I Am The Avalanche
Moho Live
11th December
3 and a half stars
After witnessing the high interaction and intensity seen from both band and audience via the Liverpool show at The Magnet and despite the band calling this show “the best show of the tour so far”, I still had high expectations of the Manchester show at Moho.
Starting with current album opener ‘Holy Fuck’, and including a string of classics ‘New Disaster’, ‘This Is Dungeon Music’ and crowd favourite ‘Green Eyes’, they play their way through an enduring set- tight guitars, even tighter backing rhythm and vocals loaded with rawness.
The only disappointment was not from the band itself, who provided an exciting set that was more than pleasing, but from the abnormally lacklustre crowd. Maybe this was due to the majority of the audience being relatively new listeners of the band, since their latest release Avalanche United is their first since 2005, or purely for the fact that it is a Sunday night leading up to one of the most stressful weeks of the seasonal calendar.
Despite the bizarre lack of movement for a typical punk show, the audience were still fully attentive and I Am The Avalanche continued to display their impressive collection of songs to the fullest, with heightened levels of energy and rawness, which subsequently encouraged the crowd to get more involved. The second half of the set was much more receptive, with singer Vinnie Caruana and the crowd singing in unison to current single ‘Brooklyn Dodgers’ which received the loudest sing-a-long of the night.
The acutely solid performance from the five piece was definitely worth the wait. Luckily, UK fans won’t have to wait long to see them again-next up is a support slot on the highly anticipated UK Tour with Brand New. Let’s just hope Manchester actually represents in February.
To see our review of I Am The Avalanches’ most recent album, Avalanche United, click here.
