Tagged: manchesteracademy

It’s been an absolutely astonishing year for Alt-J . Since releasing their debut album An Awesome Wave almost exactly a year ago, they have gone through a stratospheric rise to fame, earning themselves accolades including the coveted Mercury Prize and the much sought after Altsounds Album of The Year 2012. It goes without saying that nearly every show of their current UK tour almost completely sold out as fans clamber to catch the band before they make the transition into [...]

The British new wave group Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) supported by John Foxx , the original lead singer of the band Ultravox performed before a huge legion of fans on the May 11th at The Manchester Academy. We sent one of our AltSounds photographers, Nuno Saque Ferreira along to the event to capture all of the action. Check out the photos from the show below in the Flickr gallery. [...]

Tweet If you're a headlining band then I guess you need to be clever about a few different things. First of all, avoid gigs in toilets. Second, avoid gigs in Swindon. Simple really. Thirdly, make sure you pick support acts that make you look awesome. The bands don't need to suck but they cannot beat you at your own game. I once saw Muse live (yes, I am sorry. Don't hate me) and they had Elbow supporting. Now Elbow are a good band and can do it live [...]

That promo photo above is the only shot of Hundred Reasons in this review of their celebratory tour with Hell Is For Heroes and Cable as they wouldn't let us publish any of them playing live. Nevertheless, Ruth Booth pulled on her old Criminal Damage flares and reviewed 20122s biggest British alt-rock anniversary get-together. Six things we learned when Hundred Reasons, Hell Is For Heroes and Cable came to Manchester: [...]

British power metal band DragonForce offered a concert at Manchester Academy on the 5th of October supported by Cavorts, The Defiled and Alestorm. Our photographer, Nuno Saque Ferreira was on site to snap these awesome photos showcasing the best of the night.

WORLD RENOWNED ELECTRONIC DUO ORBITAL IN THE US THIS WEEK AND NEXT FESTIVAL HEADLINING SLOTS AT NOCTURNAL WONDERLAND, BEYOND WONDERLAND, DECIBEL FESTIVAL LIVE DATES IN VANCOUVER & PORTLAND NEW ALBUM WONKY OUT NOW VIA DOWNTOWN RECORDS! AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY ON ITUNES Legendary electronic duo Orbital will be amongst other headlining acts playing west coast dates this weekend and through next week. They will be playing major festivals, namely Nocturnal Wonderland, Beyond [...]

Photos by Valerio Berdini Our photographer Valerio Berdini headed and Manchester to captured Amon Tobin's spectacular ISAM project - an inventive visual feast, featuring work exploring the relationship between music and 3D-animation. The shows coincides with the release of ISAM as an album - take a look of these shots of Tobin in his technological geometric hive in this article.

Tweet I was pumped for this gig. Sleigh Bells have to be the definition of a hype band. They get significant amounts of Hipster attention and I expected a cracking live show that would live long in the memory. There was only one problem, they were crap. Resolutely crap. We were hit by a large and loud wall of crap. Even the occasional good bits were tainted with crapness. In SGTMT offices (a small shed in the mind of my kid brother) we went through a Sleigh [...]

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Yeah, it's that tour. The one the US had last year and we were all really jealous about. Oh well. We got it too. Mastodon and The Dillinger Escape Plan released the Thrash Hits Album of the Year of 2011 and 2010 respectively. Red Fang released an album last year but it went largely unnoticed. Shit happens. The good news is that we went to Brixton ( and Manchester ) to see this tour. Is that good news? It is. It definitely is. Six things we learnt when [...]

We've said it before, and we'll say it again - as far as touring line-ups go, the combination of Mastodon, The Dillinger Escape Plan and Red Fang has set the bar for 2012. Given that Mastodon put out the Thrash Hits Album of 2011 , The Dillinger Escape Plan put out the Thrash Hits album of 2010 , and Red Fang are one of our favourite up'n'coming crushers, it's gonna take one heck of a tour to top this. When the tour arrived in Manchester, our man [...]

We love a bit of metal so we went down to Brixton Academy to see Trivium headline Metal Hammer's Defenders of the Faith tour with In Flames, Ghost and Rise To Remain in tow. Insense played as well but they played really, really early and Gary didn't even manage to take photos of them up in Manchester. There are loads of photos. Go click on them and then go visit Gary's website because he's awesome. Six things we figured out whilst watching all the metal in Brixton: [...]

Some bands are phenomenal live; only one band are a live phenomenon. The Joy Formidable are a cut above anyone else out there. Ask any of the 800 people who rammed into Manchester Academy Saturday, the atmosphere was white hot in anticipation. They are fast becoming the worst kept secret in the industry. Gazing around, I was pleased to see all the familiar faces in the crowd. The whole of the crew that have dutifully followed the band since the early days - like myself - continue to spend a fortune travelling from gig to gig. The bigger the challenge [...]

• The Joy Formidable - Whirring

We know that large portions of you expect us to write a snide and piss-taking intro paragraph to go with Gary Wolstenholme's excellent photographs from Black Veil Brides' show at the Manchester Academy 2 last week. But a band's willingness to take the piss out of themselves and/or Thrash Hits when we put them in [...]

In the age of instant gratification and hyper-pressure, a band are unlikely to make it to their third album without putting out at least one dud. After the hype machine slows down, the sniping and inevitable backlash begins. This is followed by the unmistakable sound of the Twitter generation finding a new hero to dote on and the music press salivating over the next "band to change the world" - for at least five minutes anyway. So fourteen years is a long time in music - Queens Of The Stone Age can tell you that. Drugs, [...]

Of all the gigs to bring a dog to, it had to be this. If there’s one thing that Bethany Consentino is famous for – well, it’s probably her music actually, but other than that, it’s definitely her love of cats. She’s had videos full of the things, her debut album as Best Coast features her own feline, Snacks, as the cover star and she even finds time to dedicate a track to the moggy, currently miaowing a lone furrow back in California. But still, despite all this, toward the back of the venue a dog roams free, taking in [...]

Rushing through the streets of Manchester and staring blankly at The Children Of Bodom tickets I was given I unwittingly walked into the academy three as a young man was speaking to a rather large audience in a squeaky clean high pitched voice. Seconds later it clicked that this wasn’t just some mad-man, but Anthony Green lead singer of Circa Survive, a band who know how to make an introduction. Prancing about the stage in that very Daryl Palumbo like manner, Green had the audience eating out of the palm of his hand telling special members [...]

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Call it Kyuss. Call it Kyuss LIVES! Moan about the lack of Josh Homme. Enjoy it for what it is. Either way, we went and got blitzed. We got photos too!

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