By Jase Walker
Manchester never seems to give up its ability to cock up a lovely day by introducing masses of wind and rain and today is no exception for the trip to New Century Hall for one of my new favourite bands, dayseeker. On this tour they’ve got Acres, who I thoroughly enjoyed a short while ago, as well as Love Is Noise who I’ve seen billed on various gigs supporting other bands but never seen them myself. A beautiful venue for what is inevitably going to be an emotional night.
Anyway time to get things started with Love Is Noise taking the stage following Deftones’ ‘Be Quiet And Drive’. The room darkens which with New Century Hall’s ceiling lights is quite a contrast. From the start the Deftones influence shines through in an exceptionally strong manner, using slower rhythms and jumping from quiet passages to much louder, pounding segments. As I’ve stated many many times before, always strive to get to shows for doors and check out the opening acts just in case they end up blowing your head off, and on this occasion I feel it’s the right call as I am totally sold on Love Is Noise immediately. These guys sound bloody great, no doubt about it, their Deftones inspired sound comes across brilliantly and fills up this large venue with no issue.
This sort of sound isn’t all they have in their arsenal as they completely blindsided me with a blackgaze styled song that reminds me strongly of the likes of MØL and Deafheaven, what a change of pace! These guys have got some serious groove as well in addition to the riffy stuff they’ve shown so far, mixed in with the changing up between clean and unclean vocals and this is something I am already hungering for more of! This genuinely is an occasion where I struggle to overstate how enamoured I am with a band that I’d never heard before, god I hope I get to see these again soon.
A brief interlude and the lead up to Acres coming on stage with Seal’s ‘Kiss From A Rose’ and the audience happily singing along, it’s time for the second act tonight. I wonder if Harper will be making an appearance tonight similar to last time? Sadly their first song was wrought with sound issues so they’ve abandoned the set while they fix stuff. After a short break, it’s back on track so let’s go! It’s great seeing these on a stage quite literally twice the size and its accompanying massive crowd compared to the last time, their sound carries so much better in a larger room and they’re stomping around like they own the place. Their melodic metalcore sound reminiscent of the current giants of British metalcore such as Bury Tomorrow and While She Sleeps projects really well in a venue like this.
They’ve clearly got some big fans in the audience but mainly it seems they’re playing to people who haven’t heard of them before but going off the multitude of phones I’m seeing recording and taking photos, it looks like they’re making a solid impact! Inexplicably, a large circle has opened up in front of me but nobody is actually doing anything which is immensely confusing to me as you’d think this would be leading up to a big pit but there’s just… Nothing? Well, until the next song hits and now people are flying about but probably one of the weirder moments I’ve seen at a show. No appearance from Harper on this particular set but I’ll just take that as a reason to treasure the memory of their previous show that bit more. Acres have done a stellar job of winning over a crowd that for the most part had no idea who they were which is the key part of these shows.
And finally, a band that I’ve been waiting years to see, dayseeker. It’s time for some sadboi metalcore and I’m already anticipating some big bangers from Dark Sun. Opening with ‘Dream State’ and I wouldn’t have it any other way! It’s immediately obvious that everyone else here is as buzzed as I am to see dayseeker, plenty of movement and arms up in the air, phones recording the set and taking photos. dayseeker’s ability to weave songs that have so many jumps between ambient segments and other parts that go so heavy and hard is wonderful in the extreme and the sound they have tonight embellishes that.
‘Crooked Soul’ immediately invigorates the central crowd to start going wild, no shortage of movement here. Their singer’s voice stands out so well in this set as well, the versatility of his vocal melodies that ordinarily wouldn’t really be considered “metal”, work so well to deliver dayseeker’s overall sound. Clearly the newer songs from ‘Dark Sun’ are fresher in people’s minds, especially with ‘Homesick’ and ‘Without Me’ as you can hear the audience screaming the chorus back with great strength. ‘Crying While You’re Dancing’, arguably one of the biggest emotional singalongs on the new album, gets a loud chorus of voices in response. The moment ‘Paper Heart’ kicks in, I can’t help but shed some tears as it’s such a heavy and relatable song, these sort of moments are truly beautiful.
And older banger, ‘Sleeptalk’, gets people screaming again and the pit in front of me is going again to pick up the pace again after a couple of more emotional songs. And finishing the main set with ‘Neon Grave’ is a real nice touch: it’s mosh pit and crowd surf central as Manchester is really bringing it now. Finally as we get into the encore, we’re treated to a solo acoustic (with backing tracks) performance of ‘Afterglow’ which ties off an outstanding return to Manchester for dayseeker.
This show was absolutely worth the wait and on the way out from the venue, I overheard no shortage of people talking enthusiastically about how much they enjoyed the show and I’m in complete agreement with them. Incredible evening.
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