By Jase Walker
It says a lot about some bands fanatical followings when you’re walking past one of the largest non-arena venues in Manchester and you see a queue for it before door time that stretches for a quarter mile down the road. Not only that but has people getting into the stage area and sprinting right for the front to get the best spot they can.
The band that’s inspiring this rush is PVRIS, a band I managed catching a while back in a more intimate setting of Gorilla in Manchester to around 500 people. This tour starts off with a sold out show and includes Charlotte Sands and Maggie Lindemann, the latter of whom I’ve heard a lot of noise about on the various music channels I follow.
With the venue still filling in, Charlotte Sands gets underway and right from the start sounds massive. This is the sort of sound balance I look for at a live show. Strong bass, guitars that ring through nice and clear, drums that are busy but support everything else while the vocals are front and centre. Charlotte’s voice is fantastic as well, she reminds me a bit of Lzzy Hale with the sort of booming power she has with effortless vibrato. Their guitar players knocking out some pretty tasty licks as well although the focus is very much around Charlotte who’s jumping between directing the audience and jumping around all over the place.
This really is just a solid slice of fun pop rock, catchy lyrics, solid riffs, and above all it’s just a good time watching the band do their thing. The crowd doesn’t seem to know Charlotte’s material that well but the response she’s getting from them is definitely showing they’re enjoying it. Only a short set as the opener for this tour but they’ve made the most of it and had a massive impact on the now packed venue, great start to the night.
A sombre piano intro signals the start of Maggie Lindemann‘s set, building up with ethereal vocals before Maggie jumps onto the stage. I didn’t know what to expect from this but it’s already surprised me with its synth-laden atmospheric feel with her vocals moving between mixing in with the layering and then bursting loudly over the top. This sort of alt-pop stuff is pretty engrossing with how it can move from dreamy soundscapes to alt-rock and back again, it’s a more “whatever works” approach to songwriting. The bass drum is hugely powerful in this mix as well, thankfully not overpowering the rest of the band but it’s definitely making my trousers shake around my legs whenever it hits.
The variety of music stands out to me with Maggie‘s live set so far, the juxtaposition of dreamy, heavily layered sections mixed with what feels like very metal riffs makes for a very interesting sound. I’ve heard Poppy and Grimes do similar stuff before but not quite in this where it’s all together at the same time rather than different segments. I’m really blown away by Maggie, it sounded bloody great, such a strong sound that wasn’t overpowering and a fantastic act to watch as well. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out to see her again and a quick check says she’s playing a headline show at Gorilla in May, so I think I’ll be there for that!
Finally, were ready to get stuck into PVRIS‘s live set. Plants set around the same with two large cube cages around the drums and keys, I don’t doubt they’ll be lit up with some interesting patterns and colours before long. A similarly thunderous low end for PVRIS and it’s shaking my T-shirt as well as my jeans now, not complaining though, I love it when live shows are like this! As I would have expected with the size of the queue, nearly every song gets people screaming as the first few notes hit like it’s their favourite song, brilliant. On a minor note, it looks like the “cages” aren’t lighting up after all, oh well.
I’m continually blown away by how strong the sound is yet how clear everything is, well, other than when it’s being drowned out by the entire crowd screaming the words back! The use of lightning to compliment specific parts of songs is incredibly effective as well, strobing to match the more synth elements, huge bright flood lights to help prompt the audience participation bits, it’s great. Given the step up in stage size since the last time I saw them, they’re making good use of it and with the stage decoration I mentioned earlier, it’s made the band appear as if they’re taking up all the space with just the three members. I am a little bit frustrated with some people a small distance in front of me as they’ve spent almost the entire show so far with their phones in the air to record it which keeps obscuring my view.
There’s something that needs to be said for the quiet enjoyment of getting in the middle of a crowd that’s singing the words back to the band with such enthusiasm. Looking around listening to the chorus of voices that respond to the music in this sort of fashion is easily one of my favourite parts about live shows and PVRIS connects with everyone here on such a level that this happens as loudly as this, amazing.
Ending with a three song encore, which includes a brand new and unreleased song which I can tell you, is incredibly groovy, my cup runneth over with this show. Start to finish, PVRIS have been firing on every possible cylinder, non-stop energy, outstanding sound and an all round incredibly entertaining show. The trend of 2023 being a strong year already continues.
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