Thursday, July 18, 2019

Live Review :: The Blinders :: Manchester International Festival, Manchester - Jul 16 2019


Credit: Paul Cartwright



Live

The Blinders

Manchester International Festival, Albert Square, Manchester

July 16 2019

Words: Izzy Butler

Pictures: As credits

Nothing better than a summer's night of free entertainment, and when it comes in the form of The Blinders, it is, well, just too blindingly good to miss.

The open-air concert, part of the Festival Square programme at Manchester International Festival curated by Dave Haslam, also brought out Witch Fever and Pagans SOH to warm up proceedings - as if they needed heating up anymore!

Credit: Paul Cartwright

The Blinders, accepted now as the city's own, drew massive support for their commanding, tight set. As they ripped through a powerful delivery of 11 songs, frontman Thomas Haywood dominates the stage as the three-man powerhouse roar through the opening 'Et Tu', 'Wither and 'The Writer', their barrage of ferocious psych-led guitars, and grinding basslines cutting through the Manchester air.



'I Can't Breathe Blues', which originally appeared on their 2016 EP 'Hidden Horror Dance', before, revamped, it graced last year's debut album 'Columbia', and their establishment jibe, the swaggering ‘L Etat Cest Moi’, see Charlie McGough’s bass riffs thunder around the stage, as also demonstrated on penultimate number ‘Brave New World’, their modern anthem for “doomed youth”, with its soaring chorus that saw a single release two years ago.

Credit: Xxx

The dark 'Brutus closes the set, effecting all the same strength as ever did throughout its seven minutes. The drums of Matt Neale and McGough again excel, as Haywood warns, uncompromisingly, "You know they're gonna slit our throats today /
If Brutus has his way". It's loud, punishing and takes no prisoners, much the same as The Blinders themselves.

Credit: Xxx

No comments:

Post a Comment