After a very long day in uni, compounded by my excitement for the gig, it was finally time for me to leave and head to the SU to see one of my favourite live bands, VUKOVI, in Academy 3. The duo stopped at Manchester as part of a headline tour of the UK and Europe following the release of their third album NULA.
Support came from ZAND, who entertained the sold-out crowd with their fun alternative pop, full of trap beats and snarky lyrics. The crowd weren’t as energetic as ZAND had hoped, with a couple of failed attempts to get the crowd moving. It was clear that they had a fair number of fans in the audience though, as there were people singing along.
Although not completely my thing, I still enjoyed ZAND’s set and they were entertaining to watch, utilising props like a baseball bat to accompany lyrics: “These boys they don’t know how to act / That’s why I got a baseball bat” while sporting a cool set of green wings and fluffy green leg warmers. ‘Boys Like U’ was probably my favourite track of the set; I added it to my playlist there and then. I’d recommend ZAND to fans of Ashnikko and GIRLI.
Photo: ZAND – Maddy Oxley @ The Mancunion
VUKOVI opened their set with ‘LASSO’ from their new album NULA, and it didn’t take long for them to warm the crowd up. Fan favourite ‘C.L.A.U.D.I.A’ came next, accompanied by the first crowd-surfers of the night. Although NULA was only released the week prior, the crowd already knew the lyrics, with mosh-pits for every song. This is definitely a positive to bands releasing around half an album as singles, which seems to be the case for most releases nowadays. Even without listening to the album in full, you’d know most of the tracks being played. As a result of this, there didn’t seem to be a difference between how well-received the new songs were in comparison to older ones.
Photo: VUKOVI – Maddy Oxley @ The Mancunion
Although most of VUKOVI’s tracks are quite high energy, they did relax the set with a slightly slowed-down version of ‘I’m Sorry’, and the ballad ‘Colour Me In’. This was a welcome change of pace and gave everyone in the middle of the crowd the chance to catch their breath. I thought that I’d managed to take some acceptable photos of VUKOVI’s set; however, looking now I can see that I only took three (as I was so scared of getting my phone knocked out of my hand!) and they’re all pretty blurry. It’s safe to say I won’t be pursuing gig photography any time soon.
The set ended with the band’s most popular track, the confrontational ‘La Di Da’ from their debut album. It was a perfect ending to the night, with the whole room singing the chorus to each other. Overall, a pretty energetic night to wake me up after a long day at uni.
VUKOVI continue their tour of the UK and Europe with ZAND until October 30, and you can buy tickets here.
