Manchester MEN


29 & 30 April 2006

It’s a strange name for a unique festival, the first of 2006. The combination of a fine award-winning arena venue, excellent transport links, and a line-up dominated by some of the best emerging USA rock bands was enough to attract thousands of young fans. There were twenty-six acts on the bill with just two of them from the UK and both appearing on day one, Hundred Reasons and headliner Lostprophets. The day’s line-up including two fascinating prospects, Angels And Airwaves is Tom DeLonge’s (ex Blink 182) new band and the word is that the band is fantastic live, while the debut album, which drops in June, is very special indeed. We shall see… The other interesting prospect was Taking Back Sunday, the New York based alt rock band whose new album has created quite a stir.

I arrived just in time to catch Gym Class Heroes that are relatively unknown on these shores. The guys are from upstate New York and offer a heady mix of hip hop and indie rock played via conventional instruments. I had wondered how the venue would be organised to handle the required rapid band changeovers, and the solution was to divide the massive stage into two sections. The stage was effectively split into two with roughly a third on one side dedicated to the ‘lower orders,’ which still left a massive area for the bigger acts. Gym Class Heroes performed well on the smaller section lead by hooded vocalist Travis McCoy. In fact I was more than impressed with strong bass lines and distinctive guitar rhythms, plentiful melody and McCoys vocals. I suspect we’ll be hearing a lot more from highly original band…

As a photographer, I was only allowed to shoot during two songs before being whisked off into the cold concrete innards away from the auditorium to wait for the next act. The press arrangements seemed to be an afterthought, with no practical facilities provided for watching the shows during intervals, no seating, no toilets, no nothing… Fortunately changeovers were very fast and so I was escorted out within thirty minutes to see a Canadian band attracting a fair amount of attention right now, Silverstein. This hardcore five piece outfit took just seconds to get into its stride with lead man Shane Told impossible to photograph as he rushed around the stage like a man possessed. During a strong performance where I became an observer rather than a recorder, I noticed how young the audience was, with the vast majority in their early teens. During 2006 I have witnessed many hard rock concerts where very young fans are beginning to dominate capacity audiences, perhaps encouraged by the new media age…

USA hardcore/pop punk band Bayside was totally new to me but not to the fans that migrated to the smaller stage to catch this four-piece in action. Lead man Anthony Raneri delivered up a strong vocal backed by good songs and a tight instrumental performance. I’d like to have heard more but the strong arm of security carried out the removal policy with deadly precision, and off I went to wait for Aiden to appear.

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This year I have noticed stage lighting has deteriorated dramatically with the minority of shows offering an acceptable standard. As a photographer, one is very conscious of stage lighting which is never ‘user-friendly’ but can offer a glimmer of photographic hope… Not so with Aiden. Sonically the band delivered the goods with William Francis giving a typically animated and skilled vocal performance, while looking suitably evil. But the lighting was dreadful to the point that I wondered whether a suitably qualified person was being used to control this vital aspect of the show. While the sound throughout the day’s proceedings was of the highest order, lighting was erratic and all too often left the key players in the dark – to both the audience and myself. Seattle post-hardcore/pop punk band Aiden has been able to inject their music straight into the veins of young rock fans, and with shows like this the band is set to blow…

After a brief escorted escape to gulp fresh air and nicotine, I returned to catch We Are Scientists. As so often happens (certainly with me), I was more impressed with the band’s live performance than its recorded music. Lead man Keith Murray is a passionate and skilled performer, while his two band-mates gave inspiring support. I made a mental note to have another listen and so, as far as this band is concerned, it was ‘job done.’

