The
kids were on a sleepover at grandmas, so we had a leisurely departure
to Bristol, driving into the setting sun on the M4 and parking up in
time to join the queue to get in (!) following an overrunning
soundcheck. We therefore had a lengthy wait for openers Gang Of Youths;
a schizophrenic lot this both visually and sonically, not youthful but
heavy on hair, beards and heft, their sound ranged from chugging
Southern rawk, “Joshua Tree”-era U2 parched acoustic
landscapes and (more often) Arcade Fire-esque textural rhythm and
building crescendos, which suffered from a lack of evident tunes and
overall cohesion. The kinetic, Jim Morrison lookalike vocalist was
frequently understated and lost in the mix, and overall,
though I really liked certain bits of certain of their often overlong
songs, nothing stuck. Frustrating, really…
Took a loo break as the place filled
to heaving point; with the loos now situated under the dressing rooms, I
could clearly hear Manchester Orchestra vocalist Andy Hull going
through his vocal scales in preparation for the performance.
Professionalism, I like that. After another fiddly final set-up, the
band emerged from the darkness at 9.40, powering immediately into the
jagged riffery and primal screaming rush of “Shake It Out”, before
following it up with their best number of the night,
a brilliant “Pensacola”, the libidinous rhythm
and stream of consciousness lyrics giving way to a huge terrace chant
hook and massive, soaring chorus. “That was superb; have they gone too
soon?” I asked Rach. I think our
opinions differed on that…
At their best, Manchester Orchestra
are a thunderously and thrillingly noisy riff-heavy monster, whilst
still evoking the tuneful fuzzy psych-rock of the likes of Grandaddy,
and the gregarious Hull is a proper singer with a high-end range
which belies his bulk. However the mid-part of this set for me was
slightly heavy going, with little variation in this mainly back
catalogue material, the bludgeoning riffs following each other in
all-too quick succession. However the devotional audience lapped
it up, singing along raucously to each towering chorus, softly to the
infrequent quieter breaks. Hull and the band were also enjoying
themselves too, Hull particularly in fine, entertaining form; he
quipped, “we booked up a load of small venues as we weren’t
sure if anyone still gave a shit about our band,” then in response to a female fan shouting, “we love
you!” he said, “thanks mum!” then, “if you hear a drunk [calling out]
that’s my dad!”
The roaring singalong of “I’ve Got
Friends” powered onto the comparatively almost delicate opening to
“Colly Strings” before Hull celebrated reaching “no. 67!” with the title
track of the new album, “Cope”. The set finished with a perfectly
delivered a capella “The Party’s Over”, before the band went straight
into the encore (“we’re only standing in that corner, what’s the
point?”), Hull stating “I’m having fun – sometimes playing this
depressing music can take it out of you!”, before kicking
into the tumbling drums of “Top Notch”. The subsequent driving
staccato-riff rhythm and cascading verse-line of the almost Nada
Surf-like “Every Stone” was great, another highlight, before a final
“Simple Math” segueing into the final half of “The Only One”
(again not played straight! Darn!), rounded off an overall fine,
fan-pleasing set which for me could’ve been better with more new
numbers, with only 3 or 4 played off the new album tonight.
The
evening ended on a couple of jarring notes, however; firstly their
ignorant asshole of a roadie shaped up to get the drummers set-list for
me following my polite request, then scrunched it up and hurled it into
the far side of the crowd. Total self-important supercilious dick. Then, a lengthy and convoluted diversion back into the city
(after we’d already left it!) took over 20 minutes to avoid a half-mile
closure on the M32, getting us home at a bleary-eyed 12.30. Bah! Still,
we’ll be back again for more Manchester Orchestra
noise; next big occasion maybe?
No comments:
Post a Comment