By Jase Walker
Emarosa dropped easily one of my favourite albums this year, ‘Sting’, but I made a point of missing them at Slam Dunk because I saw I’d be getting a headline length set in Manchester a few days after. With Midnight Swim and Misery Kids in tow for tonight, it’s going to be an evening full of some sweet poppy music, just what I needed for a nice warm May evening.
The sun is still beaming through the windows despite the (albeit thin) curtains that are up, and Midnight Swim are up first.
Admittedly I was expecting something a bit synthwave adjacent going off how their merch was looking downstairs but I’ll take some solid pop rock though! Looking behind me there’s already a real solid turnout for this show which is a great sign for smaller shows like this as well. Their singer is brilliantly charismatic in the way that he sings and acts on stage, my attention is constantly drawn to him and his expressiveness. They’re doing a brilliant job of getting the room warmed up for the rest of the acts this evening and not just that, the way they’re performing clearly shows they’re putting everything into their work.
It speaks volumes about a band when they’re clearly not half arsing an opening set for a gig and doing everything they can to make sure their set was memorable, which is exactly what they’re doing. Sounded great, looked great, great show on the whole.
- Midnight Swim’s debut EP, ‘Into The Night’, is out now.
With the audience absolutely packing out the venue now and suitably warmed up (literally), Misery Kids are up next. A booming backing track shakes the floor as they walk up to the stage, they begin and these seem a bit closer to Emarosa’s funky style, with some synthy backing to pad their sound out a bit. Really enjoying how groovy these guys are, using multiple vocal layers as well really adds to the poppy vibe. Similar to Emarosa as well, there’s an overarching feel of ’80s inspired new romantic/pop rock, I’m a real sucker for this sort of sound.
Whatever is causing this surge in this style of music, I hope it keeps going because Misery Kids have really caught me off guard with how much I’m enjoying this set. Going off the people down the front singing along as well, they’ve got people here to see them as much as they’re here for Emarosa as well.
Not only is the melodic and rhythmic aspect of these guys fantastic but the combination of three different vocal parts at the same time really drives home how enjoyable the music they’re kicking as a whole is. I love it when I come across a band I’ve never heard of before and I instantly vibe with their stuff. Misery Kids is definitely going on my to-listen list for the next few days at least, great band.
A bit later than anticipated, Emarosa makes their way through the now dense crowd at the front before everyone surges forward. A bit of a hiccup with the bass not coming through to start but soon gets sorted and people are dancing along, definitely one of the more friendly crowds I’ve been in recently.
‘Stay’ clearly picks up the pace even more and I’m hoping for a heavy leaning on ‘Sting’ tracks, I do wish they had live sax for this song though! Followed with ‘Again’ and I’m joined by the rest of the crowd shouting the words out, what a banger (not that the rest of the album wasn’t stellar!). Roughly by the halfway point it’s clear that they’re more keen on running through a pretty big assortment of stuff from their back catalogue, the much older stuff I’m less familiar with and is marked by a much more *metal* sound as opposed to Sting’s pop oriented style, it all goes hard though.
One of the weirder moments I’ve seen at a show is someone at the front interrupts the singer talking to get a selfie and they end up getting the entire room to do a group selfie. Never mind, time for ‘Woman’, back to those ’80s pop vibes and it’s time for the crowd to sing their absolute hearts out on the chorus. I got my wish with them playing ‘Attention’, easily my favourite track off ‘Sting’; I did miss the gospel vocals being present though.
Followed up with Sting’s opener track, ‘Preach’ and the crowd has stolen the role of singer by completely drowning their vocalist out and he seems completely amazed and blindsided by it as well.
As we move towards the end, they ask if they can play a song they didn’t write and of course, it’s their cover of Whitney’s ‘Dance With Somebody’! This goes down an absolute storm and you can clearly hear the audience all the way to the back screaming the chorus.
Finally seeing the set out with one of their biggest songs, ‘Cautious’ wraps up a fantastic well rounded set that’s shown off Emarosa’s many facets. It’s been clear that they’ve massively enjoyed playing Manchester tonight as much as the crowd loved every minute of the show, when the connection between the artist and the audience is as good as this, it really drives home why live performances can be so precious.
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