– FALLOW CAFE, MANCHESTER –
Fallow Cafe is the venue for this evening’s gig headlined by Sheffield duo Algiers. This is my first visit to the venue, opened after the people behind the The Ruby Lounge took over and rebranded what was the original Trof site in Fallowfield. I arrived to learn technical difficulties would delay the start of the show, but an hour later when doors open, proceedings get underway so quickly that as I queue up the stairs to get in, the first band of the night, Bad Grammar, are already on stage.
It was a good choice to have Bad Grammar open, they set the tone for the evening well. I’m not sure how frontman and guitarist Ben Forrester makes as much noise as he does. The band’s first single ‘Tie Or Die’ seems to have too much guitar to be played by one man, but he manages. Slomo are second up and despite only being a three-piece they seem very crowded in the venue’s tiny stage area. Maybe the stage has been shrunken for the evening, since only one band actually has a third member, but I’m not sure a five or six piece band would even fit into this place. Slomo treat us to their own brand of rock ‘n’ roll, and despite suggesting mid-way through their performance they are about to play some quieter songs, the two tracks that follow still aren’t especially quiet, though they are my favourite two of their set.
By the time Algiers make it to the stage the room is packed, opening song ‘Northern Brute’ demonstrates why so many people are here to see them. It gets loud but always remains extremely well controlled and the melody is never lost behind the guitar and drums. Algiers released their debut album You’re The Captain earlier this week and its opening track and their new single ‘Mother’ is the second song of the set. It starts to look as though we’re going to get the whole album in order when the album’s second track ‘Miles And Miles Of Rosary Beads’ follows that. In the end we didn’t quite hear the whole album tonight, but we came close.
There’s not a lot of chatter between songs, the band point this out themselves exclaiming “Now we’ve got an album there’ll be less talking” they do however have time to name check an embarrassed looking Kevin Foy for his help in getting the band’s album made. My favourite two songs from the record are ‘Lighthouse’ and ‘Flowers’ and I was looking forward to seeing them both live for the first time. I was not disappointed, played back-to-back they were my favourite songs of this live performance too.
This was a sold out gig and in such a small venue there was a noticeable air of excitement. My only criticism of the album when I reviewed it a few days ago was that some of the songs feel like they are missing bass. This is not a problem that I can allege at the live performance. The extra energy of the songs when played live more than covers for there only being two band members on stage.
After closing the show with their album’s title track, people began to filter out and there were smiles aplenty from a crowd that witnessed a performance that more than lived up to expectations. I’m left with no doubt that the best way to enjoy the music of Algiers is live.
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At about quarter past three on Friday 31st January I was invited to the Algiers gig as a plus one. I was unaware at the time that this was to be a “working gig” for my good friend, let’s call him Adam (as that is his name) and got quite excited at the prospect of seeing his work published about an event I had attended too. I wanted to join in the fun, so here is my review.
Now, after deciding to splash out on the Stagecoach bus (rather than the Magic bus) we chugged through Rusholme with my need for a notepad for my new reporting role ever increasing. Arriving in Fallowfield we entered the first shop we came to, and unless I wanted to write on some (I’m sure) highly absorbent nappies, I was to be left disappointed. This is the sole reason for me not remembering any of the names of the songs, and barely the names of the bands.
Band 1, who Adam assures me are called Bad Grammar (which in my opinion should be ‘Poor Grammar’ because I think that is grammatically correct) were late but worth the wait. The drummer certainly gave it some, and the front man was convincing in his role. Although facing the back of the stage for some long periods during songs, and having a slight “fuzziness” to his guitar at times, the band overall were fine. Adam and I attend a lot of gigs together, and on our scale, I’d rate them three.
Band 2, Slomo were struggling to fit on the stage – what with there being three of them in about 8ft square of space, but were very good. They seem to either have a lot of local fans, or they bussed them in. Worth going to see though, the songs were all good (I wish I knew what any of them were called) and in our rating I also give them three (I always mark down for facial hair).
Band 3, our headline, Algiers. And clearly the most popular band in this very small upstairs room with plug sockets next to the skylight. They received a very warm welcome and kicked off with a couple of songs back to back. Announcing that their album is out so they’ll do less talking – aside from their spoken word tracks (I like this humour) – they pretty much stuck to that only really saying anything to the audience again to thank their good friend Kev. Kev was stood with immediate proximity to Adam and I and even in the rainbow of lights, could see that he was a tad embarrassed – only increased when other friends (I assume) joined in the “thank you”s. Overall, really good gig. I’d pay to see them again, and rate them 4 and a half (there was a very tall selection of people in front of me and I had no idea about the facial hair). I shall mention at this point that we went to our favourite pizza “restaurant” on the way home where they have now put up a disturbing photo of a baby holding his “special area” – sort of puts you off eating there, although ten years on, the pizzas are as good as ever! Oh, and on the tram on the way home, the drummer from Band 2 was sitting about four rows in front of me – who doesn’t enjoy a celebrity sighting on the way home!?