Often when attending a gig, the music is enjoyable enough but eventually stretches on for too long. Westside Cowboy had no such issue, remaining fast, fun and, above all else, incredibly dynamic the whole way through their set. The Manchester band has experienced a meteoric rise over the past six months, releasing their debut single ‘I Never Met Anyone I Thought I Could Really Love (Until I Met You)’ as well as supporting Mary in the Junkyard at YES and Mercury prize winners English Teacher at O2 Ritz. Out of the current crop of bands coming out of Manchester, they have far and away set themselves out as the most likely to break out into the mainstream, and it’s easy to see why.
Now, they’re headlining two sold-out nights at Gullivers. The whole room broke out into applause as the band emerged out of the crowd and onto the stage, and that energy was maintained throughout the whole set, with the crowd engaged even through the technical difficulty of a snapped guitar string halfway through. With only one song released prior to the show, its bulk was taken up by previews of new music: the opening song began slowly with a ballad-like intro, before the band burst into life. Drummer Paddy Murphy kept up breakneck pace throughout most of the performance, at points going so fast you could barely see his arms move. Meanwhile, the three other members of the band – Reuben Haycocks, Jimmy Bradbury and Aofie Anson O’Connell – traded vocal duties, adding substantially to their folk-rock sound.
Despite being fun and accessible to listen to, Westside Cowboy are still ultimately original. They blend elements of indie rock, country and Midwest emo with complex song structures and instrumentation that can drop back for folksier sections, often with great use of vocal harmonies. At these points, they can sound akin to fellow newcomers Ugly or modern-day folk-rock titans Black Country, New Road, in particular with O’Connell’s voice mirroring the latter’s May Kershaw at points. However, they then careen away into more fast-paced territory, not content to sit in one sound for too long.
Westside Cowboy seem to have complete confidence in the music they’ve made, as shown clearly by their decision to play their only single as the second track of the night rather than taking the expected route and building up to playing it near the end. This didn’t cause the audience’s consistent captivation to waver throughout, however, testifying to the quality on display. To finish off the set, they put down the guitars, picked up the tom drum and headed into the crowd to play a song inspired by traditional British folk. This was a perfect conclusion to the set, easing the crowd out of the non-stop action that had come before.
As the opening act, pushbike complemented Westside Cowboy perfectly. Their music felt similarly inspired by Midwest emo, and the band were able to make the room feel like a house show. The vocals in particular spoke to their Midwest emo links, with lyrics such as “someday I will get my own motorway, someday I will drive” feeling as if they’d been pulled straight out of a Modern Baseball song. There were also similarities in the delivery to New York’s excellent Been Stellar. While this might sound derivative, it felt very novel to go to a gig with this kind of sound in the UK – very few bands in this country’s underground scene draw quite as much or as well from Midwest emo.
Also like Westside Cowboy, they made use of multiple vocalists, with two taking turns to almost sound conversational, before coming together on the choruses to give them an extra punch. pushbike’s instrumentation was also impressive, being fast-paced and often complicated – particularly in a few of the chord progressions. At points, the guitars sounded similar to songs on The Murder Capital’s latest album (see ‘Trailing A Wing’). This added an extra element, in the form of a similarly palpable sense of nostalgia.
Overall, Westside Cowboy and pushbike at Gullivers is sure to go down as one of the best gigs of the year, despite the venue’s small size meaning that only 110 attendees were able to experience each night. Many of the audience will have left with just one wish: that Westside Cowboy had a lot more music out. pushbike are also sure to have stuck with many in the crowd, and their EP Runtime 25.04 which, while having some mixing issues and only reaching an actual runtime of thirteen minutes and eighteen seconds, is well worth checking out.
