Ty Segall
– THE RITZ, MANCHESTER –
Ty Segall is a name that I’d heard a lot over the years but never investigated until recently. The incredibly prolific multi-instrumentalist released his eighth album in eight years at the start of the year and was the first time I had embraced the genius of this man. Emotional Mugger is a groovy, fuzzy and sometimes sleazy look into Ty’s signature psych meets garage rock blend, it’s full of gnarly riffs and packed with stick in yer brain hooks. It’s a contender for my album of the year at present so therefore I am extremely excited to be here at The Ritz to see Ty and his super group backing band ‘The Muggers’ who are made up of members from other cult garage/psych misfits.
The band arrive on stage to an unsettling sound of a baby crying which sounds like Ty wailing down a pitch shifted mic, the band then rip into the new album’s opening track ‘Squealer’ with Ty joining his band just before the first verse, dressing in navy blue overalls looking unhinged and unpredictable as ever. That’s something I’ve noticed when researching Ty and his live show, he is a very much a character on stage, tonight he focuses on taking the piss out of the photographers down the front who he calls “free-loaders” before unnervingly rocking back and forth to the chaotic and sassy grooves of tunes like ‘Breakfast Eggs’ and ‘Candy Sam’. It’s definitely a lot of fun. His band back his every move, lost in the groove in their own individual ways, it’s refreshing to see six different personalities on stage all working together to fill the room with this raucous yet slick sound.
The crowd are in absolute awe, with the pit constantly moving throughout the set and even the boring bastards at the back are head banging the night away! There is just no escaping from the sheer electricity of this set. The set seems to be over quite quickly, the band play pretty much all of the new album in order, apart from a few which I am totally chuffed with. But, the band to oblige with an encore and rip into a bunch of cuts from Ty’s extensive back catalogue, a highlight being the bone crushing riff of ‘Finger’ which has the whole room loosing their shit, probably one the first times I’ve seen the whole of The Ritz in unison with one enough. It’s clear to see that this guy has a lot of power.
It seems to me that Ty is a very infectious guy both with his presence on stage and his undeniable knack for writing a fuzzed up banger and tonight his show was exceptionable, thus proving why he is and will always be a cult hero.
I joined the Silent Radio family near the very start of my move to Manchester in 2012 and I'm still having the best time! During my stay here I've been in two noisy bands, had a not so noisy solo project, made a zine, started a blog and started a radio show. It's been productive to say the least and it's all been intersperse with a shit load of gig going and beer drinking. I would love it if you followed me on twitter @dr_brainless for excitable tweets about playing, watching and living new music.
