Issue 93 / October 2018

More documents

Info

REVIEWS Omni Harvest Sun @ The Shipping Forecast – 14/08 Three members, six hands but the sound of 12. You may make the mistake of thinking OMNI are from New York, sonically they could easily fit in to a high calibre lineage of art rock bands from the mean streets of Manhattan. With such wonderfully thoughtful, smart, clear and simple guitar riffs you could make comparisons to people like Tom Verlaine from Television, but in the souls of the songs there’s something very different. As I watch them I come to realise they are something quite out there on their own. Omni are from Atlanta, Georgia, and maybe it’s just me, but I really do think you can hear something of that in the songs; there’s something of the South in them; an outsider essence. A striking feature of the gig is how with only three members the band manage to produce a dense sound (Multi-task was a good album title choice). Guitarist Frank Broyles appears to be playing two riffs at a time; drummer Doug Bleichner is relentlessly thundering forward, hitting each drum with the same velocity as the last; and vocalist/bass player Philip Frobos is effortlessly plucking away at the bass strings while delivering a cool, calm and unique vocal, one that’s instantly recognisable. He does all this from a position of ease. The bass riffs themselves perfectly weave their way in between the guitar riffs that seem to be emitting from more than just one human. Omni make their way through their albums, Multi-task and Deluxe, with a sense of ease (but most certainly not complacency) in what feels like a pretty short space of time. They even have time for an unplanned encore following enthusiastic demand. For me, that’s how any good show should feel: effortless and emphatic. Chay Heney Jake Shears (Stuart Moulding / @oohshootstu) Jake Shears Arts Club – 21/08 JAKE SHEARS is a star. That’s decided before he even appears on stage. The signs are there: band in matching dapper suits? That one’s ticked off. Name, quite literally, up in lights, as a backdrop? It’s emblazoned up there alright, along with a picture of a top hat and cane. Packed out Arts Club? Yep, we’re all delighted to be here. It all conjures up an image of a cabaret crossed with an old-style glitzy disco making his intentions for our night clear: quite simply, it’s going to be brilliant. The party starts with a bang as Jake Shears struts on to the stage and launches in to Good Friends, his perfect teeth a beacon as he dazzles us with his moves, wit and voice. He is a talented, funny man. He’s also incredibly physically fit: anyone who can high kick his way round a stage, dancing and jumping with such energy his cummerbund flies off mid-song while remaining note perfect deserves all the plaudits they get. Great stuff. So much more than a Len Goodman seven! Dressed in a top hat and tails, he embodies the showman, beguiling and charming us with tales of delight, debauchery and depression, each delivered with a wink and humour. Even when songs deal with a marriage breakdown and a move to New Orleans, the upbeat tempo means he comes out on top (Sad Song Backwards). As the gig goes on, the top hat and trousers are cast aside, leaving him dancing round in a leotard and fishnet tights. He stalks the stage, partly comic, partly melodramatic. But these theatrics don’t detract from the music. The songs from his newly-released eponymous debut solo album are ones he should be justifiably proud of. They’re instantly recognisable, drawing from genres from country to musicals to rock without being derivative. Scissor Sisters favourites Laura, Mama and I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’ are interspersed through the set and every time the intro for one of them starts things move up a gear, getting even the stubborn ones in the crowd dancing. Whether you’re on the stage or in the crowd, everyone’s having a ball. The encore sees him reappear after a costume change in a long dress and flower-emblazoned bonnet (of course it does) and he belts out Creep City and Mississippi