O2 Ritz Manchester is starting to get packed already and its only 7:15 when Miranda Lee Richards takes the stage. Its a great set of songs that take fire when Miranda unleashes her extremely potent voice fully at which point the songs echo off the rafters. A quick track ‘(You’d Better Love Me) Before I am Gone’ from her time in Brian Jonestown Massacre is a notable highlight.
The stage is dark and emanates with pulses of dark music as the Black Angels make their move. Then they rip into a heavy and bleak cavalcade of noise and light. Almost tribal yet still Motorik drums lead the way and various heavy duty guitars and whirling keyboard sounds orbit around the band. The noise is sometimes blurry and hard to make out, always moving forward towards each songs conclusion.
Empires Falling with its heavy guitar riffing and faster tempo is a track that works well for me here. Its an all encompassing hour of intense music that draws the audience in and appears to pass in the blink of an eye.
The Dandy Warhols are a gentler animal musically tonight. They hit keep it all controlled (apart from when it goes a little awry later) with an almost somnambulistic set of songs. There is less drama than the Angels but the emotion contained within these tracks is just as high.
There are a couple of equipment malfunctions from the keyboards and even lead to Zia McCabe performing a cartwheel across the stage as some form of distraction/humour as a couple of songs breakdown mid set. This provides a little fun and is taken in good heart by band and audience and does not impact the overall quality of their set – the back end of which is loaded with the singalong classics ‘Bohemian…’, ‘Get Off’ and a guitar and tambourine finish with the crowd joining in for ‘Every Day Should be a Holiday’.
Words: Richie Yates
Photo Credit: Neil Winward
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