Live
BlackWaters
Jimmy’s, Manchester
July 16 2018
Words/Pictures: Danny Shackleton
Celebrating the release of their debut EP ‘People Street’ with an eight-date tour, tonight it was Manchester’s turn to experience the choreographed madness of the four Sheffield-via-Guildford lads, BlackWaters. The band have already amassed a sizeable following thanks to constant gigging and exposure from radio promotion, as well as the usual word of mouth.
Having made their way through the crowd onto the stage, the night's proceedings start with ‘The Song’ which builds to almost boiling-point, and sets the stall out for what was to come, with the crowd already well into it. Although not quite the capacity crowd you’d expect for a band of this calibre, those that were there to witness this invigorating band more than made up for the missing few who really wasted an opportunity to see one of the best live acts on the circuit at the moment.
‘Fuck Yeah’ pretty much describes the excitement of the night, which had everyone scrambling up to the front to chant it in the band's face, with singer Max Tanner frequently trading lines in the faces of the front rows throughout the set.
First taste of the new EP comes with ‘Pick Me Up’; not that anyone needed a pick-me-up, thanks to the energy resonating off stage. Every song is performed at lightning pace and its borderline impossible to take your eyes of the stage but even then, knowing where to focus was just as hard. At Max, showing the dangers of dancing on the bass drum by falling through the kit? Or bassist Ollie Franklin, basically screeching into the microphone? Or at guitarist Dave Carpenter, playing his guitar with the beer he was drinking, quite the sight it was on this small stage.
Live favourites ‘Down’ and ‘Let The Good Times Roll’ predictably go down a storm with the band exclaiming this was the hottest gig of the tour so far - which was certainly felt down in the front mosh pit. The night drew to an inevitably chaotic end with ‘So Far Out’, one of the band's first singles and the climax to a memorable night.
I’ve seen this band a couple of times now, but tonight shows how far they’ve come in a relatively short space of time because this gig was on a different level with BlackWaters proving they’ve got the songs to back up the live experience.
No comments:
Post a Comment