LIVE REVIEW
Band: Amyl And The Sniffers
Support: Upchuck
Venue: Manchester Academy 1
Ticket price: £27.50 (each)
I had the absolute pleasure of attending a sold-out Amyl and The Sniffers gig at Manchester Academy.
Amyl & The Sniffers:
I will never have enough time to talk about how much I love Amyl and the Sniffers. The energy they bring to the stage is electric and you can't help but jump about. We stood to the side near the front aiming to be close but not in mosh pit territory, but the entire venue turned into a mosh pit the second the first track started. Amy Taylor (@caltexcowgirll) is a fresh wave of confidence, wearing a black cropped tank stating 'The Bitch Lived' and jeans with the butt cut out, her style and confidence is absolutely admirable and she is an inspiration to women and non-binary folk everywhere. Her seemingly everlasting energy made for a night of excitement with nobody quite knowing what would come next. They played a mix of songs from their new album, Cartoon Darkness, a good selection of songs from their previous album, Comfort To Me, and some older ones too! For me, it was a perfect mix and I even heard some I'd never heard before which is always a nice treat. I discovered Amyl at a festival and was wondering how well it would translate to a more intimate venue, and they were everything I could have wanted and more, filling the room with sound and leaving us all sweaty.
They played 20 songs and 2 encore, and the set lasted from 9:05 pm until around 10:15pm.
Upchuck:
I hadn't given Upchuck a listen before I came to this gig and I'm honestly glad I didn't. They were a perfect match to Amyl's energy and music with their fast-paced, punky music. The lead vocalist's rage really shone through their lyrics and stage presence, giving a memorable performance from start to finish. The highlight of this support for me had to be the band's drummer taking the mic and performing two songs in Spanish, it took me totally by surprise, AND I LOVED IT! I will definitely be keeping up with Upchuck and already have some of their songs on a playlist.
Venue:
I'm no stranger to Manchester Academy. The venue is a lovely medium-sized space with a capacity of 2600. We found the drink prices here to be really reasonable with a double pint of Old Mout and a pint of Madri costing around £15. We almost ended up at a different gig because we got confused about which academy we were at, because there are 3 very close together. So we accidentally queued 20 minutes for Soil, who I'm sure are great, but we eventually made it to the right gig. There's nothing like a bit of confusion to ramp up the excitement for the evening. The only thing I slightly dislike about this venue are that toilets are a bit crowded at all times I think with them being in between the main bar and the entrance/exit it got a bit tight but other than that the academy is always a pleasant experience.
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