Manchester Academy, 26 April 2012

We only cover live acts that we already know or you have released great albums. With Adelaide, Australian 3-piece band Tracer it was a wonderful new heavy rock album (SPACES IN BETWEEN) that demanded my presence at the Manchester Academy to witness what promised to be a great live band in action. The album is one of the top rock albums of the year so far in 2012 with excellent song-writing, performances and production. These young guys have melody and rhythm totally sewn up, but combine these with retro rock style, passionate playing and you have a band with potential to fly very high indeed. Having lived in Adelaide for a couple of years it also surprises me that this thunderous threesome hail from probably the most conservative city and state in Australia.

Now increasingly I find that support acts are literally ‘filler’ there to keep customers drinking and chatting before the big fight. I didn’t know who would be supporting Tracer on the night and frankly didn’t really care. Boy, how wrong was I! The show was at Manchester University’s smallest venue which holds around 500 people, and the stage size matches - it’s small. But as I stood waiting there were numerous mic stands and instruments waiting to be used. Then on wandered four instrumentalists (including female rhythm player) then a young
female and then another young female… Then finally a third female who I guessed was the lead singer. It turned out that the two other attractive females provided synchronised dance moves and backing vocals (with keyboard contribution from one of them also) to one helluva skilled and passionate leadlady.

The band’s instrumentals were powerful and tight with songs that varied from medium to very heavy rock. The sell-out crowd loved what can only be described as a full-on rock ’show’ on a stage that seemed to stretch to accomodate everyone on it. If Tracer booked them for support I can only congratulate them on choosing a superb, unsigned Sheffield based rock act that warmed up fans big-time. Here’s a little about them:

“Jamz always had a master plan of creating a band that would rock the world. However life and work seemed to get in the way. “Tomorrow” was the word that was used every day. On a Drunken New years eve 2010 was the deciding point to stop talking and start rocking… The first step was getting in touch with an old band mate from school - Daz “The Mad Hatter” who had never stopped drifting from one band or gym to another. Then Jamz persuaded Sofire, with the help of a lot of gold, to become the voice of the band. The Missing link was Shades, the bass player, who was already living his life as a rock star but just needed a band to go with it. The four soon became seven with Jem, Sam & Holly climbing on board. Everyone said that they were all mad by risking everything for just a band, some say they are a Littlecrazy….”