This was a night for ‘proper’ music. If sounds were tangible objects, the carefully crafted aural battering Manchester received would look like a big, dark red hard thing. With spikes on. There is lot to be said about the new wave of ‘Garage Rock’, but this was a different beast altogether.
The night really got underway when (Stokes wardrobe-thieves) The Libertines ambled on stage. Their laid-back appearance belies the fact that only recently they conclude a epic 22-date tour, but there was no sign of fatigue. The band’s admittedly few singles were polished and on display, along with some more obscure tracks from the album ‘Up the Bracket’. The second biggest cheer came when controversial hit ‘What A Waster’ was blasted out. The biggest one came when Pete Doherty held a huge cuddly panther out to the audience and yelled “Do you want it?” before hurling it into the crowd to be fought over. It was a master class in warming up the audience.
In their youth, Supergrass almost used to be like the Libertines, but like it or not their impressive back catalogue of chart successes is all commercial power pop. Saying this however, they are one of the British music’s most original talents, regularly tapping new veins of influence. Some of this originality was displayed here – the many songs played from the new album had a distinctly bluesy tone. Imagine Eric Clapton, but fast (and good). Gaz Coombs was obviously enjoying himself – indulging in a little backchat with the audience which, combined with the small size of the venue, gave it a surreal quasi-pub ambience.
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The encore was so delayed that a good portion of the crowd had already given up and gone home, thereby missing the most awe-inspiring part of the show. The songs (including crowd favourites ‘Moving’ and a jewel-encrusted ‘Caught by the Fuzz’) were so dramatically played that everyone left on a wave of adulation, consolidated by the fact that the keyboardist had just enthusiastically stage dived. Following this, the stage was trashed. It was proper rock ‘n’ roll.
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