By Jase Walker
Continuing the trend of 2023 being off to a real strong start, tonight I’m back in Manchester’s O2 Ritz, easily one of the best mid-sized venues in Manchester. Tonight’s stonking lineup is four strong offerings of The Amity Affliction, Fit For A King, SeeYouSpaceCowboy and finally, Gideon. With what appears to be a sold out show or very close to it, I’ve got myself a bird’s-eye view on the upper tier so I can watch the madness unfold from up top and get a real good look at what the bands are doing in the meantime.
Walking on to the tune of “I don’t want to set the world on fire”, SeeYouSpaceCowboy gets us started off tonight, an energetic set right from the outset with all of them barring the drummer flinging themselves all over the stage. I’m not actually sure if this is mathcore or not, it’s certainly got a lot of the chaotic elements and use of noisy discordant playing, but also drops into sort of emo/post-hardcore segments as well which adds a nice dynamic. Their lead vocalist has a style that reminds me really strongly of Eva Spence from Rolo Tomassi with that raw, almost wretching sort of screaming. Their overall sound has a real solid low-end to it as well which lets the guitars shine through with their constant jumping between melody and outright noise, great stuff.
Every bit as much as the last time I saw these at Outbreak last year, their level of energy is constantly at 110 per cent and it’s relentless. Considering the amount of bands on the bill, they’ve gotta put everything they can into such a short set to maximise their impact and judging from the amount of movement they’ve gotten over the course of their set, they’ve done just that. SeeYouSpaceCowboy are truly an underrated act, seeing them own a stage this size is great and despite being the opening act they’ve played to an almost packed room and gotten a real solid response from everyone to boot. Great start.
With so many bands on the lineup, there’s no faffing about with changeovers, it’s quick and efficient and Gideon are right up afterwards. Right from the word go, this is just all heavy, grinding, grit and the audience responds immediately with a massive pit right in the middle. Admittedly this really isn’t my cuppa honestly, I can totally appreciate what they’re doing though, no need for fancy production or virtuoso playing here just big fat riffs. Their double denim hench-as-fuck cowboy singer stomps around the stage screaming into the microphone with unbelievable fury and people are fully just eating this up, when he demands a room split for a wall of death? They all respond with a resounding “absolutely”.
As they move through their set, some parts remind me of Pantera, others are more Korn, but what stands out to me the most is although the focus is most definitely on the heavy as hell side of things, each song has been pretty distinct and hasn’t felt samey or repetitive. They’ve got all of the attitude of the nu-metal era too, that sort of aggressive and bombastic way of throwing their music down with a thump that you hear and feel every hit of. Clearly struck a chord with the audience, people spent their entire set going mad, fantastic live performance.
Penultimate band tonight is the rather fine Fit For A King, who dropped a bloody belter of an album back in 2020 and more recently 2022. It’s standing out to me that the guitars seem really quiet when compared to the drums which is a bit weird, I can hear the toms and snare way above everything else. A bit later the balance seems to be a bit better but I’ve no idea why this seems to be such a prevalent thing in metalcore shows at the moment. ‘Annihilation’ sees the pit truly kick off and the entire crowd, front to back all banging their heads in unison, it’s quite an interesting sight from above. Seeing their bass player almost constantly swinging his bass around his neck shows he’s got some real trust in his strap as well, I’ve seen that go so very wrong before.
A steady stream of crowd surfers coming over the top as well in addition to the madness of the centre who seem to be consistently throwing around a jacket that’s frequently wrapping itself around people’s faces which is pretty hilarious. Now that the sound’s a lot better balanced, they’re coming across much better and the guitar jumping between wailing melodies and face melting riffage is much more apparent. Not shying away from daring more people to crowdsurf, the security are being kept real busy to the point where they’ve had to have a couple of backups jump in to deal with the sheer amount of people coming over! The riff for “The Path” sounds massive as well and the roar from the audience for the crowd is unbelievably loud, almost matching the band’s volume. Honestly I’ve never seen a bass player move quite as much as Fit For A King’s, the guy is either spinning his bass or himself around or jumping and high-kicks, it’s pretty bloody impressive he can do that and still play without missing a beat. Despite the shaky start, another fantastic set tonight keeping the trend up right from the start.
The Amity Affliction walk on, their singer says literally two words and the rest of the crowd carries on the the rest of the following lines while surfing forward with a sea of arms. Honestly I’m marveling at the whole experience at the moment, The Amity Affliction sound massive, every crushing riff is crisp and the crowd screams the words right back at the band all the while there’s a persistent maelstrom of people in the centre constantly smashing into each other and launching a steady stream of people over the top to the barrier. Pints are flying, heads are banging, arms are waving, people are screaming, it’s all just adding up to an incredible show and we’re not even past the halfway point. The light show they’ve got behind them is pretty simple as far as some setups I’ve seen go but it’s immensely effective, the mix of solid beams and strobes dotted around the stage add a lot to the delivery of the show as well.
I don’t think The Amity Affliction could have picked a better setlist by the sounds of it either, there hasn’t been a single song they’ve played that hasn’t provoked a massive reaction from the crowd whether it’s causing a huge pit or just screaming their lungs out. Their singer knows how to work the audience as well, he knows just when to get everyone to focus on singing the words and the lighting accentuates it by putting the spotlight on the crowd. I really can’t overstate just how much of a fantastic show The Amity Affliction has put on tonight, the set they’ve played through tonight has clearly been well curated and the crowds loved it. I do hope some of the people I’ve seen take a few nasty hits in the pit are okay tomorrow, there’s been some big lads in there tonight! A brilliant night of metal at the Ritz, and 2023 still has so much more to come.
- The tour finishes at SWX in Bristol tonight (Wednesday 18 January).
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