LIVE: TOY – 15/02/2019

-YES, MANCHESTER- The last time I saw Toy was when I reviewed them for Silent Radio back in 2012. A lot has happened since then, but I still remember their instrumental wonders filling all corners of the Soup Kitchen. Tonight, they’re playing at Yes. I’ve yet to see a gig here and I’m excited to […]
-SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER- Emotional Olympics Curiously we start with a one-man-guitar show; the other Olympians were sadly trapped in the confines of the capital. He somehow manages to turn the dismembering sensation of lacking a full band into a melancholic exhibition that displayed some capable vocal abilities, featuring a bright falsetto, humming in the low […]

LIVE: MOLD / SWEATY PALMS / EMOTIONAL OLYMPICS – 14/02/2019

LIVE: NENEH CHERRY – 13/02/2019

-ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER- Neneh Cherry is the absolute boss. Here she is on stage at the Albert Hall, absolutely killing it in support of her recent Four Tet and 3D (of Massive Attack fame) produced album Broken Politics, an album that has rocketed her to the kind of critical acclaim that came with her seminal […]
-THE CASTLE HOTEL, MANCHESTER- A glimpse of summer is brought to us during this harsh winter with edgy-on-the-outside/soft-on-the-inside aesthetic from supporting band Honey Moon; familiar to that sensation you get from a lemon soother, settling your cold down, even if it’s just for a little bit. When I first saw the name of the support, […]

LIVE: FUR / HONEY MOON – 12/02/2019

LIVE: WILD NOTHING / J FERNANDEZ – 11/02/2019

-YES, MANCHESTER- Wild Nothing are a group hellbent on melting my insides via extreme doses of summertime nostalgia and as they step onto the stage, I anticipate an epic singalong where only I will be vocal. That’s right, the dickhead in the Carhartt with his arms in the air all night is me, what you […]
-SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER- Bleach Boy We start the evening with what I assume is a Seattleite-redux; the guitars and drums shine the brightest (I suppose being the loudest helps), all the while their brand of militant distortion devolving into a kind of sonic mush, whereby the vocals and bass suffer in the sense that… you […]

LIVE: SURFBORT / BLEACH BOY – 13/02/2019

LIVE: JIMOTHY – 10/02/2019

-GORILLA, MANCHESTER- Inadvertently on a mission to prove you don’t have to be a lyrical miracle to be a rap god, London’s number one alternative son Jimothy is setting the scene alight. Recently announcing on the Romesh Ranganathan podcast ‘Hip Hop Saved My Life’ that he was ditching the Lacoste section of his quirky pseudonym, […]
-THE PEER HAT, MANCHESTER- We have a wealth of support acts in store at the Peer Hat tonight, and some excellent craft beers to accompany us. It’s a nice place for a drink as well as a gig. Chaos LOL gets his five-minute warning and hastily drops some super-heavy gabba before throwing down some polyrhythmic […]

LIVE: DAMMIT I’M MAD – 06/02/2019

LIVE: THE RESIDENTS – 05/02/2019

-GORILLA, MANCHESTER- I came here to review a critically-acclaimed US group who rose to fame in the 1970’s, who appeared in heavy rotation in the early days of MTV, who released over forty albums, nearly as many compilations and created dozens of multimedia projects. What I am seeing, at a packed, sold out Gorilla, is […]
-THE CASTLE HOTEL, MANCHESTER- After hearing much hype over Heavy Lungs over the past six months, supporting Idles and listening to their two EPs, I felt like this was the last time I would see them in a small intimate venue such as the Castle Hotel. The hype before the gig is great, I have […]

LIVE: HEAVY LUNGS / VULGARIANS – 31/01/2019