This festival for me was to be a voyage of musical discovery covering bands that I have yet to see in the live arena. But Goldfinger I know in name only, and have not heard or seen them in action. Visually, the band looks the business with lead man John Feldmannlooking particularly distinguished in his dark suit, while his lead performance was rock solid, and passionate with it. The band’s musical competence was impressive, while its ska-punk sound added to the day’s welcome musical diversity. Goldfinger had become my favourite performance to that point in proceedings but the best was yet to come…

A couple of months ago I had caught a performance by Hundred Reasons who have had a strange mix of success and failure in recent years. The band is rejuvenated following its change of label and the release of its latest and greatest album. So it was good to see the band included in this North American dominated menu. Packed like sardines on the small stage, the band sounded better than ever with lanky and wafer-thin lead man Andy Bews in top form. The songs sounded even better than on record, and on the strength of the songs and the performance I believe punters that witnessed this great effort will begin to tune-in. The band deserves nothing less…

I was entering the home straight with three important bands to go to end a satisfying first festival day. I couldn’t help notice that the atmosphere in the auditorium was building with tension that you cut with a knife. I then noticed a large sign waving around above the heads of punters close to the front of the stage. It read, ‘Tom DeLonge is the sex.’ His new band was undoubtedly the focus of most of the fans in the venue, but nobody knew what to expect as the Angels And Airwaves music has been kept under very tight wraps. All was about to be revealed…

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The lights went out to the biggest roar I have ever heard from an audience. It was deafening and frightening. As the band walked onto the stage the roars reached a crescendo, and the first chords of one of the finest performances I have ever witnessed rang out. DeLonge was stage-centre bathed by a shaft of bright white light, while his guitarists lurked in shadows on the wings. I only heard two songs while in the pit but what I heard and saw led me to believe that this band and its debut record will redefine mainstream rock music. It will be the band’s OK Computer and it will storm the world music markets in a way that few records have in the last ten years. DeLonge was superb and his band possessed a very special sound quality. This was close to rock perfection, and after I left the pit I listened through the giant metal fire doors leading to the stage. Every song I heard was extraordinary and of epic quality. They were also very different and while not as radical as OK Computer they did possess that secret ingredient that only a handful of bands are capable of producing.

Taking Back Sunday’s performance was made to look ordinary after Angels And Airwaves, but then so would have anything that went before or after. Adam Lazzara knew he had to give a lot extra and proceeded to be more camp than camp as he romped around the stage, and perched above the monitors. It was a very good and valiant effort, but it was a battle he was not going to win, despite excellent songs and a solid band performance.

Lostprophets entered a stage which was flooded with bright white light, as bright as an operating theatre readied for the most delicate surgical operation. Ian Watkins and his band have come on leaps and bounds from early days when I saw them on their original toilet tour some three years ago. Watkins then began to surgically implant his personality and music on an audience open to his musical knife. It was a stunning performance and over the whole festival only came second to Angels And Airwaves and My Chemical Romance. The band has learned from its USA experiences and is now at the very top of the UK rock tree. It was a memorable first day with Angels And Airways winning the day for me by a comfortable margin.

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DAY 2

This is cool, in fact this is ice-cool. I walk into Manchester’s Evening News Arena, which is the biggest place you can play around here before having to move to the cricket or football ground, and as I go into the Arena I am met with a sound of 10,000 screaming kids getting their rocks off to some of the best Alternative Rock 2006 has to offer. I say ‘Kids’ because 85% of this audience is under 18, this is the future, right here, right now!

So what the fuck am I doing here, surely I’m too old to be in this room, well opinion will divide on that, they have the youth, they think they know it all, I am old and still learning. They are young, they know fuck all. Just as we all did at that age, but they know what they like and they know how to get it. THAT is the connection I share with them. It must be fantastic to be in your teens and be here, it was never like this in my day. I sound old, but once I was them but for me it was called ‘Punk’ and it involved Johnny Rotten, not Billie Joe! My days were not ‘Green’, but were filled with ‘Pistols’ and ‘Sex.’ The second connection is the ‘S’ word. The two headliners of this weekend’s event are Lost Prophets and My Chemical Romance, who both have charismatic lead singers. The Prophets has Ian and MCR has Gerard, both have all the right moves, the right clothes and the right look. ALL the girls, regardless of age, want them, badly. But they aren’t going to get them, so the boys have all decided to do one of three things, look like Ian or look like Gerard or at least look like they could be in their band. This enables them to really get the girls! Looking like your favourite band gets you the girls… Now you get it…

