– SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER –
It’s Wednesday night and Errors are playing at Soup Kitchen I have my name on the guest list with a plus one, so have my own purchased ticket to sell. Thankfully, on cue, a group of ‘revellers’ come round the corner “I haven’t got a ticket” a revel (er) announces, spotting my opportunity I say, “I have one!” Not hearing me, his friend says (in the kind of voice reserved for old, deaf people) “This lady has one.” Without question the very drunk man gets out his wallet “How much?” I feel like I could say £20 and quite easily get it, but I’m honest and say “£10”.
While I eat my slice of pizza outside Soup Kitchen and Drunk Man smokes a fag he asks, “What are they like then?” He is still dressed in his suit from work and clearly not the biggest Errors fan “Erm….” I say “They’re kind of like….Post Electro” and immediately hate myself for saying it because I have no idea what that actually means “Oh” says the man, swaying “What does that mean?” “I am not really sure” I say meekly “But they’re good! And they’re from Glasgow and they’ll be lots of hipsters down there” I say, pointing at the Soup Kitchen “Oh” the Drunk Man doesn’t sound impressed, but even if Errors were a Post- punk, Noisecore band, he’d probably still go, if there was beer being served, and his mates were there.
We descend the stairs in to the ‘hipster zone’ and one man support act Dam Mantell is at the helm of a laptop and an effects machine, playing some multi- layered, electronic music which has the majority of the crowd engaged; no mean feat for a support act and a suitable warm up for Errors.
A cursory glance around the Soup Kitchen while waiting at the bar would suggest that Errors have a largely male following. My friend and I do a head count of the females and count twelve (including us). Of course, I can’t offer a very detailed anthropological reason for the lack of women, other than to suggest, that perhaps, the slightly dour, introspective music the Errors produce isn’t to everyone’s taste, particularly the ladies, but then that would suggest that girls only like chirpy music and well, we all know that aint true either.
So yes, most of the girls ‘repping’ are largely WAGS, not of the fake tan variety, but the stoic WAGS of earnest indie boys. Most of the females give the impression of being brought out, rather than being there of their own volition, and I feel like one of those women who, reads comics or likes War Hammer: an exception to the rule.
Soup Kitchen is half full and it is very easy to nestle in at the front to catch the last of Dan Mantell who impresses with his good, albeit slightly out of time electronic music. There are no breaks between songs just one amorphous set constantly changing and evolving and making him undulate, like some kind of reptile, in time to the music, so much so, that one could be forgiven for thinking that it is in time, but I am reliably informed: it isn’t.
Errors take to the stage and I wish I had some posh earplugs, like my mate has. The sound of two synths, an electric guitar, a bass and drums coming out of Soup Kitchen’s impressive sound system may well lead to hearing problems so I responsibly opt for toilet tissue twizzled in my ear which, falls out after the first song. I find it hard to put my finger on what it is I like about Errors, they play a lot of songs from New Relics, their latest album which sound quite similar to each other and it is only when they play Pleasure Palaces, from their second album, Have Some Faith In Magic’ that my patience in them is vindicated. I love the way it builds slowly, quietly, but defiantly, rising then falling then rising again with an undulating, subtle bass line which reliably ties it all together. This is without doubt my favourite song, but without it I would be hard pressed to come up with too much enthusiasm for them. Particularly when they don’t seem to have a lot of enthusiasm for themselves either, their interactions with the audience confined to an initial “Are you alright?” after opening their set and half way through their set “We’re playing a song from our old album which doesn’t mean it’s shit it’s quite good actually” before more randomly saying “Someone smells really nice, of like, Pot Pourri” and at the end of the set lead singer Simon Ward says “Thank you from the bottom of our so- called hearts for coming out to support us” exiting stage left, hopefully to cheer up for the next stage of their tour which, is in, Norwich. Hum…. not going to happen is it?
When people ask me what music I am in to, I find it very hard to give a definitive answer because, throughout my life I have been in to all kinds of music from House to Heavy Metal. So I can safely say I am open to most things however, I would say that overall my allegiances lie with Electronic music because it covers so many genres and is constantly developing and changing. Having grown up in Manchester my musical tastes have been influenced by nights such as Electric Chair and Mr Scruff which encompasses the sounds of House, Detroit Techno, Disco, Soul, Funk and Hip Hop. As far as bands are concerned, I particularly like bands that are melodic and have a hook and a heart such as Wild Beasts. While living in London in the early noughties, I was also listening to music that didn’t really have a heart, more of a pacemaker. I was listening to Electroclash at nights such as Erol Alkan’s, Trash. I love writing about music and believe you can be honest about why you don’t like something without being disrespectful, a skill I am still learning in real life! But ultimately I understand that music needs to be experienced first, rather than intellectualised but why do one, when you can do both?
