Manchester Academy 3 is quite a small venue and you can stand right up against the stage, although the venue wasn’t full from the start with barely any people there intitally it was quite a nice relaxed atmosphere. Supporting The Big Pink on their UK tour first up on stage were 2:54, which consists of Sisters Colette and Hannah Thurlow who make up the band along with Alex Robins and Joel Porter. I was quite surprised by how much I liked their opening song ‘Scarlet’. Lead singer Colette mesmerises the crowd with her vocals that are said to mimic the likes of Shirley Manson. While there are many shoe-gaze bands out there 2:54 is certainly refreshing for me. They didn’t speak much during their set but the audience applauded them after every song. Later on Colette asks the audience whether we were looking forward to seeing The Big Pink tonight?!They were met with a reply of silence from the audience!
After half an hour The Big Pink finally arrived on stage with electro-rock duo Robbie Furze and Milo Cordell accompanied by a couple of extra live band members. Bursting straight into song ‘Jump Music’ which really didn’t do what it says on the tin, while others arrive at the gig it seemed the audience had lost the mood. With frontman Robbie on guitar and vocals he tried to get the crowd dancing along playing songs off their latest album ‘Future This’. As Robbie shouts out ‘how are we all doing?’ He is greeted with yet more silence from the audience. After playing new single ‘Stay Gold’ it picked up a bit and the audience started to join in more with the beats of ‘Velvet’ and ‘Crystal Visions’ drowning out the room. The Big Pink left the audience deafened by pulse of the electro-synths loud volume, with the last song double salvo of ‘Dominos’ and ‘Lose Your Mind’
I must admit the only time I’ve properly listened to The Big Pink was when they released the single Dominos which I think was highly overrated. Tonight I’d say 2:54 stole the show and they are definitely ones to watch out for!
