Basht. are one of those bands who you need to see live if you love high energy, mosh pits and a great crowd. Following the release of their debut album ‘Poor Advice’ Basht. returned to Manchester to headline Gorilla and they did not disappoint.
Supporting Basht. was the four-piece indie band ‘Cutscene’. I’ve never seen these live before and I was super impressed with them; they have a similar post-punk vibe to Basht. making them a great opener. Overall, they were a great band to get the crowd’s energy high and I was particularly impressed with their song ‘Concrete Line’. I can’t wait to see what these release in the future.
As Basht. took the stage, the energy was clear from the start as they opened with a fan favourite ‘Keira Knightly’. The crowd exploded immediately with everyone in the room chanting the lyrics back to the band. They then went straight into another popular song of theirs, ‘Perfume’, followed by ‘Stockholm’ straight into ‘Terror Tv’. It is evident these songs are popular among their fans by the way the audience reacts and recites every lyric.
Heading towards the middle of the set, the band keep the energy high, continuing with the dynamic track ‘Vermillion Reptilian’ off their debut album. There wasn’t one single person in the room who was stood still and it was enjoyable being around such passionate fans as this was quite an intimate gig. They then played a few more tracks including ‘Dive’ and ‘Dirty White’ until slowing the pace with the song ‘Kids vs Guns’. The combination of meaningful, melancholic lyrics and the intimate vocals and guitar riffs only intensified with the live performance. This was definitely another stand out track for me. They then went into ‘Moth’, which is another of my favourite songs by them, into ‘Wild Horses’ which immediately brought the energy back up.
Ending the gig, they kept the energy high performing songs including ‘Gone Girl’ and ‘Circadia’ which both had the crowd jumping. They then finished on their title track ‘Poor Advice’ and you can immediately tell why this is the title track. It’s one of their slower songs but a great song to finish on, it also closes their album beautifully. One lyric that stuck out for me during this track was ‘Look at you now, the party’s over’ signalling the end of the album and performance, which goes to show how much thought they put into the order of their tracks.
Overall, the energy was electric from start to finish and if you’ve not already seen them live, what are you doing? Get down to one of their gigs.
