bis: Night & Day, Manchester – live review

bis | Bugeye | Heavy Salad
Night & Day, Manchester
28th October 2022

The Glaswegian indie pop trio bis visit Manchesterm supported by Croydon’s Bugeye and Manchester’s Heavy Salad

Despite being a local Manchester band, I must confess I’m not overly familiar with the opening band this evening. Manchester’s Heavy Salad somehow fit 7 people onto the Night & Day stage, possibly a record, barring stage invasions. After a couple of tracks I’m stuck by their psychedelic edge which is mixed with surf rock (is that a thing?) and melodic harmonies. If you didn’t know better you could well imagine them coming from somewhere in the Midwest of the US rather than the North West of England. The highlight of the set is the wonderfully title recent(ish) single Joggers From Mossley To Malibu Beach.

This is Bugeye‘s first trip to Manchester after their As The CroCro Flies Festival back in March. Now slimmed down to a 3 piece, with Angela and Paula at their core, they are a lot more punky tonight without the keyboard washes. I imagine the frustration of the 8-and-a-half-hour trip from the capital to Manchester today also added to the rawness of the sound, which borders on riot grrrl.

The punchy eight-song set begins with a particularly visceral Breakdown and focuses mainly on the 2020 album Ready Steady Bang, however they also find space for Is This Love from 2018 and their most recent single Summer In The City. It’s over in a flash, finishing on the awesome Don’t Stop. Hopefully, the band have made a few more friends tonight and will be back again in 2023.

As many will know/remember bis were the first unsigned band to appear on Top Of The Pops back in 1996, performing the infectious Kandy Pop. It’s possible that for many that may be their only experience of the band, effectively leaving them as teenagers, trapped in amber (or on celluloid).

That isn’t the case here; as Miranda Rin, Sci-Fi Steven, and John Disco take the stage, they’re welcomed by a crowd who have been waiting since 2019 for bis to return to Manchester and have been with them all along. They may have not always been in the mainstream, but prolific over the years. The band treat us to a career-spanning set punctuated with plenty of banter in between.

Opening with Young Alien Types and Tell It To The Kids before Stress and Lucky Night, both taken from the forthcoming album (although available to purchase tonight) Systems Music For Home Defence. While tracks date back to their earliest, such as Kill Yr Boyfriend and School Disco, there isn’t any ’90s nostalgia here. The band is energetic, tight and clearly enjoying the moment. It all hangs together with the more recent Sound Of A Heartbreak and You’re Drunk, Go Home being warmly welcomed.

The pulsating, beat-driven Eurodisco is the highlight of the set, with everyone moving and celebrating the moment; something not lost on the group as pay tribute to Manchester and the influence the city has had on them. Unsurprisingly the set closes with Kandy Pop which goes down a storm. Clearly still in the moment, Manda summons her megaphone from the merch stand – it crowd surfs through the crowd and we get an unplanned encore of Monstarr from their debut album.

A brilliant evening with three great bands. All ones I’m looking forward to seeing again.

bis can be found on Facebook and Twitter 
Bugeye can be found on Facebook and Twitter
Heavy Salad can be found on Facebook and Twitter

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Photos courtesy of Neil Winward Photography

All words by Iain Key. See his author profile here or see him on Twitter as @iainkey

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Source: louderthanwar.com