By Hannah Ross
After a day spent getting tattooed at Manchester’s Tattoo Tea Party and trying to get my girlfriend a last minute ticket to a very sold-out Bilmuri (and succeeding!); heading into the ritz tonight and grabbing a drink before the night started was very welcome. I’ve been dying to watch Bilmuri again after watching them support Sleep Token late last year, and it’s very cool to see that they’ve sold out their debut ÜK headline dates.
South Arcade broke us into the night well, with their blend of modern riffs and 2000’s pop hooks. They have a much bigger playground to run around on than when I last saw them play at Academy 3 a few weeks back, and they certainly take advantage of the space by jumping around the stage like Energizer bunnies.
Bilmuri singer Johnny Franck made the right decision when he personally invited them to join the tour, with Harmony Cavelle warming up the crowd expertly; twirling around the stage and winning the crowd with their nostalgic pop rock tunes. Their cover of Justin Timberlake’s ‘SexyBack’ was tried and tested at their Academy show, and it goes down a treat here too. It all feels like one big party and looking around you could see how much people were getting into it.
As a band you can see them going from strength to strength; from headline shows to supporting big names to playing festivals this summer. Their fans are absolutely hardcore and I’m completely on board with the South Arcade roadshow.
Bringing us around to Bilmuri: Johnny Franck is no stranger to playing shows, being a former member of Attack Attack! This is clear in every movement he makes, every interaction with his bandmates: they’re laughing with each other, fighting at the back of the stage, and leaning on each other during a later song in the set. You can see that they really respect each other’s talent and enjoy spending time with each other, and honestly that’s a joy to see. It’s like we’re being personally invited to spend time with a really tight group of mates. I think this connection is one of the reasons why they’re so fucking great to watch live; it really helps to breathe life into their songs and make it an experience rather than a band trying to play as close to the record as possible.
Johnny is on top form as frontman tonight, bounding across the stage like a golden retriever; giving us goofiness and pure emotion. They start the set with ‘EMPTYHANDED’, and despite the fact that this set of shows is only their 2nd time playing in the UK – everyone in the room knows the words and is shouting them alongside Johnny. He is completely straight to the point when spitballing between songs, as evidenced when he introduces ‘SPINNIN’ YOU AROUND’ – “this is a song about fucking spinning around”.
His deadpan humour and stage banter are very entertaining in between songs: while people are crowd surfing like clockwork during ‘80/20 SKYBEEF’, Johnny says: “you’ve just broken the record for the most crowd surfers during 80/20!”. (It’s definitely the most crowd surfers I’ve seen for any gig in a while.) And after playing through ‘TOO LATE’ Johnny laughs: “This is in the top 100 songs about being late. I don’t mean to crank my own hog… no I absolutely do mean to fucking crank my hog.” It’s really great to have the constant interaction between him and the crowd.
Johnny shows this care and attention when it comes to introducing his band mates too, as midway through the set he goes around all the talented people that make up Bilmuri. Saxophone wizard/vocalist Gabi Rose doesn’t let Johnny get away without a mention though, shouting: “give it up for Johnny Franck!” while Johnny pulls up his hockey jersey and starts rubbing his stomach.
Before launching into ‘Straight Through You’ he takes a second to talk honestly to the crowd and take a break from his usual stage banter. He talks about how he had gotten to a point where he’d considered taking his own life, but instead sat with the feelings and wrote them down, putting them into song. He said: “it was the greatest decision of my life, and it changed my fucking life forever”.
That I’ve spent so much time talking about their stage chemistry and just all round greatness is a testament to how tight they are as a band, but i’d be remiss if I didn’t mention how fucking awesome their songs are; with that juicy blend of country, post-hardcore riffs and soaring saxophone melodies. It’s just absolutely brilliant, and honestly one of the best gigs I’ve been to in a hot minute.
Last year was a big year for Bilmuri with them releasing album ‘AMERICAN MOTOR SPORTS’ and signing to Columbia records, and this year they have a slew of sold-out ÜK headlining dates, festivals, as well as tours across America and Australia. They just can’t seem to stop cranking their hogs, and we’re all cranking our hogs with them.
- All photos © Hannah Ross/Über Rock.
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