Delta (I’m Your Man). He’s self-deprecating and seems genuinely happy and touched that his gig warrants such a big turnout, displayed as he comes off stage at one point earlier to get up close and personal with the crowd. Even if this isn’t the type of music you’d actively put on in the house, there’s no way you can’t have a good time when faced with such wide-eyed grinning exuberance. It’s just what’s needed: an entertaining gig with a star who knows how to hold the attention of a packed-out room, sweaty from dancing. Jake Shears is the greatest of showmen who creates a wonderland you don’t want to leave. Jennie Macaulay / @jenmagmcmac Omni (Kristian Patten / kristianpphotography.myportfolio.com) Ethan Johns With The Black Eyed Dogs + Robert Vincent Heaven’s Gate @ 81 Renshaw – 21/08 Part classic Americana, part trippy, voodoo space cadet blues wig-out, the new ETHAN JOHNS album, Anamnesis, finds him back in his true comfort zone. Though highly regarded as a producer, working with such road-worn and whiskey-soaked wanderers as Ryan Adams, Howie Payne, Ray LaMontagne and The Jayhawks, he is first and foremost a songwriter and storyteller. And he’s more than handy with a bewildering array of instrumentation. The evening begins as the room warms to the level of airless and oppressive, with a fine set of country blues songs from Liverpool’s own ROBERT VINCENT. Vincent’s instinctive and soulful vocal tones, layers of slide guitar and keyboards, tightlypacked harmonies and his innate ability as a songsmith prove that him winning <strong>2018</strong>’s UK American Album Of The Year Award with the superb I’ll Make The Most My Sins is not only well deserved, but also somewhat overdue. His gift for a song, like his self-effacing humour, is natural and easy, like every great writer, like Ethan Johns, it is simply a part of his being. Again, this is an artist who is deserving of a much bigger stage. Johns paints romantic pictures in his songs. Rich in character, these are tales of history, of the road, of love and loss. Stories of the everyday, and of everyday folk, tinged and flavoured with many years on the road. For this record of organic, earthy blues folk, he’s assembled a new band around him, The Black Eyed Dogs, and together they recorded the album in his garden studio in just two weeks. It doesn’t feel that way, though. Typically for Johns, these songs have a striking familiarity. To hear the opening song of this set, Runaway Train, you’d swear Merle Haggard had knocked it up in Folsom Prison decades ago. He wears those years on the road well. The band tonight is missing drummer Jeremy Stacey, who according to Johns is “away earning a living”, so there’s a relaxed, stripped-back, front porch atmosphere in the music, the mood and here in the desert-hot back room of 81 Renshaw. Ruskin’s Farthing is a great piece, an ancient tale of a court case brought against the 19th Century art critic John Ruskin following a particularly ungracious and dastardly review. In the event, only a farthing and no costs were awarded in damages. A story you’d think more suited to a hero of English folk like Martin Carthy or Chris Wood, but imagined here and delivered in Ethan Johns’ rich, part-sung, part-whispered and cracked vocal, it feels, again, so natural a setting. Leaving It All Behind, with the delicious plaintive strains of Georgina Leach’s violin weaving through it, and the melodic bass work of Nick Pini, is another highlight of a set rich in beautiful moments. Redemption and forward movement are the themes here, and the song’s dusty country blues landscape carries it so well. Armed with a Stratocaster, the set mutates midway to the darker side of the street, twisting into the heat of Renshaw Street with the Hawkwind-esque blues psych of The Knot Of Aurelius Augustine, and the dark, Dylan-tasting 21st Century Paranoid Blues, with its sadly all-too-familiar themes. It’s all squeezed Strat motifs and clanging dissonance over the simple pulse of Pini’s bass. The climax of this perfectly-pitched set included a simple and beautiful tale of a