Manchester played host to The Futureheads’ sell-out gig last weekend. After appearing to drop off the radar in the last year or two, the band is back with a summer packed full of gigs. Their Manchester show, on Sunday 2nd May, was held at Manchester University’s student union venue, Club Academy. With a capacity of only about 300, you would have expected the atmosphere to be a little on the quiet side but this wasn’t the case on Sunday. The band as always gave a dynamic performance, getting the audience singing and jumping along with them.
Having recently released their new album, The Chaos, the band was keen to play a selection of their new material. Their songs are just as fast paced as usual; however they seem to have cleaned up their act with less of the shouted, indistinguishable lyrics sometimes associated with their music. Thankfully though the band hasn’t lost any of the original touch and has managed to incorporate their signature catchy lines and memorable guitar melodies.
The title song of the new album, ‘The Chaos’, is a look back to their classic style. One of the most popular songs with the crowd was Heartbeat Song, which was recently announced as single of the week on Radio One. It was undeniably the core of indie-punk.
Front man, Barry Hyde was on top form with a seriously energetic performance and didn’t once rely on the audience to fill in the chorus. Guitarist, Ross Millard even stepped in to sing two of their new songs adding a bit of variety to the set.
The band were of course happy to indulge the crowd, playing all of their best known songs, including Hounds of Love, Decent Days and Nights and most notably of all, Beginning of the Twist which sent to crowd into a dance frenzy.
The band even returned to stage at the end of the gig to take requests from an enthusiastic audience.
Support came in the form of The Postelles and The Dutch Uncles, who though relatively unknown, still managed to warm up the audience with some upbeat indie tracks.
It’s great to see The Futureheads finally re-emerging onto the music scene after a long quiet period and excitement is slowly building around their new album. It has evidently been a busy year for the Sunderland based band with the release of their new album, The Chaos is the fourth album from the band. Alongside this they still have a further 4 venues to play in the UK before they head to America for a line up of 12 further tour dates. This is in order to promote their new album and to once more raise their profile on the live music scene. Also worth mentioning is Bassist, Jaff’s efforts in the recent London Marathon. The Futureheads are also sticking around for the summer’s festivals after their US tour and can be found at Beach Break, Leeds and Reading to name a few. It looks for now as though the group are re-establishing themselves on the music scene. About time too.
