 
This was my first visit to Heaven, an unlikely
choice for the home of so
many upcoming gigs, and not bad ones either. And
as I was soon to
discover, the room in which the music is, actually
has a fantastic
sound. Quite a high stage looks over the long
room, but it's really good.
Talons were the warm-up act, an instrumental six-piece
from Hereford,
featuring two guitars, a bass, two violins and
drums. Quite a line-up,
and live, wow, what a sound. Ball-rattling riffs
with dark haunting
strings, oozing Biffy Clyro in its tone and structure.
It was a joy to
listen to, and really exciting. However, that's
where Talons should
remain, playing live. Their studio recordings
in no way capture the
grandure of their sound that rocks you to the
core. Also unfortunately,
most of them seriously lack charisma – and
when you're listening to such
awesome sounds you don't want to see a violinist
who looks like Chess
Club captain, snuffing his feet around in a nervous
manner, and the only
person to talk to the crowd has a nervous squeaky
voice and nothing to
say. Meanwhile the guitarist is going nuts with
the rock stance and rock
face and I don't think I've ever seen anyone hit
drums as hard as the
drummer. And a risk with a reasonably nishe sound
and no vocals is that
a lot of stuff sounds the same. And I suppose
it did, but to listen to,
it was good same.
When Manchester Orchestra took to the stage, everyone
was buzzing. After
putting out what I consider to be one of the best
releases of 2009, this
was to be an amazing show. And so it started,
and we were all in awe.
Andy Hull thrashing away wildly at his guitar
and screaming intently
into his microphone, Robert McDowell (who looks
more and more like
Howard Moon every day) going at it to stage left,
Jon Corley on the
bass, barely moving, casually playing along staring
off up into the
rafters somewhere, Chris Freeman going ape on
the keys, screaming away
whether into the microphone or not, occasionally
spinning round to a
floor-tom and snare and bashing along with Jeremiah
Edmond the drummer.
And then the band would leave and only Andy would
remain, singing solo
with his guitar, playing various slow poignant
songs from the older
albums as the room stood amazed in silence at
the spectable before them.
Well, I say silence. There were a handful of dicks
who heckled, shouted
various nonsense and jumped about in the crowd
aggravating everyone,
including the band. And at moments like this,
with such beautiful songs
being played, that even a whisper could be heard
– so it's generally
best to shut the fuck up. The offenders left during
the penultimate
song, but the damage was clearly done, as the
rest of us were robbed of
our encore. But what we did get to see, was everything
to be expected
from the album, and a little bit more. Although
I didn't get to see my
favourite “In My Teeth,” we were treated
to “Do You Really Like Being
Alone,” “Wolves At Night,” “The
Only One,” “Shake It Out,” “I've
Got
Friends,” “Pride,” “My
Friends Marcus,” “Everything To Nothing,”
and
more. Fantastic live, just fantastic.
Talons 4.5/5
Manchester Orchestra 4.5/5
Review By Thom Curtis |
