In a mark of just how healthy Nottingham's music scene is, this year we were treated to a brand new metropolitan festival. Paint By Numbers took place at (award winning) The Bodega, and turned out to be a day of sweat, softness and standout sets. We went along to see tomorrow’s headliners come to the forefront, capturing Nottingham’s music scene at a moment of momentum...
There’s something comforting about an all-dayer that knows exactly what it’s for. No bloated line-up, no frantic dash between stages, just a carefully curated run of artists hovering at that sweet spot between cult favourite and imminent breakout. Paint By Numbers, a new two-day festival from DHP in collaboration with DORK, understands this instinctively; after launching aboard Bristol’s Thekla on Saturday it set up camp on Sunday in one of Nottingham’s most trusted spaces for musical discovery, The Bodega.
Split across two stages – the low-lit intimacy of the downstairs bar and the upstairs canopy of creation that once hosted early shows by The Strokes and The White Stripes – the festival encourages curiosity over commitment. Pint glasses clink, wristbands flash, and people drift between floors guided less by schedule and more by whatever sound happens to be leaking through the stairwell. Paint By Numbers’ mission is to catch tomorrow’s headliners today, and the festival just happens to feature three of our city’s most exciting acts right now – all familiar faces to LeftLion readers and all riding that sweet spot between local heroes and national breakouts.
The day opens with Sandhouse in the main room, who gently gather the room without ever demanding attention. People move forward instinctively, drawn into a sound that feels both expansive and inward looking. Unapologetically experimental, they blur genre boundaries like they’re literal grains of sand falling through the cracks of the fingers. Psych textures rub up against 90s alt-rock grit; grunge guitars and electronic rhythms folding into hazy dream-pop soundscapes.
New track Snapdragon loops patiently, its repetition oddly hypnotic as it grows and swells, while Make Me Small simmers with emotion, its intensity communicated less through lyrics and more through the way the guitars howl. It’s an absorbing start, and a reminder that some bands don’t need volume to command a room.
Downstairs, M/X quickly prove that time slots are irrelevant when a band knows how to hold space. From opener Pavlov, the set grabs the room by the collar almost instantly. Any initial crowd shyness doesn’t last long. Bass-heavy riffs and punchy, funk-leaning drums underpin songs wrestling with queerness, philosophy, romance, and righteous anger. It’s punk with heart, groove and intent. Not just music that makes you move, but music that makes you feel seen.
Closing with No Such Thing, M/X balance theatricality with sincerity, their awkward charm and political clarity landing with conviction. This song in particular is a reminder that for bands like M/X, performance is as vital as songwriting: M/X feel essential, not optional.
Downstairs, a last-minute appearance from FLÖAT offers a brief pocket of tenderness amid the bustle. Playing solo – “that’s why I'm without a band and without a shower,” frontwoman Heather Blore jokes – the set becomes an understated preview of material from their then-upcoming (and now released) album Slug Party. Stripped of studio gloss, the songs feel raw and exposed, drifting through the bar and gently competing with the clatter of glasses. Catacomb unfolds slowly, all muted tension and subterranean melancholy, its sense of isolation lingering long after each line lands. There Was No Feeling, by contrast, feels emotionally bare – numb, bruised and quietly devastating – its blunt honesty cutting through the background noise with surprising force.
The setting of the noisy downstairs bar doesn’t quite allow the songs to fully bloom, but there’s something compelling in that friction: vulnerability set against chaos. Even half-heard, FLÖAT’s androgynous melancholy leaves a mark.
That gentleness is promptly undone by My First Time, who burst upstairs with unapologetic intent. The Bristol four-piece charge onto the stage like a release valve being yanked open – pounding drums, razor-sharp guitar riffs and cutting vocals setting an immediate, relentless pace. Brand New lands early and hard, its infectious hook riding a wave of tension and release that has the crowd moving within seconds, sneer and self-awareness balanced in equal measure; Man of Ill Repute sharpens that edge further, bristling with swagger and bite, its lyrical punch matched by a muscular, driving groove tailor-made for sweaty rooms like this. Despite the intensity, there’s joy threaded through the aggression because by the end of the set the upstairs room is fully awake, adrenaline pumping, the crowd primed for everything still to come.