lonesome drive across America from Los Angeles to upstate New York to collect his then girlfriend, now his wife. His heart open, his love laid out for all to hear, The Great White North has everything you need from a love song. It’s an open and honest portrayal of one man’s deepest love. Special. Really special. This is a set of old and new tunes, the brightest shining light and the darkest melancholy shade, all effortlessly delivered by this accomplished writer and his supremely talented band. Highlighting an album that is only available in physical form with no streams, these are songs to climb into, songs to live and for living. Let’s hope that this fourth Ethan Johns album sees him getting similar plaudits to the work he does behind studio desks. Paul Fitzgerald /@NothingvilleM 42
BOOK NOW: 0161 832 1111 MANchesteracademy.net WAH X METROPOLIS: DUB PHIZIX / S.P.Y / SPECTRASOUL FRIDAY 2ND NOVEMBER / CLUB ACADEMY ENTER SHIKARI SUNDAY 3RD FEBRUARY MANCHESTER ACADEMY FAT FREDDY'S DROP SUNDAY 4TH NOVEMBER MANCHESTER ACADEMY LEON BRIDGES WEDNESDAY 14TH NOVEMBER MANCHESTER ACADEMY SUNFLOWER BEAN TUESDAY 27TH NOVEMBER ACADEMY 2 HAKEN FRIDAY 15TH FEBRUARY ACADEMY 3 BASEMENT FRIDAY 16TH NOVEMBER CLUB ACADEMY RUFUS DU SOL SUNDAY 12TH NOVEMBER ACADEMY 2 PARCELS MONDAY 5TH NOVEMBER ACADEMY 2 JESSIE J FRIDAY 16TH NOVEMBER MANCHESTER ACADEMY SG LEWIS TUESDAY 4TH DECEMBER CLUB ACADEMY JUNGLE FRIDAY 15TH FEBRUARY MANCHESTER ACADEMY MAYDAY PARADE AND THE WONDER YEARS SUNDAY 17TH FEB / MCR ACADEMY JAX JONES THURSDAY 8TH NOVEMBER ACADEMY 2 JAYKAE FRIDAY 16TH NOVEMBER ACADEMY 3 POPCAAN FRIDAY 7TH DECEMBER MANCHESTER ACADEMY BLUE OYSTER CULT FRIDAY 1ST MARCH MANCHESTER ACADEMY CHASE & STATUS: RTRN II JUNGLE SATURDAY 10TH NOV / MCR ACADEMY LIL PUMP SUNDAY 18TH NOVEMBER MANCHESTER ACADEMY CKY FRIDAY 7TH DECEMBER ACADEMY 2 BERNHOFT & THE FASHION BRUISES MONDAY 12TH NOV / CLUB ACADEMY WSTRN SUNDAY 18TH NOVEMBER ACADEMY 3 GREGORY ALAN ISAKOV SUNDAY 9TH DECEMBER ACADEMY 3 ADY SULEIMAN THURSDAY 14TH MARCH ACADEMY 2 MILES KANE SATURDAY 24TH NOVEMBER MANCHESTER ACADEMY AUGUST BURNS RED SUNDAY 9TH DECEMBER CLUB ACADEMY PERTURBATOR WEDNESDAY 27TH MARCH ACADEMY 2 HINDS TUESDAY 13TH NOVEMBER ACADEMY 2 ALLAN RAYMAN THURSDAY 13TH DECEMBER ACADEMY 3 TONIGHT ALIVE - FULLY PLUGGED TUESDAY 13TH NOV / CLUB ACADEMY RALEIGH RITCHIE SATURDAY 24TH NOVEMBER ACADEMY 2 FUN LOVIN' CRIMINALS FRIDAY 29TH MARCH MANCHESTER ACADEMY TONIGHT ALIVE - ACOUSTIC WEDNESDAY 14TH NOV / CLUB ACADEMY MP NAMATCHOUA SUNDAY 25TH NOVEMBER ACADEMY 3 STEVE MASON SATURDAY 2ND FEBRUARY ACADEMY 2 DROPKICK MURPHYS THURSDAY 25TH APRIL MANCHESTER ACADEMY facebook.com/manchesteracademy @mancacademy FOR UP TO DATE LISTINGS VISIT MANChesteracademy.net
Page 1 and 2: ISSUE 93 / OCTOBER 2018 NEW MUSIC +
Page 3 and 4: An Arts Council Collection National
Page 5 and 6: What’s On October- November Monda
Page 7 and 8: New Music + Creative Culture Liverp
Page 9 and 10: DANSETTE MERSEY WYLIE opens up her
Page 11 and 12: Matt Hogarth talks death, emotions
Page 13 and 14: Ahead of the release of their newes
Page 15 and 16: DO YOU HAVE A PASSION industry stan
Page 17 and 18: THIS AUTUMN’S MUST SEE SHOWS! BEY
Page 19 and 20: NIKI KAND’S QUIET COMMAND We spen
Page 21 and 22: AUTUMN / WINTER 2018 /EPSTEINTHEATR
Page 23 and 24: CO “It’s about doing your own t
Page 25 and 26: Stay in tune with what’s happenin
Page 27 and 28: #UTP up-coming fixtures september 1
Page 29 and 30: PISS KITTI Thrashy and punky and wi
Page 31 and 32: Jona Frank - Inside The Family Cara
Page 33 and 34: FESTIVAL Liverpool Disco Festival C
Page 35 and 36: GIG The Allergies Brick Street - 04
Page 37 and 38: BOOK NOW big blues festival - FRI 1
Page 39 and 40: “It’s dirty, noisy, tuneful, da
Page 41: Dorcas Seb Unity Theatre - 07/09 Th
Page 45 and 46: David Olusoga The Bluecoat - 05/09
Page 47: E V E N T H I G H L I G H T S JOIN
Page 50 and 51: Passing What’s your legacy? DaDaF
Page 52 and 53: ARTISTIC LICENCE As part of a conti
Page 54: SAY THE FINAL “You can’t depoll

Issue 93 / October 2018

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?