Raucous / Manatees / Archer / Limbic Riot – Manchester 21/02/07

The Attic, Manchester 21/02/07

Tonight’s openers Limbic Riot got this gig off to a fine start with their set of heavy and nasty sludge. I’d not heard this lot before and was most impressed with their material, fronted by Pete, editor of Load of Noise zine, these guys sounded great and I’ll certainly be keeping my ears and eyes open for further releases.

Next band to take the stage were Archer, who in contrast to Limbic Riot’s slow sludge, delivered a set of frantic, face ripping grind. These guys really blast it out, I was observing one of their guitarist’s strumming and for a spell during the performance it was just a fucking blur such was the speed of the music. The whole terrifying attack was nicely finished off by the manic screams of their vocalist, who was running around the front of the stage like a madman, looking like a right handful.

Having been blown away by their debut CD, I was really looking forward to seeing Carlisle band Manatees and was astonished to see they were only a there piece. Their CD has such depth and scope I was expecting them to be a bigger band. They delivered an awesome and mesmerizing set complemented by a great sound. The guitarist was a genius, coaxing some great sounds out of his axe, at one point he had it sounding as if it was screaming. His use of a slide is also worth mentioning, not something I’ve seen before in this field of music. They finished off with the guitarist and bass player/vocalist bashing a drum a piece (a snare and floor tom respectively) along with the proper drummer while their instruments droned on and fedback.

Finally this evening, Manchester’s very own Raucous. Opening their set with a track off their debut it became apparent straight away is was going to be cool. The first track was the only one I recognised from the performance tonight with the rest being newer material. I must say if this is the shape of things to come form these lads their, upcoming releases are going to be belters, with the new stuff sounding crushing. The whole thing was nicely finished of with some great visuals courtesy of Eman that flowed with the tunes excellently. A great show, probably the best I’d seen these lads play. All the bands performed well tonight, another great gig by the Future Noise team; keep up the good work lads.

Scribed by: Mark Burns
Photos by: Lee Edwards