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Tonight is a really significant gig for BC Camplight (aka Brian Christinzio), as he opens his UK tour in his adopted home city of Manchester. Although he’s been making music for quite a few years it’s only now that he’s started to get the recognition that he truly deserves, with the release of his new album, ‘Deportation Blues’. There’s a real human story behind the album, but more on this later. |
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Six months after his last UK appearance, Jonathan Wilson is back in town with what looks to be a different band and an ever so slightly improved video backdrop. Three keyboardists are in the line-up including Drew Erickson who played with Wilson as part of Roger Waters’ touring band. Ny Oh’s backing vocals are a particularly welcome addition. The setlist is largely unchanged (notably ‘Dear Friend’ is substituted for ‘Moses Pain’) and focusses on his recent Rare Birds album. |
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The three Staveley-Taylor sisters return from America to play their first gig in the UK for almost a year. An emotional comeback in Manchester for The Staves, and they bring the first ever indie harpist Mikaela Davis along for the ride. |
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Warming up in the UK, Chelsea Wolfe added a few European shows around her performances at Roadburn, Hellfest, Dudefest, Smoke the Fuzz Festival, and Sideways Festival. Not one to complain about seeing Chelsea again, we went onto the 3rd show of the short tour in Manchester, which has the most about of homeless people in the space of 2 blocks I've ever seen... Very sad. |
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I’m always up for a good bit of psychedelia and tonight’s sold-out gig from space-drone-noise rocking San Franciscans Wooden Shjips has been long awaited. Band guitarist Ripley Johnson has recently done UK gigs with his ‘other band’, Moon Duo, but Wooden Shjips appearances here are rare, with the Gorilla gig part of a very short UK tour. |
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Manchester Gorilla is Sold Out for EL VY who are essentially a collaboration between Matt Beninger (from The National) and Brent Knopf (from the defunct Menomena and Ramona Falls). The event and album themselves raise the question, what is a side project for many I’m sure? With The National being the quietly huge band it’s very cool to like (and understandable) they can’t be doing this for the money surely. |
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Some of the mystery surrounding cult psychedelic-doom-rockers Uncle Acid and the deadbeats is beginning to lift, as publicity photographs of the band finally emerge. But after tonight’s Manchester Gorilla gig, where the band members are shrouded in hair, smoke and shadow, you still wouldn’t recognise them in the street. But the heavy vibes stay memorable and many ear drums will be ringing well through the night. |
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Deerhoof have forged a reputation for experimentation and style changes over their twenty year and 13 album career. On record they can come over as quite a ‘technical’ band, but I really wasn’t prepared for the manic, noisy, avante-garde, fun garage rock on display at Manchester’s Gorilla tonight. |
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A lot of legendary bands seem to be reforming to play tours at the moment and tonight Manchester’s Gorilla is sold out for one of only a small number of UK gigs by seminal US female punk ensemble Babes in Toyland. This is the band’s first tour in 18 years and so there is a lot of excitement in the air. For the next hour there is a full-on musical assault, as the trio of singer / guitarist Kat Bjelland, bassist Maureen Herman and drummer Lori Barbero take us on a rapid-fire journey through the three uncompromising and highly influential albums the band made between 1990 and 1995. Babes in Toyland fell apart rather acrimoniously in the years after their last album so it’s great to see the definitive line-up together on stage and so obviously enjoying the proceedings. |
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Like Jack White, Ty Segall is one of a new breed of young musicians who have real talent, as well as charisma, who take the trouble to learn from listening to the rich musical heritage of rock and seem to develop loads of ideas and a real sense of direction as to where they want to be. Still only 27 and with umpteen solo albums / other band collaborations already behind him, Segall is back in the UK playing sold out gigs based around his latest album, ‘Manipulator’. |
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Coming into the gig Billy the Kid was somewhat of an unknown to me but like all Chuck Ragan gigs the support never disappoints. Ever since The Revival Tour days you could always guarantee if you hadn't heard of the the other acts before, you would end up loving them before you left, and Billy The Kid is no different. A shy but confident woman took to the stage with just an acoustic guitar and microphone and eases her way through a great performance. It's safe to say I will be going home and listening to some more of her music. |
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It's hard to believe that a couple of years ago Dave Hause was opening up The Revival Tour as a relatively unknown solo artist, despite having already released a couple of albums with his punk rock band The Loved Ones. So it is great to see that tonight's gig has been upgraded from the Deaf Institute just down the road due to the demand for tickets. |
