

Watch the music video for “Flag” below:

Hall confirms this notion as he speaks to Louder Than War, stating that the album is “an attempt at a soundtrack for the times we live in. This difficult age and all that. Not sitting there with our fingers in our ears and an “everything is fine” meme plastered to our brains. I get baffled by people turning a blind eye to it all, to just carry on as if everything is normal, singing twee songs about fuck all.”

Purchase the album now here.

Benefits will also be touring the UK and Europe in support of the album’s release. You can get tickets here.

See below for tour dates:

21/04/2023 – The Rum Shack – Glasgow
22/04 – The Lending Room – Leeds
23/04 – Soup – Manchester
24/04 – Clwb lfor Bach – Cardiff
25/04 – Tunbridge Wells Forum – Tunbridge Wells
26/04 – Chalk – Brighton
27/04 – 100 Club – London
28/04 – Trades Club – Hebden Bridge
29/04 – The Hare and Hounds – Birmingham
30/04 – Cluny – Newcastle
04/05 – The Deer’s Head –  Belfast
05/05 – Kasbah Social Club – Limerick
06/05 – Workmans Club – Dublin
12/05 – The Great Escape 2023 – Brighton and Hove
17/05 – Supersonic – Paris
18/05 – Supersonic – Paris
19/05 – Benefits in Rotterdam – Rotterdam
20/05 – Benefits at London Calling, Amsterdam – Amsterdam
25/05 – Bearded Theory Festival – Walton
27/05 – Dot to Dot Festival – Bristol
28/05 – Dot to Dot Festival – Nottingham