By Jase Walker
A muggy weekend sees me back at Manchester’s Club Academy venue, situated underneath the University Students Union, for a band with one of the fattest sounds in prog, The Ocean.
Bringing along with them Playgrounded and LLNN for the ride to support their rescheduled tour, I’m excited to get my teeth into some proper meaty prog tonight.
Kicking us off for this show is Playgrounded who I had the pleasure of reviewing their latest album and right from the start, the bassy synth effects shake my entire body from my feet to the hairs in my neck. I’ve remarked on it plenty of times before but it’s fantastic hearing a band where the bass guitar is extremely present in both volume and force, but not at the expense of the rest of the band. The atmosphere that Playgrounded builds is superb as well, opting for a generally dark lighting show, using crimson red lighting mixed with brief flashes of white adds to their thick, layered sound.
Definitely a perfect complement to The Ocean, their songs wrap around you, filling as much sonic space as possible, every hit of the bass drum forces the hair on your neck to pulse along with the beat. Their synths and effects are all done live as well, a desk laden with various button pads and knobs which are constantly adjusted throughout every song. Playgrounded also excels massively at their harmonized vocals, another great example of their layering work. The venue steadily fills up as Playgrounded moves through their set and I feel bad for anyone who may miss these because this set has been fantastic, absolutely my kind of grinding, atmospheric prog.
Next up is LLNN, a band that I’ve heard friends talk up quite a lot but never really got round to listening to them properly myself. A dark and brooding synth intro leads into a face meltingly heavy, grinding groove which makes me immediately shout “Oh, fucking hell!”. A bit of a wildcard in comparison with The Ocean and Playgrounded as this falls very much on the side of shoegaze but my god the swell of this stuff is incredibly overpowering! I can feel the fabric of my jeans vibrating constantly as the air around my ears throbs from their bass player’s thunderous tone.
I really can’t get over how incredibly heavy this is, I mean not just due to the chaotic and terrifying riffs, but the sheer amount of force behind it all. It’s just a gigantic wall of sound that’s blasting me in the face without any restraint in the slightest. A quick jump onto Spotify to add these to my following list as I’ll be rinsing their catalogue for my gym sessions for a while: angry music for lifting! LLNN have been outrageously loud, I’ve spent basically this entire set with an expression that’s been a mix of awe and disgust at how unbelievable this set’s been. LLNN has been a fantastic surprise to me, they’re the right sort of “stupendously heavy” that I like and they’ve put on a brilliant performance that I’ve felt every bit as much as I’ve heard.
And finally for tonight, The Ocean. After seeing these at TechFest, I wasn’t going to miss the chance for a follow up show in a venue like this! Fully equipped for their show with their own set of unusual flood lights which resemble their latest albums cover art, The Ocean don’t mess around when it comes to building an atmosphere. There’s something so very unique about The Ocean’s style and delivery, the riffs always sound absolutely massive, and sometimes with a sort of drone along with it. Along with that they’ve a very characteristic light show that goes along with it, usually projecting lights from directly behind the band, a mixture of warm floodlights, strobes and LED lights that resemble flowers.
A bit of a treat for tonight’s show as well in the form of a guest vocal slot with Christian from LLNN! Definitely worthwhile getting myself a spot right at the front barrier and planting myself here for the entirety of the show, to make up somewhat for not quite pulling that off at TechFest.
Periodically I’m blasted in the face with one of the strongest smoke machines I think I’ve ever seen used at a live show, I mean it does add to the feel of the show visually after feeling like I’ve gone through the doors on Stars In Your Eyes. Later on the singer jumps up to the barriers and dives into the audience and I jump in to grab and hold up the mic cable just in case because it can easily get trapped, after some riding around and nearly getting his foot right in my face he jumps back to the stage. If you’re reading this, sorry I nearly caught your bollocks on my arm.
This has prompted the crowd to go wild behind me which was probably the wake up call they were waiting for to say the least! The way The Ocean conduct their live performances in addition to how bloody interesting their music is really cements why these are easily one of my favourite bands. There’s a lot of thought that’s clearly put into their live performances, little details like their light setup and the members knowing exactly when to go apeshit on stage to really get across the big parts in songs.
The Ocean have carefully crafted almost every facet of their work and it really shows on a live performance. Absolutely fantastic show.
- The tour finishes at The Fleece in Bristol tonight (Monday 5 September).
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