Tonight Manchester truly lives up to its soggy and gloomy reputation. It’s a Wednesday night. I’m wading through puddles and enduring cold grey rain on the way to Kraak in the Northern Quarter.
Being new to the rainy city it’s my first time at the Kraak and the location of the venue proves to be a mystery even to the locals. Eventually, with the help a few guides, I find it upstairs in a building hidden in a narrow alleyway behind a slick looking eating establishment.
Judging by the extended delay of the start, it seems that some of tonight’s out of town acts are having similar problems locating the Kraak Gallery. Despite their late arrival and a somewhat frantic set up, the atmosphere remains friendly and relaxed. This could be a curiously noisy night…
First up is a fresh Lancashire band Sky Valley Mistress, whose 2013 début EP was greeted with not only positive nods from the press but also an inclusion on the Download line up. Their passion for loud old school rock’n’roll is oozing from every pore. A must for any Led Zeppelin enthusiast or a QOTSA fan.
After a very swift changeover, we have local Manchester pairing Bad Grammar, who are certainly starting to make (sound)waves far beyond their home city. Raw noisy duos seem to be red hot at the moment – just think BRS, Slaves, Royal Blood, Drenge for starters – and this guitar/drums combo are certainly living up to their tinnitus-inducing rep. Theirs is a meaty pounding rock sound fused with foot stomping big chorus, fierce pop. Woo-hoo indeed!
My first encounter with Whales in Cubicles was some months ago, at an East London damp toilet venue that also happens to be a key new music venue in the nation’s capital. It was a fiery set that left me in no doubt that I wanted to see them again. And again.
Since then this London band have released their début album ‘Death in the evening’ and played a fair few gigs around the country. Their sprawling confident sound invites obvious comparisons with American indie giants Pixies and Pavement which, to be fair, is not the worst thing that can happen to a band. On stage this rock quartet is slick, professional and head-bangingly loud. It’s a band ready for a much bigger stage and a bigger audience. You can easily imagine them commanding a crowd at the Brixton Academy or Manchester Apollo.
Tonight they’re flanked between a local buzz band and the headliner. It’s a tough call, especially as mid-week gigs tend to be less than sold out in Manchester. Yet, despite being on stage for less than half an hour they sound epic. ‘We never win’ and ‘Disappear’ are taken from ‘Death in the evening’.
The rest are new tracks the band are working on at the moment.
It may not be the largest crowd but their big riffs and catchy tunes clearly resonate with the Mancunian audience. It’s a bold anthemic set bursting with a rich sound underpinned by more subtle, melodic songwriting betraying the band’s British origins. There’s a touch of the early Manics, perhaps a hint of Feeder and – dare I mention it – more than a dollop of Razorlight set against the backdrop of their towering American indie influences. A strange cornucopia of sounds creates something that is definitely more than a sum of its constituent parts.
Six songs is not enough to give them justice but they have to make way for the Irish punk pop exorcists Fight Like Apes, who get a buzzy enthusiastic welcome worthy of a headliner.
The band’s exuberance and boisterous eccentricity is infectious and soon spills over into the audience. There’s plenty of bouncing, pogoing and even errr…some manner of goth waltzing going on. New songs sound intriguing and even exotic: oriental synth riffs embedded in shameless electro pop. Certainly a big move away from the earlier material more aligned with shoegaze and new wave. These ‘karate rockers’ certainly don’t dwell on their own past and are happy to extend their musical horizons. A deeply commendable and alarmingly rare attitude!
All and all, despite some issues with sound and a desperately late start/finish it’s a Kraaking night with a blistering line up that deserved a bigger crowd. A huge awesome ‘YES’ to the travelling mammal circus of apes and whales. Hope you choose to visit the sexy beast of Manchester again. Soon.
In the meantime you can still catch Whales in Cubicles on their UK tour:
09 May – Oakford Social Club – Reading, UK
10 May – The Great Escape Festival – Club.The.Mammoth. Stage – Brighton, UK
15 May – Lamplighter – Northampton, UK
16 May – Bunkers Hill – Nottingham, UK
23 May – New Adelphi – Hull, UK
29 May – The Mothers’ Ruin – Bristol, UK
05 June – The Barfly – London, UK
