Manchester
Live: Tonight Alive – Manchester Ritz, 19.02.16
As the opening lyrics to To Be Free; “Don’t come looking for me, I don’t want to be found, I just want to be free” reverberated around the beautiful Manchester Ritz, Tonight Alive take to the stage to a welcoming roar of a crowd that haven’t seen their return to this city in a year …
News: Letlive. Announce UK Tour In April
Letlive. have announced a UK tour! This April, the post-hardcore outfit will hit four venues over here, before heading out for a short time to Europe. These include three dates in London, and one at Manchester’s Sound Control. Their new album is set for release in the summer, so this will be the band’s first …
Live Review: Escape The Fate, Manchester Club Academy, 28.1.16
If there is any band that have seen their fair share of problems, it’s Escape The Fate- prison stays, betrayals, drug problems and more line-up changes than are worth thinking about. Yet here they are heading out on the Hate Me tour, in celebration of their fifth album of the same name, and they’re doing …
Live: Cancer Bats and Support, Manchester Academy 3, 23/2/16
What better way to spend a Saturday evening than in a tiny venue with four bands from varying ends of the metal spectrum? Cancer Bats and co. have definitely set out to create havoc on their Destroy The United Kingdom tour, and they deliver no less. First band Incite bring the party with their groovy, …
Live: Nothing More, SHVPES, In Search Of Sun – Manchester Academy 3, 7.12.15
It’s brisk December and In Search Of Sun hold the task of warming the crowd up for the evening. There’s only about 20 people in the room by the time the band take the stage but if you didn’t turn around to look at the gaping empty floor you wouldn’t know it given the intensity …
Live: Ash at The Ritz Manchester 9.12.15, plus gallery
It remains one of rock’s enduring mysteries why Northern Ireland’s finest Ash are only playing decent sized venues like this instead of stadiums and this fun packed greatest hits sets only added to the conundrum. Most bands would settle for a couple of indie pop classic like Girl From Mars or Goldfinger, but this set …
Premiere: Seep Away – Trudge
Seep Away are a York/Manchester noise-punk quartet, and we here at backseat mafia are delighted to premiere their debut single, Trudge, taken from their forthcoming self-titled EP. It’s this dark twisting mass of edgy guitar riffs and splashing drums at the beginning, as it lays down (in no uncertain terms) their muscular delaration. From there …
Live, Killing Joke UK Pylon tour (Manchester & Leeds) 2015
The Gatherers are congregated, the candles are flickering on stage, the lights go down as the Blade Runner theme sets the scene for the next 90 or so minutes. The moratorium is over as Killing Joke launch into ‘The Wait’ unleashing, albeit slowly, the combined power of the band’s original line up (see my recent review …
Win: Two Tickets for Gogo Penguin at London Village Underground 25.2.16
We’ve been big fans of Manchester jazz trio Gogo Penguin for about as long as we can remember. The three piece, pianist Chris Illingworth, bassist Nick Blacka and drummer Rob Turner drew on not only the jazz heritage, but broader influences such as Brian Eno, John Cage, Massive Attack and Aphex Twin to make something …
Live Review: PINS – Oslo, Hackney, 23.10.2015 plus Gallery
PINS were at their sharpest for a wild night at Oslo in Hackney. When the time is taken to strategically place LED filled glowing balloons on a stage, you know the band are getting ready for some revelry. When PINS arrived on stage in front of their shimmering backdrop they lost no time in getting …