Nothing has changed much in 50 years. In 56’ the boys were greasing their hair trying to look like Elvis or James Dean in order to get the girls. In 66’ it was Lennon or Jagger, and so on we went through the years. Sex has always sold rock ‘n roll, it always will, but what rock sells back to these kids is hope! A direction, a doorway, a reason to believe, when I was the age of the majority of the crowd in this room, I went to shows that reaffirmed (in my mind) the fact that I could be a rock star. It never happened, but those ambitions, those dreams, enabled me to become a DJ. It enabled the editor of this very ‘zine to become what he has. Within two years this festival will have bands on the bill that formed while watching either of tonight’s shows, friendships forged, plans hatched, bands formed, the future of rock is in safe hands my friends, the future’s so bright, so good that I wear shades. All the aforementioned my friend is the reason to believe, and everyone needs a reason…

It’s fair to say that the early bands on both days of this bill are making up the numbers, none of them are bad, a couple are average, but they are there simply for exposure and the hope some of this audience will remember their names next time they play in town. The shows on both days start at lunch time, who the fuck is ready to rock at lunchtime? Don’t mutter ‘me’ under your breath, lying fuck. So we run through Taint, The Honorary Title, The Bled (who are promising), Paramore, Underoath, and Drive By (who like The Bled show signs of something going on, just not right now). Then at five to five (Crackerjack!) and boom, the room just explodes as Panic! At The Disco arrive on stage. This is the second buzz band of the weekend (the first being Angels And Airwaves from day 1) and they have all the right moves for sure. They also have some stunning songs all taken from their excellent debut album A FEVER YOU CAN’T SWEAT OUT, and certainly deliver live. They feed the crowd, and the crowd screams (the girls like this bunch), the band raises their game even higher. Highlights of the set are an emphatic ‘I Write Sins Not Tragedies’ and a quiet stunning ‘Lying Is The Most Fun A Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off.’ Front man Brandon Urie looks stunning and delivers the vocal right on the button. They are the first act today who command the stage, they look and feel like they were born to play rooms this size, and they will one day soon be back here on their own merits…

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Following that was never going to be easy, but for New York City boysMen Women and Children it did not seem that hard. Songs from their self titled debut album come across well, especially ‘Monkey Monkee Men’ and ‘Dance In My Blood.’ They have a feel of Duran Duran fucking The Killers up the ass, while Scissor Sisters watch. Oh and they are listening to Dirty Mind by Prince while all this happens. Now that either makes you love or hate these guys, you can guess which side I’m on, yeah, I’m in for sure…

The stage set-up here at the arena is, well, strange… The main set is split, one third is cut off like a small stage, then the rest is left open, so the time between each band is around five minutes; as one finishes, the other stage kicks in and the crew set up for the next act. It keeps the whole thing fluid, and while is not the ideal set-up (a smaller stage being in the middle of the arena with a separate DJ also would be) this current incarnation works well enough.

Taking over the bigger space next is Thrice, who’s current album is in my top ten so far in 2006. They open with the strongest song from it, ‘Image Of The Invisible,’ and it’s frighteningly good. They are right at home here, like Panic they transform from theatre to arena with ease, their sound is spot on, and they reproduce the studio trickery of their album live with ease. They run through ‘Atlantic’ and ‘Red Sky’ which just sound amazing, and then throw in a couple of older tunes, and in a blink of an eye, gone…