While Paint By Numbers pulls together talent from across the UK, it’s the Nottingham contingent that truly underlines just how healthy the city’s scene feels right now. Marvin’s Revenge play like a band who’ve earned every ounce of belief placed in them. A genuine DIY success story, they’ve climbed from scrappy support slots to selling out 300-cap rooms through relentless gigging and word of mouth backed up by a seemingly endless supply of great songs.
Today’s seven-track set includes two brand new numbers – one played live for the first time – and still somehow leaves out fan favourites including Hugs From Grandma and Jack Let Go Out Of The Door. VR Porn opens with visceral force, while cuts from Offer Of Love hit with scrappy charm and melodic grit.
Closing on Get Married, they trigger the day’s only circle pit (can you believe it, after the day we’ve had today?!), sweat dripping from the ceiling as the room erupts.
If Marvin’s Revenge thrive on rough edges, Vona Vella show how restraint can be just as powerful. Founding members Izzy Davis and Dan Cunningham lead the band with quiet assurance, their set leaning heavily on forthcoming second album Carnival due in February.
Bass Driver is introduced as “one for the Radio 6 dads,” while I Wanna Tap Into Your Heaven Again briefly stills the room with its melodic tenderness. When closer Bear Trap arrives, the crowd shouts its refrain – “I don’t want you!” – back at the stage in unison and you can tangibly feel the lie we’re manufacturing amidst the haze of the stage lights. Of course we want Vona Vella, and with a Bodega headline already booked for February, the momentum is unmistakable.
By the time Bloodworm take the stage, the room is primed. Penultimate on the bill but headliners in spirit for many, they play with the confidence of a band whose upward trajectory feels unstoppable. Recently signed to 13 Artists and announced as UK tour support for Suede next year, the trio sound bigger, darker and more assured than ever.
Early tracks Alone In Your Garden and Bloodlust are transformed – the former now a hypnotic wall of noise where Swervedriver brushes against My Bloody Valentine, the latter strutting with heavier overtones. A new song, tentatively titled Jangle, channels first-album Smiths melancholy, while The Crown and Depths nod to Bauhaus and The Cure. Closing with Cemetery Dance, the set feels both triumphant and faintly bittersweet – a sense that this may be the last time Nottingham sees Bloodworm in a room this intimate.
When Porij step onto the stage, it feels like Paint By Numbers has gently funnelled everyone towards this moment. The room is warm, tightly packed, buzzing with anticipation built not just across the day, but over the past two years: Porij arrive not as hopeful headliners, but as a band confidently claiming their space.
Formed on the desire to play dance music live (properly live, might we add), they immediately deliver on that promise. Early favourites such as 150 burst into the room in full colour, kaleidoscopic guitar lines and driving rhythms sending bodies into motion; however, Porij’s power lies in their emotional depth as much as their ability to keep a dancefloor moving. Nobody Scared, written in response to everyday experiences of harassment and discomfort, becomes a moment of collective recognition. Still pulsing but charged with meaning. Vocals cut through with startling clarity, passion radiating from the stage from the first beat to the last.
A cover of Calvin Harris’ Acceptable in the 80s sends the room into overdrive, the band riding the high with effortless control, with Porij managing to bottle that carefree end-of week feeling and pour it straight into the room. As the final notes fade and the crowd spills back into the night, there’s a shared sense of lightness – the unmistakable feeling of having witnessed a band step fully into their moment.
As debut editions go, Paint By Numbers feels quietly assured. Less about hype, more about timing. It captures a scene in motion – softness and fury, intimacy and sweat – all under one roof. For Nottingham’s finest especially, it’s a clear case of onwards and upwards. Catch them now while you still can.
Paint By Numbers took place at The Bodega on 7th December 2025.
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