Live Articles
Live: White Lies @ Academy 1
White Lies return to Academy 1 tonight after a near two year absence, suffering from a severe case of ‘second album syndrome’. Their sophomore effort, Ritual, has been in stores roughly a month and was met with decidedly mixed reviews; I certainly wouldn’t recommend picking up a copy if you’re hoping for a major departure from their 2009 debut.
Live: The Go! Team @ Academy 2
“It seems like everybody’s smiling tonight,” notes frontwoman Ninja after opening with the frenetic T.O.R.N.A.D.O., “is it a Northern thing?” You can’t really blame her for forgetting – after all, it has been a full three years since The Go! Team’s last UK tour and even longer since they last played in Manchester. Judging by the quality of their superb third album, Rolling Blackouts, and the way it translates live tonight, it certainly seems to have been time well spent.
Live: Surfer Blood @ Academy 3
West Palm Beach-based indie rockers Surfer Blood brought with them a little bit of Florida sunshine to Academy 3 on Wednesday night, as they powered through a set that lasted just shy of an hour, but for what it lacked in quantity it more than made up for it in quality.
Live: Plan B @ Manchester Apollo
Musical re-inventions don’t come much more drastic than that of rapper turned crooner Ben Drew (aka Plan B aka Strickland Banks) who tonight plays host to an evening of retro-soul at Manchester’s Apollo. Liam Bailey prepares the crowd perfectly for the main event with his deep husky tones, performing a short set of bluesy tunes including the raw and beautiful ‘It’s Not the Same’, and soon to be hit single ‘You Better Leave Me’, demonstrating exactly why he’s tipped to be the next big thing in contemporary soul.
Live: Mogwai @ Academy 1
Returning to Academy 1 in support of their seventh album, the wonderfully-titled Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will, post-rock veterans Mogwai deliver a stirring, two-hour set that spans their entire career. They showcase a whole host of tracks from the new record, opening with the chirpy and upbeat ‘White Noise’, with ‘Mexican Grand Prix’, ‘I’m Lionel Richie’ and new single ‘Rano Pano’ also aired, the latter brilliantly blending grinding guitars with subtle synths. This is a band capable of conveying an incredibly wide range of emotion in their music, which is all the more remarkable when you consider that the vast majority of it is purely instrumental.
Live: The Decemberists @ Academy 1
Their new album, The King Is Dead, went to number one in America and tonight’s show is part of their biggest UK tour to date, but the strongest indication of The Decemberists having ‘made it’ surely comes in the form of a pre-recorded message, played before the band take the stage, from the mayor of their hometown of Portland, Sam Adams.
Live: The Naked and Famous @ Academy 3
The intimate atmosphere in Academy 3 was the perfect setting for the first appearance of intriguing new sound and beat makers, The Naked and Famous. This New Zealand-originated rock band have fused the ferocious talents of Alisa Xayalith and Thom Powers to create a five-piece band with a style similar to that of MGMT, yet they differentiate with vocals to rival that of Paramore’s Hayley Williams.
Live: Reel Big Fish @ Academy 2
Tonight was always going to be about Reel Big Fish though and with this gig being one small part of their massive 20th Anniversary World Tour, it’s pretty much a given that what will ensue will be rather spectacular. That is, if they can get the microphones to work. With the gig already delayed by a tense 10 minutes, the lights finally dim and no time is wasted as ‘Sell Out’ strikes up, sending a surge of skankers into bouncing their way closer to the front.
Live: Wolf People @ The Deaf Institute
As the show started, and timid guitars gathered together to create a melancholic atmosphere, a fellow spectator echoed my thoughts and turned to ask: “Is this Wolf People?” Yet undeniably, it was. This minimal, almost shy entrance was immediately juxtaposed by the introduction of the anthemic ‘Silbury Sands’ and a raw, guitar-based aggression was installed. At times I found myself returning to the heavy rock heaven of the early ‘70s and, dare I say it, a slight tinge of Led Zeppelin was evident in certain moments, as towering guitar riffs and booming bass lines resonated throughout the jam-packed Deaf Institute.
Live: Kylesa @ Moho Live
Not often does a night split itself into extremes as much as this. Opening act Hammers start the night painfully dull for such a crushingly heavy band and, whilst anything but dull, following act Iron Will’s haphazard set leaves you wondering if it is deliberate that they sound so incredibly out of time from one another. No surprise then that they announce to the waiting crowd that they are looking for a new drummer.
Live: Simian Mobile Disco @ Sankeys
Bugged Out! has been at the cutting edge of electro since its conception at Sankeys in 1994. However, the drought of bodies at the door suggested that the excitement surrounding electro-house at the end of the last decade had finally subsided. Luckily, the night left a convincing impression of where the future of this sub-genre may lie.
Live: The Creole Choir of Cuba @ RNCM
The Creole Choir of Cuba’s invocatory, cultural whirlwind of a performance at the RNCM left me both astounded and invigorated; grateful that at least in other parts of the world there are musicians who stick to their roots rather than becoming over-produced and losing that raw ‘spirit’ of music. The Creole Choir is not simply a group formed to showcase the outstanding natural talent of their individual voices, they fervently fight to depict the plight of their ancestors who were bought from Africa and forced to work in slave conditions in the sugar and coffee plantations of Cuba.
Live: Youmeatsix @ 02 Apollo
Youmeatsix were one of the highest rising bands of 2010, having played the British invasion of the US Warped Tour (which also included Enter Shikari and Bring Me the Horizon); the main stage at Reading and Leeds and finally ended the year supporting the album, Hold Me Down, released in January.
Music festivals round up: WOMAD
My friends and I are waiting in Paddington Station but one of the group looks disgruntled. Finally he utters, “why exactly are we going to a World Music festival?” The correct answer was that we had failed to get tickets to Glastonbury, or any other festival for that matter, but this is still a touchy subject so […]
Live: Dutch Uncles @ Night and Day Cafe
About to embark on the well trodden path to Mancunion music fame are local 5 piece Dutch Uncles. Coming up in a complete new wave of Manchester electronic/dance sound, Dutch Uncles are not mere replicas of current successes, but act as a complement to this ever growing landscape. The Night & Day Café served as […]
Live: Two Door Cinema Club @ Manchester Academy
4 Stars Its 7:30pm, and outside the union a group of teenage girls are shelling out £40 each for a ticket. Bearing in mind the normal price was £9.50, it’s not surprising the touts are laughing their heads off. It’s also no surprise to find that at least of half of the crowd is underage, […]
Live: Josh Ritter @ RNCM
4 Stars It’s always heartening to see a musician enjoying a gig as much as the audience, and Josh Ritter, playing to an almost full Royal Northern College of Music last Wednesday, looked positively ecstatic. At several points he literally jumped for joy, and the rest of the time contented himself with grinning wildly, resembling […]