Whales in Cubicle + Bad Grammar + Kindest of Thieves LIVE @ Night and Day Cafe, Manchester 01.02.2014

On Saturday, I went to the best triple bill I’ve been to in an age, it was truly the tits. Let me tell you about it.

I entered the Night & Day Cafe to the rockabilly melancholy of Kindest of Thieves. This two piece comprise of the wiry arms of Samuel L Lightfoot’s off-kilter drumming and Christopher J Fox’s kind of ‘Brett Anderson and Buddy Holly had a baby, meet him’ vocals. On stage they looked a bit retro dangerous, and their tunes were proper gut wrenching cool, so much energy. I loved it and I thoroughly recommend you checking them out before some kind of emaciated East London hipster crowd try claim them as their own. The evening was off to a good star.

Next to the plate was Bad Grammer, and it all started to get a bit spit and pogo pop. The second two-piece of the eve, Christmas jumper clad drummer Lucy Brown kept some pumping time while Ben Forrester thrashed his guitar and himself all over the stage. Bit more doomy, very angsty, masters of the beats and the catchy riffs, this is great music to get sweaty to. And they put on a cracking show!

At this point in the evening the bar’s busy, the hum off Saturday night chat is turing into more of a roar, there’s some kind of old boys night out that have set up a lairey camp near the stage, we barely notice Whales in Cubicles come on. They start playing some ethereal guitars, Stef Bernardi starts singing, and we all slowly turn around…and once they have our attention they grab us by the throat and turn their guitars in to rocket launchers. I’ve never heard anything so explosive as those guitars in a smaller venue before, much credit to them and their sound man! The boys played a blinder – cool, enthusiastic, overgrown hair cuts and grungey riffs – a bit Soundgarden without the heroin problem, and in my opinion that sounds amazing. Highlights for me were singles ‘Golden Medal’ and ‘All The Pretty Flowers’, two deliciously catchy yet dirty rock n roll tunes.

These 3 diverse acts show that even in amongst the sea of X Factor winners and teenage prostitutes masquerading as singers, that rock n roll and real music is still alive and well – go see em, trust me 😉

Kate Tittley

Kate Tittley

When not making cocktails for Manchester's finest, Le Titts is most likely to be found the other side of the bar in a cloud of smoke and wine musing loudly over her fantasy band line up, love of the album format and why nothing is better than The Stone Roses. And then spilling the wine...Loving the ride with GigSlutz.
Kate Tittley

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