LIVE – BOB DYLAN: 2/11/22

You never quite know what to expect from a Bob Dylan gig, guitar, piano, both, which of the old tunes will make a comeback into the set? As we take our seats awaiting the arrival on stage of a bona fide musical legend, the upright piano placed facing the audience centre stage is a bit […]
– The White Hotel, Manchester – New Orleans industrial disco punks Special Interest specialise in the intense, pushing their sound, political lyrics, and performances to the extreme in the grand tradition of punk bands. Singer Alli Logout leads the ensemble, their frequently angry, incendiary callout lyrics dealing in really showing you how shit the world […]
Special Interest

LIVE: SPECIAL INTEREST– 5/11/2022

Westerman

LIVE: WESTERMAN – 25/10/2022

– Yes, Manchester – Will Westerman’s only album of his short career so far Your Hero Is Not Dead, came out at that oddest of moments, June 2020. Cast your mind way back to that time two and a half years ago, and you’ll probably have memories of cautiously, but giddily, emerging from your home […]
It’s been twenty-two years since Pavement last played Manchester, in the intervening years, social media has taken off, the way we consume music has changed, yet for many bands the two-way street of appreciation between band and audience remains as vital as ever. I was lucky enough to witness Pavement in the early years, after […]

LIVE REVIEW: PAVEMENT – 20/10/22

Gilla Band

LIVE: GILLA BAND – 20/10/2022

– Canvas, Manchester – Irish noise masters Gilla Band (fka Girl Band) are back with Most Normal, their new, album of the year contender LP, arriving with a reputation for putting on incendiary live shows. Having just left the brand spanking new Canvas on Oxford Road (very decent, big blank Gorilla sized white box in […]
Being old enough to have seen The Lemonheads plenty of times in the early 90’s, the fact they were returning to play the whole of one of my favourite albums, was a gigging opportunity which was not to be missed. Last time Evan Dando and his band toured the seminal ‘It’s A Shame About Ray’ […]

LIVE: THE LEMONHEADS – 08/10/2022

Let's Eat Grandma

LIVE: LET’S EAT GRANDMA – 07/10/2022

-YES, MANCHESTER- Last time I saw Let’s Eat Grandma (LEG for simplicity and word count for the rest of this piece) I was in pain. It was a Monday night in April 2018 at the Deaf Institute, and I’d just cycled over from playing 5-a-side where I’d fallen awkwardly on my wrist. It was throbbing […]
– Ritz, Manchester – Sophie Allison’s music as Soccer Mommy has always had a cathartic edge (see tonight’s encore closer ‘Your Dog’ from her debut album Clean, with the positively holler-able opening line “I don’t wanna be your fucking dog”), but rarely has it been so goddamn dark as it is on her latest LP […]
Soccer Mommy

LIVE: SOCCER MOMMY – 20/09/2022

Laura Veirs

LIVE: LAURA VEIRS – 19/06/2022

– Deaf Institute, Manchester – Sunday nights were made for watching Laura Veirs. But this is not the same Laura Veirs who has played this stage before. On her first UK tour since navigating a divorce from her husband and long-time producer, this is a new, quietly confident and tentatively upbeat Veirs reaching to pick […]
– Stoller Hall, Manchester – In an interview in the excellent ‘Loud & Quiet’ magazine, Tirzah took her interviewer to an exhibition. Afterwards, when asked what she thought of it, Tirzah replies: “Maybe I’m a bit too traditional, but I found all the extras a bit too distracting. I’d rather see something stripped back so […]
Tirzah

LIVE: TIRZAH – 22/06/2022