Canada is an expansive space that does produce some great rock bands, I’m not sure yet if Billy Talent is one of them… They have a couple of great songs including ‘Try Honesty’ which is as good tonight as it was three years ago. But for most of the time it’s just screaming (high pitched) with some cool hooks, and it’s those hooks that keep you hanging on, expecting it to get better. The crowd reaction to the band is fantastic, like returning heroes, they have a new record about to blow in and I hope that they can fulfil what is obviously ‘potential’ but they are the only band today that I just don’t ‘get’… unlike Orange County’s Atreyu, who I totally ‘get.’ The band recently released their superb third album A DEATH GRIP ON YESTERDAY, and they deliver the songs from it like a killer knock-out punch. Lead single from the new album ‘Ex’s & Oh’s’ is tearing up rock clubs for both the over and under eighteens. If ever there was a band on the tip of something bigger, this is it, but, yes there is a but, they play this show like they are playing the Academy II in this city (1,000 capacity) and this lets them down. By the end of their set, they have metermophisized into something bigger, this show today is their biggest yet and they learned how to project as they played. By the end they looked ready, they looked comfortable, but it was a little too late, and maybe they are not ready to become an arena band; they are still best up right in your face, sweaty and loud; a fantastic set from an emerging talent, but not here in an expansive arena…

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At this point the small stage/large stage swap shop stopped (try saying that fast) and we had the screens filled with videos, one of which was for the new Angels & Airwaves single. Fuck me, did that look and sound fantastic, and the debut album, due to drop in June, could be huge, and AMERICAN IDIOT could be surpassed! So anyway, we sit and twiddle our thumbs enjoying the thump, thump of the drums, the check, check, one two of the roadies, la de fucking da!

Tonight’s ‘special guest’ slot is taken by The Ataris, but they are not that special, oh dear, they amble on, say hello, play a couple of tunes, but they seem out of sorts, almost embarrassed to be here… They are a great band, in the wrong time slot, they should have been in Panic’s slot and visa versa. The Ataris have had some great albums out, but the last one was three years ago and they have not played live in the UK for two years. Maybe they are rusty, maybe they are nervous, but whatever the reason, tonight’s set is doing them no favours at all, and they don’t help themselves much. They tune their guitars in between songs, fuck sake, it’s like watching a rehearsal, or a soundcheck, there are 10,000 people in the room fella’s, c’mon… They do show something by playing two songs from their eagerly anticipated new album, promised later this year, both songs show a distinct exciting direction for the band, but they don’t play ‘Boys Of Summer’ which is a shame, because that song would have bounced this room and saved their day. More a whimper than a bang, they are better than this and they know it…

Yet again we settle into our seats, take a piss, buy a coke, have a smile, one, two, check fucking check again, surely in 2006 we can come up with something better in-between bands, the kids don’t seem to notice, but hey, they are all texting someone and waving at each other, ‘I’m here on the floor, text back’ this is the modern way…

We reach the end of the day with the expectation and the vibe in the arena at its peak, like a cock ready to blow, this is the moment this crowd have been waiting for, the backdrop banner drops, the lights go out and bang My Chemical Romance are live in front of their steaming eyes. The band has only released two albums, but over the last two years they have gone from 1,000 capacity, through 2,500 theatre shows, and now 10,000 fist-throwing mutha’ fuckers are loving every minute of it. This is a band that belongs in this arena, they are right at home. Gerard has all the right moves; he knows every trick in the book, every look; he has this crowd in the palm of his hand. During ‘Ghost Of You’ he gets the crowd to hold up their lighters or mobile phones, it’s a stunning sight, reminded me of seeing Motley Crue do the same during ‘Home Sweet Home’ 20 years previously in arenas (without the phones obviously but you get the point!). And that is the level MCR have reached after just two albums. They have new material that is quite stunning, better than anything they have ever done; this is a band on the cusp, on the verge of achieving greatness; they are becoming one of the best live rock acts you can see anytime, any year, they are in the process of becoming something bigger, better… One hopes they can take this step like every other along the way in their stride, but for now they still play with a passion, a venom, they are enjoying the trip and we are enjoying the ride. They close the show with ‘Helena’ and ‘I’m Not Ok (I’m Ok),’ that sound as fresh as the first time. If you thought this was a flash in the pan act, think again, tonight was the end of the beginning, the next chapter will be special, so fucking special…

CHECK OUT GALLERY FOR MANY MORE EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS FROM THE FESTIVAL

JJ 2006