Words by Enid Kirk
Electric energy, catchy tunes, sharp lyrics, and impish wit: Big Society have it all. Go to one of their shows and you might just walk out with a new favourite band. The gig took place at Deaf Institute in the smaller downstairs room giving it an intimate feel, particularly combined with the warm lighting and conversational tone taken by both frontmen. Overall, the evening was a great success with a beautifully calm opening from Doad followed by the incredibly skilled and charismatic Big Society. It’s clear they are seasoned performers and with well crafted songs to back it up.
Big Society are a Manchester based indie rock band with a lively, off-beat energy and a catalogue full of should-be-hits. They managed to maintain an engaging and, at times, slightly chaotic performance despite a fairly stationary Monday night crowd. It would have been great to see the same show done justice on a bigger stage with a livelier audience. From their name, you could expect angry punk lyricism, but you would be pleasantly surprised to hear really vulnerable depictions of love, friendship, and heartbreak, set to catchy melodies that felt immediately familiar and have been stuck in my head since the gig.
For anyone looking to get into them, the songs ‘Billy’, ‘My Love’, ‘Marine Club Party’, and ‘Bird’ are a great place to start. On the surface, ‘Billy’ reads as a plea to a friend going through a rough time but their Bandcamp explains that ‘Billy’ is symbolic of “the writer’s thirst to free themselves from empty feelings and isolation into a place of new beginnings”, adding an interesting second layer that a lot of creatives will be able to resonate with. ‘Bird’ and ‘My Love’ are both earnest love songs with a hopeful tone, though there are hints of self criticism scattered throughout ‘My Love’ that feel very human. My current favourite, however, has to be ‘Marine Club Party’, a catchy song about meeting and falling for a girl at, you guessed it, a marine club party. My favourite part of this song is their choice to rhyme the word ‘leave’ with ‘Gia Carangi’. Not a name that you would have attempted to find a rhyme for but they pull it off with a gleeful eccentricity that keeps me playing the song over and over.
Manchester based band and support act, Doad, gave a moving acoustic performance featuring particularly outstanding vocals from singer-songwriter Steph Fraser. The slightly hipster, folky, Noah Kahan-esque vibe made me wonder if I missed the memo about the beanies and craft ales dress code, but this concern didn’t linger long as the audience was quickly swept up by the soothing melodies and original yet precise lyricism of their music. For an introduction to Doad, it is worth listening to ‘Nevermind the Time’, which was a highlight of the set with some beautiful harmonies from Steph Fraser, as well as ‘Hurricane’ and ‘Solitude’ which were some of my personal favourites. I particularly love Doad’s use of imagery, for example the lyric in ‘Hurricane’: ‘I see you in the distance tearing orange from the sky’ which just strikes me as such a unique description and one that’s stuck with me since hearing the song. Doad’s songs are pretty at worst and genuinely moving at best. It’s the kind of music that makes you want to throw your phone away and start keeping bees, or at least take a stroll somewhere a little greener than Oxford Road.
It would be worth recommending checking out both artists. They each have some EPs and singles available on most major streaming sites, with Big Society due to release their first album next year. In the words of their singer Will, “you must buy that with money”. Big Society also have music available to buy on Bandcamp and all proceeds from their Christmas songs go to the Booth Centre here in Manchester who provide support for those affected by homelessness.
