Altrincham’s The Guest List played the Market Stage last week at Truck Festival, and we were there to catch their set.

Having toured with Blossoms, the buzz around The Guest List was rife on the day of Truck Festival. Talk of a new Blossoms swelled, which gave us the jitters, truth be told. What Blossoms do is perfect, and they’ve left no vacuum.

What came next was a weekend-stealing set.

On Loose Tongue and ‘Canada’, they proved to the world that guitars will groove once again. Swooning hooks that move from the darkness to the light and then fall away again. ‘Canada’, a more obviously appealing record, proved their time with the Blossoms was well spent. Set opener ‘Loose Tongue’, however, armed with a more muscular sound, saw frontman Cai Alty drag the band from their Blossoms pop instincts to the guttural post-punk howls of Fontaines DC.

This middle ground is where The Guest List was at their best. Killing pop and illuminating the underground from one couplet to the next was beautiful, yes, but more importantly, powerful! It gave their former single ‘Mary’ the space to land all of its power. Alty strayed from Chatten to Ogden in the verses, but soon, the sweet spot he carved out was his own realm to do with as he wished. His vocals twisted with turmoil and rose with righteousness before tumbling again like all great underdogs. It was a masterclass in how to make us plebs fall in love with a band.

Then, on ‘161’, they unfurled an anthem for the lost, for the brave, for 161 men from Chapel Street in Altrincham who fought in WW1. Twenty-nine died in battle, and twenty more passed upon return. It was blessed with the songwriting classicism of The Lathums and injected with Pete Doherty’s credibility. The lush melodies of their mentors, Blossoms, chimed with the masterful scouse arrangements of The Zutons and The Coral, united to prove that music can still leave a room in awe.

Guitar music hasn’t sounded this pure since Pete and Carl recited Wilfred Owen in the same mic. Long may Manchester reign supreme!