Millencolin live at Manchester Academy

This tour was in celebration of Millencolin being around for 15 years which is a pretty impressive feat. I think they are a really good band and their albums always have a nice, crisp finish and sound to them even though they are originally from Sweden. In particular I would have to say that the albums Pennybridge Pioneers and Home From Home are a really good listen if you are into punk-rock and the songs usually have a good quick tempo about them.

But despite being around for so long, they have never really hit the big time. It would be untrue to call them an A-list band because they were playing in the third (out of four) biggest room at the Academy and I think it would be safe to say that a majority of people would never have heard of them. It wasn't really a problem though as the smaller venue (think maybe 150-200 people) is a lot of fun as you can really get up close near the front and it has a lovely intimate feel about it.

Overall it was a great show and they played all the great, main tunes like No Cigar, Fox, Penguins And Polarbears, Kemp and Afghan and the rest of their set was great and they came back for a decent length of an encore. The only downside I would say is that there was very little banter about them on the stage. You could argue that English isn't their native tongue but then again, their albums are all in English. That aside, it was a terrific gig and I would definitely go see them again if they were to return.

Here is No Cigar which any skateboarders might remember as one of the tunes from Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2 soundtrack all those years ago. It was a damn fine game (as were subsequent ones) that appealed to people outside that particular audience. Anyway...



And another big song of theirs, Kemp...



So yeah they get two thumbs up from me.