By Jase Walker
I’m certainly getting around a lot in Manchester this year, including my first visit to Bowlers Exhibition Centre, near the Trafford Centre, for the pre-show of Outbreak Festival 2022. Tonight’s show has a pretty damn stacked line-up featuring Guilt Trip, Modern Error, SeeYouSpaceCowboy, Static Dress and Counterparts! I don’t think I could have wanted a better way to kick off a festival that’ll see me busy all weekend!
Sadly, I didn’t arrive in time to see Guilt Trip which I’m a bit sad about because I always try to arrive for supports! Modern Error is next however so I’m super excited for them!
We’re running a bit late for Modern Error atm but we’re off to a solid start with their bass being so oppressive it’s actually making my vision shake a bit: lovely. Smashing through their unique blend of post-hardcore infused with glimpses of NIN style synths, and getting so up close and personal with them has me enthralled on a much higher level than I was at Download.
Despite the main overarching theme of the bands booked for Outbreak this weekend, it seems that Modern Error have definitely won over a fair chunk of the audience so far. That bass is still thundering through my chest all along their performance, not complaining though, I love a good fat low end as long as it doesn’t overpower everything and it isn’t, excellent. I’ll keep holding out for a headline show for these, it’ll happen and I’ll absolutely be there come hell or high water.
Another class act on the bill next, Static Dress. I feel obliged to make up for missing these at Download in favour of Wargasm (was the right choice mind but I do bloody love Static Dress). With a fantastic album of ‘Rouge Carpet Disaster’ under their belt recently, I’m looking forward to a change in the setlist. With barely a split second of the band playing, a massive pit opens up directly Infront of me, spinkicks galore and people thrashing around, madness! It’s been a while since I’ve felt actually threatened by a moshpit but that’s just part of the show at times really!
Interestingly Static Dress have been barely lit up this show as if to keep the focus on the music. Oli (vocals) encourages people to get up on stage to help out and people aren’t thinking twice, crowd surfing up on the stage to sing a couple of words and then diving back into the rabble. I genuinely can’t get my head around how much energy is on show from the audience and how it’s just not losing any steam.
Another post-hardcore/metalcore fusion act today is SeeYouSpaceCowboy who I’ve been meaning to see for years! And tonight is the night to witness them and their frantic and aggressive approach. The crowd obviously isn’t feeling the strain yet and they’re still going nuts just as much as they were during Static Dress. Those bass drops eliciting a sea of spinning arms across the centre of the crowd. What a smashing show right from the word go though, I can see why I’ve heard so many amazing things about their live shows.
There’s so much to their sound, in some cases sounding like Rolo Tomassi with discordant mathy parts and others being just outright brutal beatdown. I know I said post-hardcore/metalcore earlier but admittedly that was based around a level of ignorance, there’s way more influences on display with the set they’ve burned through here. Hardcore, mathcore, punk, straight up death metal, it’s all there and I’m stood here with a proper dirty stank face on. This shows bananas and I wasn’t prepared for this in the slightest. They had an insane amount of stage divers too, it just never ended for a straight half hour here.
Counterparts take up the stage and I’m warily standing back, especially after how things went at Slam Dunk earlier this year. Seconds in, pints are flying, crowd surfers everywhere and people kicking the shit out of each other in the pit, standard. This show is wild! Seeing Counterparts at a show that comes from a homegrown scene and is staffed with people who know when to react to crowd surfers and moshers sees people losing their minds, jumping up on stage, stomping around and then diving right off, sometimes even tackling each other off it.
I’ve seen pints, hats and even shoes flying around in the air, there’s almost zero restraint here! Oh and to add to the list, a wig. An odd couple of dips in between songs, not clear why but looks like minor guitar trouble but it’s not slowed the show’s energy much. Counterparts keep hammering out songs, completely unphased by the sheer numbers of people jumping up on stage and then running across it to dive back in. Counterparts are thriving off this, every drop of energy they give is returned back to them sevenfold.
What an incredible start to Outbreak this weekend. I am definitely having a cold shower before bed tonight. Bloody hell.