Below The Bridge Festival - August 2019

£10 for an all-day festival full of up and coming artists and bands is an intriguing offer, so naturally I turned up later and missed most of them. Jokes aside, I attended the Manchester-based twin-venue fest to scout out the logistics and to catch up with some friends.

Zombie Shack

After picking up our tickets from Chris and Callum (Nebulesse) and hiding round the corner while waiting for a late Dave (Guerrilla) we entered through The Thirsty Scholar to find a nicely busy room and an indie rock band playing. I didn’t catch the name of them unfortunately as we moved straight on to the stairs, located in the back, leading to Zombie Shack where the other half of the acts played. Purely based off its visual vibes and out-of-the-way location I assumed most of the music would be garage rock or punk but I was pleasantly surprised to see a keytar being used by one of the members of nearly all-female Bastette as they finished up their set, who then handed Dave a business card which blew my slightly intoxicated mind because I’d never considered the idea for my own projects.

Sola

@iamsolamusic

The first full set I caught was performed by singer Sola, hailing from California but now based in Liverpool. Her strong, soaring vocals and confidence on stage in front of a smaller audience was definitely worth noting and I was impressed by the use of a backing track along with the samples used by the instrumentalist, so it’s fair to say it was a positive first impression. The track in the first song sounded fuzzy and distorted, which originally me and Dave loved, but it turned out to be unintentional which I think the crowd were happy to let slide as it didn’t actually detract from the performance and the vocalist was light hearted about it, claiming that it was just more ‘metal’ and that that wasn’t a bad thing. Technical issues are always a bit embarrassing and all sorts can go wrong, so it was a nice surprise to see this one put smiles on our faces.

Murder On The Airwaves

@officialmotauk on Twitter

Dave advertised these guys to me as ‘Motley Crue’ inspired and this definitely rang true as I could tell from the way they dressed before they even stepped on stage; the vocalist looked straight out of the 80s era of hair metal and the guitarist was a spitting image of Slash, right up to the hat, aviators and sunburst Les Paul. The other half of the four-piece were slightly more understated but still took the time to look the part. Their original tracks were bouncy and energetic and, again, I was happy with the mixing quality and ability of the sound-guy. I managed to get a great video of the guitarist shouting ‘enjoy your night’ as he used his wireless system to walk around the crowd and get in my camera’s metaphorical face. While they had great presence and were definitely enjoying themselves, I think the vocalist could have sounded a little more confident when speaking to the crowd who weren’t being overly interactive. However, it’s always much better to give it your all, especially in smaller venues or on support slots where you can’t necessarily rely on the crowd.

Release

@releasetoke

…or releasetoke, or R 3 LEAS e, made me go on an online adventure to find out their official band name. Taking things down a more electronic route, I found myself pouring over a huge pedalboard and the use of a synth player/percussionist instead of having a traditional drum kit and bass rhythm section made me even more intrigued. The very first thought I had was 'Alex Turner'. Witty, rolling lyrics were complimented well by the ambient instrumentals and I fell in love with the guitar tone immediately as he did a great job building a complicated-looking board but not overusing multiple effects or relying on it too much, still showing creative clean parts and lead lines. The singer had his phone on a stand next to the mic which, from where I was stood, appeared to have his lyrics on. Their vibe was very casual and laid back so this wasn’t a problem but if you can display intelligent lyric-writing then you’ve won half the battle, the other part is the delivery, both visual and aural, which is equally important to making a performance more impactful. The synth player had a lot of gear and buttons to press which made for some wonderful sounds, but I couldn’t ignore the fact that he kept turning away from the crowd to lean over a laptop. Again, this would have been less noticeable if he had been situated further back on the stage rather than right at the front, but when considering criticism like this it is always worth being aware of stage and space limitations that the crowd can’t see and it isn’t the end of the world. I really enjoyed this set a lot, hence why I’ve given you an essay, but please, please make sure that if someone asks you for your social media you can remember its name and make it more accessible.

Nebulesse – Headliner

@nebulesseband

Declaring my love for Callum’s drum finish, we eagerly awaited the last band of the night after being pretty hyped up by the quality of the other acts of the night. I’ve known about these guys for a little while now and I finally managed to get to see them play a live set. Any New Years Day or My Chemical Romance fans will definitely be able to relate to their emo grooves and image. While vocalist Pixie has a very clear style, the rest of the band could do with putting in the same effort with their appearance, and don’t worry guys, I’m not saying go full goth (however if you did it could look sick), but it would look miles more professional if every member was wearing black or went for a ‘smarter’ vibe, just to show that consideration of on-stage image. Their set consisted of up-tempo, head-banging originals with harmonising lead lines and fast chugging. The sound of the guitars cut through nicely and I could distinguish all the parts well, despite me having to step away from the PA in fear of my head exploding. Loud music is a yes from me. Pixie showed clear confidence and stepped into the crowd on a couple of occasions. The rest of the band were enjoying the music and gelled well together on stage, however I do think that at points they could have interacted with the audience more and looked more serious where the songs’ required it. There was clear eye-contact between them which is a good way of communicating but a little less of it might have demonstrated more confidence in their music and at points there were stumbles in between songs which, in the friendly environment that it was were laughed off and no one minded, but for unfamiliar crowds this will want to be ironed out. Another thing that I loved was guitarist David’s scream vocals, which I thought sat nicely next to the clean lead vocals and added even more to the dynamics and good backing vocals always go a long way. They busted out three covers, one of which being Misery Business by Paramore; a very daring undertaking. I generally try to stick to a set of rules when playing covers in a live band, they picked well known songs which is one of the ticks required, but I am very sceptical about covers as, in my opinion, they should only ever be done as fan service for audiences, otherwise they are simply taking up space in a set that could be used to promote your own music. I love hearing covers but I’m not sure sticking three in, especially in a 30/40min headline set, was the best idea as they would have benefitted showcasing more of their originals. Despite my criticisms, the crowd were grooving along and I enjoyed the songs that I heard, finding myself especially loving the driving drums and rhythmic awareness and creativity that they incorporated throughout their tracks.

Below The Bridge

I think I can safely conclude that I had a good time seeing the acts that I managed to catch and on a side note I’d like to thank Chris and Callum for saving my tickets, and I’d also like to apologise that it’s taken me so long to see Nebulesse but it was worth the wait. As I always say, don’t take my criticism to heart, my intentions are good and I hope that these posts benefit the artists and help them grow by getting an outside, honest opinion of their live sets. Speaking of which, check out the links below to find their social media and mine too, give me feedback about this post and get in touch if you want to work with me.