LIVE: DEATH VALLEY GIRLS / THE 99 DEGREE – 04/02/2017

– AATMA, MANCHESTER – Death Valley Girls are a band who have steadily been attracting more and more attention over the last few years, securing key festival appearances as well as other extensive tour schedules across Europe; their presence in Manchester tonight is therefore much welcomed. Opening this evening at Aatma, the Northern Quarter’s best […]
– ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER – I’ve always been intrigued by records that have a story behind them. When songwriting maverick Conor Oberst was advised to cancel the rest of a tour due to ill health back in 2015, he retreated to his home in Nebraska and out of boredom ended up writing a full length. After […]

LIVE: CONOR OBERST – 02/02/2017

LIVE: MARTHA WAINWRIGHT – 28/01/2017

– RITZ, MANCHESTER – Imagine being so cold you could almost form icicle mists with every breath you take. Then take a night with Martha Wainwright, with a voice that sounds like it’s in need of some hot honey and lemon concoction. And you’re in for soul warming revelations. So you can say. Opening up […]
– DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – For a lot of people, the new year takes a few weeks to get properly started. But with the cobwebs cleared and the post-Christmas diets given up on, Trof and The Skinny have joined heads to get the 2017 live music year up and running for good. Following on from […]

LIVE: STAY FRESH FEST 2 – 28/01/2017

LIVE: OATHBREAKER – 27/01/2017

– STAR AND GARTER, MANCHESTER – Belgian post-metal expansionists Oathbreaker have been twisting the wrist of blackened, avant-garde metal since 2011’s Maelstrom, but have found themselves breaking the bones of the genre with what could be considered the band’s haunting, line-blurring masterpiece, 2016’s Rheia: a glacially vulnerable, boundary dissolving record that is as violently naked […]
– GORILLA, MANCHESTER – I’m pretty overjoyed that The Hotelier is my first gig of 2017, even on a Monday night (seriously, Monday night gigs should be banned…). The start of 2017 has been tainted by the swearing in of that monster in America, and even the heart swelling scenes of the millions joining in […]

LIVE: THE HOTELIER – 23/01/2017

LIVE: DREAM WIFE – 24/01/2017

– NIGHT & DAY, MANCHESTER – “I WANNA FUCK YOU UP!” Rakel Mjöll screams at us under piercing stage lights and over crashing cymbals on opener and new single ‘FUU’. A statement rather than an introduction; “we’re here and mean fucking business”. Mjöll is flanked by Alice Go (guitar, vocals) and Bella Podpadec (bass, vocals). Together […]
– DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – It’s Monday night and the Deaf Institute is heaving. In fact, the audience must be double the one that came to see Cass McCombs’ last Deaf Institute show. ‘Mangy Love’, Cass’ most recent record, is a large reason for this swell in the audience. His most concise record to date, […]

LIVE: CASS McCOMBS – 23/01/2017

LIVE: LEE FIELDS & THE EXPRESSIONS – 13/01/2017

– GORILLA, MANCHESTER – Before us is an outfit of matching suits, and in the air a requisite bass riff with some dandy horns. The back wall of Gorilla is newly decked out, so says my plus one. It’s a nearly all-white family providing the instrumentals – The Expressions – with a DJ occasionally poking […]
– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – It’s always a nice feeling when a project that you’ve been following for a good few years finally makes it to your city. I was entranced by the debut EP from HalfNoise back in 2012, thanks to both the silky smooth vocals of its leader Zac Farro, and the […]

LIVE: HALFNOISE – 11/01/2017