By Jase Walker
So after nearly being caught in an absolutely biblical storm that delayed the trams and flooded the roads outside my apartment, I’ve turned up to Rebellion to see the single biggest queue I think I’ve ever seen here! To say the venue is absolutely packed is genuinely selling it short by a massive margin, Rebellion is bloody rammed! It’s just Man With A Mission tonight, no support which just makes this even more unbelievable. How this show didn’t get upgraded to a bigger venue is baffling.
Prior to the show, a polite request is aired over the PA to not use phones to take photos or videos, which is fair but I’m unsure how they intend to police that throughout such a thick crowd considering they can’t even police people standing on the stairs. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the ‘SpongeBob Squarepants’ theme being used as a crowd chant prior to a live set before at a show either, this all seems a bit mad already.
It’s finally time and following a country rock intro song, the wolf outfit clad members take to the stage one by one, each receiving massive cheers as they enter the fold. Once the singer walks on and things get properly going, the crowd is already going apeshit and I’m once again caught in the middle of throngs of massive fans and enjoying being lost in the chaos that’s exploded out of nowhere. This is one of the reasons I love Japanese bands so much, there’s very rarely ever some sort of “standard” formula for their sound and generally anything goes and their energy on stage goes straight in at 120 per cent and doesn’t drop for the rest of the show!
Crowd participation is effortless, everyone wants to be part of the show and gladly gets involved at the slightest indication. The band is clearly having the time of their lives doing this stuff, just getting up on stage, playing some great music and going just as mad as the crowd. One of the songs that stands out to me is ‘Merry-go-round’ as it’s one of the opening themes to ‘My Hero Academia’, a big favourite anime of mine (I am a shameless weeaboo). Followed up with a cover of AC/DC’s ‘Thunderstruck’, like I said earlier, anything goes! One thing I’ve also noticed as well, is the lead guitar parts generally seem to be played by a cloaked person to the side of the stage with a plain white mask on, while the bands kicking their stuff out, they’re hidden away playing mad licks.
Another anime intro of ‘Seven Deadly Sins’, although I’m not really a fan of that particular show, I’m not complaining about getting my fill of this stuff! Rebellion is a complete sweat box at this point, I’m already drenched and I can see everyone around me is feeling the heat as well, no doubt the air con is under some extreme stress and I can only imagine how the band feel in Wolf hats and boiler suits! For an intermission of the show, they put on a half time show with them going on an adventure on a ‘Safari’ and a Race track of sorts.
We’re welcomed back to the second half with an acoustic song after their guitarist talks about their admiration for Manchester as a musical city, afterwards the rest of the band is back and we’re back to the full show. Definitely does need to be said that this is probably one of the best shows I’ve ever heard in this venue as well, everything is perfectly balanced and the low end has just enough grunt to really carry the beat as well but it’s not overpowering, excellent stuff. As we draw towards the end of the show, not including the encore however, I’ve gotta say this show has been mad fun and absolutely bonkers. Japanese bands always seem to have this way of taking these sorts of shows seriously as a performance but acting goofy to the point of absurdity and it culminates in a show that’s incredibly fun.
Finally, we’ve got the encore with the final two songs of the evening. First is ‘Into The Deep’, which seemingly is a massive song that the whole crowd has been eagerly waiting for. And finally, the latest ‘Demon Slayer’ intro song, ‘Kizuna No Kiseki’, which as you’d expect with the popularity of that series (if you’re into anime anyway), causes quite the stir to play out Man With A Mission’s set.
Honestly I came to this show with very little idea of what to expect but I’ve left it absolutely blown away with how much fun this set has been. A veritable sweaty mess by the end of it but the Japanese rockers have absolutely smashed it tonight, an excellent way to wrap up a Sunday night. Still don’t understand how their DJ managed to see bloody anything with that mask on!
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