The Subways live at Manchester Academy

This was my second time seeing these folks, which means obviously I enjoyed them the first time round. But they topped that performance with this one. The Subways seem to be a bit of a conundrum in that they are a good, solid band yet haven't really hit the big time or much commercial success, even though this was the biggest of the venues at the Academy and was sold out containing around 800-1000 people. They are still really only have a cult following. Which is strange because their music is actually pretty good and when you think in terms of potential marketing, they cater for both genders in that they have a gorgeous female bassist while the male vocal/guitarist along with the male drummer were more than happy to play the whole show topless. They are a band that definitely deserve to be bigger considering how much rubbish gets played on the radio these days.

The crowd was magnificent all night and really, really into all the songs. It was well worth the money too clocking in at just under 1-and-a-half hours and entertaining throughout. This included a lengthy encore which may or may not have been deliberate because when they were due to finish with Rock And Roll Queen, the lights went out so the lead guy got everyone to point their phones up at the stage to generate some brightness and that was fine but then shortly after they started, the electrics went on the mic, guitar and bass. So they had to improv to the crowd for a bit until it got fixed but that awesome so it wasn't a big deal. Things then sorted themselves and they finished up grandly.

I would definitely recommend checking them out if you like all things rock & indie and they only have two albums, Young For Eternity and All Or Nothing, so it wouldn't be a huge back catalogue to hunt down. I'll leave you with some of their bigger songs.


Rock And Roll Queen




Oh Yeah



Shake Shake

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.