California post-punk outfit Osees returned to Manchester’s Albert Hall a year nearly to the day after their last visit to this iconic venue. The band were here to perform as part of the venues ten year celebrations of hosting live music and a full house made sure that the party was in full swing.
Support came from Psychic Graveyard, also hailing from California. This high energy four piece warmed up the crowd with an electronica inspired set, think Prodigy with added punkiness and dare I say a little more angry. The band is a supergroup of sorts, featuring members from bands including Arab on Radar. The songs are catchy, and the crowd appear to agree as they jump up and down manically and draw even nearer to the barrier, not quite at crowd surfing levels of chaos, but I imagine that will follow with the main act.
The crowd are now warmed up, warmer than warm, boiling hot and in eager anticipation of the headline act. Osees take the stage, understated and determined. There is an intensity with this band, minimal words are spoken between songs, apart from a brief good evening Manchester and perhaps something else, which is drowned out by the screams from the hardcore fans flailing over the barrier. As soon as the first chord hits, paper cups go flying and the band make their mark.
The band start with a cover of Pink Floyd’s ‘Interstellar Overdrive’, before launching into a fifteen track setlist of some of their best known work. ‘Toe Cutter/Thumbuster’ and ‘The Dream/The Daily Heavy’ draw out the biggest audience reaction and are certainly a personal highlight for me.
The band are midway through the UK leg of their tour with performances still to come at London’s ‘Wide Awake’ festival, followed by dates in Leeds, Brighton and Birmingham. The band then continue their tour in Canada, before heading to Europe in August. Tickets are still available for some of their UK dates and can be found HERE. Be quick though because if Thursday evening’s show is anything to go by, all dates will be a sell out!
