Live Review: Against The Current – Manchester Roadhouse – 06.12.2014

It’s been a fair while since I’ve been looking forward to a gig as much as this one. There’s a great feeling about going to a gig for bands on the YouTube scene as there’s the definite feeling of everyone coming together to support them. I’ve been pondering the idea of a future article that all depended on how the show went and after seeing the band perform, it was one of the easiest choices to make all year. That article will be going up soon and I’ll post a link when it goes up. But for now, focusing on this gig involves more than enough excitement.

Coming out onto the stage to thunderous cheer and applause, they opened with the title track of their debut EP ‘Infinity’ and instantly showed off what they can do live. Chrissy was moving around the entire stage at every available opportunity, jumping up and down, getting the crowd going and never once losing a single ounce of energy as she sang her heart out. Basically just imagine a more active version of the energiser bunny. Over the recent releases from Against The Current it’s been becoming more and more evident that Chrissy has the capability and is well on her way to becoming a defining voice within the genre. Live she does everything right, holding notes and keeping the dynamics in check all whilst putting her personality into every line of their songs. The level of energy was something you don’t see that much of any more, especially being able to keep her vocals in check as she kept moving.

Dan and Will were on top form too and of course there is no way you couldn’t mention Joe. Without Joe then the whole thing would just sound flat and empty and so his performance on bass was one of the highlights of their set. As for Will, his rhythms on the drums sound even better live, performed with a lot more energy and really showing how good of a drummer he is. Dan was able to show off a lot more of his ability too as well as balancing the important line between prioritising solo licks and chord progressions. They all had a great deal of presence as they performed making the live aspect come to life with a great deal of enthusiasm for their material.

One of the surprises of the night was being treated to a full performance of ‘Talk’ which will be on the upcoming ‘Gravity’ EP and it continues the same spirit that ATC have put into each of their releases so far. It’s a song that had the fans cheering as it progressed and with an easily catchy chorus hook, the room quickly began joining in. Playing ‘Gravity’ (the title track) as well, their new material sounds incredible so far and the excitement really is building for the release. The opening of ‘Gravity’ sounds so much better too in a live capacity when you’ve got the claps from the audience working in partnership with Will’s drumming.

Part of ATC’s success has been built on covers on YouTube and so to honour that they played ‘Ain’t It Fun’ (originally by Paramore) which in my opinion is a far superior version to the original as well as playing ‘Chocolate’ (originally by The 1975) and both of these went down really well with the crowd. The level of banter from Chrissy with the crowd was spot on too, keeping the right level of humour without descending into awkward moments. The fans gave all they could in support of the band and in return Chrissy named Manchester as one of the major highlights of the tour.

As a translation from recorded to live, Against The Current do both brilliantly, adding more life and energy into already great songs. In particular their rendition of ‘Comeback Kid’ brought a lot more to the song from Dan on guitar. Add to that the crowd participation instigated by Chrissy that was followed by everyone in the room, it was a crowd that gave as good as they got.

Support came from local Manchester band Leopards that set the tone for the evening with their pop punk style that got the crowd in the right mood for Against The Current. Playing a short set which (considering the 14+ aspect of the night) acted as a good teaser for what they were really capable of, it left me with wanting to see more of them.

If you’re going to see ATC on their uk tour you’re in for an awesome time and hopefully it won’t be too long before they come back to the UK again, of course from this point they’re only going to keep getting bigger so expect more venues next time around. Check out the links below for more on the band below: