The Beaches made a return to Manchester for the first time in eleven years on Sunday night. No longer high street kids they come back a fully-fledged impressive rock and roll band with a word-of-mouth hit album Blame My Ex and its lead single Blame Brett meaning they're now a millions-streaming unit that sold out New Century Hall weeks in advance. Over the course of seventy five minutes they have an adoring crowd hanging on every word and hook line to songs from Blame My Ex and their earlier records.
First up though is Chloe Slater and her band, adopted Mancunians, who set a high bar for the headliners. Brilliantly fusing elements of rock and pop into an accessible mix that draws the audience in while lamenting crap landlords and unrequited love, the five-piece of friends form a tightly knit unit, while Chloe's vocals, despite her protestations of a sore throat, tell the stories in in half-sung half-spoken tones, like a Sprechengesang for young women searching for their own identity and confused by the chaos around them in modern life whilst still impressing though of us way outside the subject matter's demographic. Four of the five tracks from her recent EP You Can't Put A Price On Fun - the title track, 24 Hours, Nothing Shines On This Island and Death Trap - are accompanied by new songs - Harriet and Tiny Screens - and debut single Sinking Feeling. It's a really impressive opening set and the audience's reaction to her tells its own story as she wins an initially muted room that's roaring its approval by the end of the half hour.
The Beaches' current success is a triumph of belief over the industry. Signed to a major and attempted to be typecast as something they're not, they broke free eventually, self-releasing Blame My Ex and reaping the rewards of their faith in themselves. Older and wiser they've spent 2024 touring the US and Europe to increasing sized audiences that show no size of stopping multiplying with this UK leg completely sold out and the momentum behind them seemingly unstoppable.
Despite Blame My Ex only physically being available here on import (and on the merch desk for an eye-watering £50), the majority of the 1,300 crowd clearly know every word of it as well as recent post-album single Takes One To Know One and a good proportion have made the journey back to discover their earlier work with three songs from The Professional EP, stand-alone single Grow Up Tomorrow and the set-closing T-Shirt the only remaining song from their 2017 debut Late Show.
From the moment they take to the stage they exude an infectious energy that has the whole room lit up by their presence. Kylie and Leandra live out their rock fantasy, strutting the stage with a real sense of living in the moment whilst knocking out the big hooks upon which the songs are hung. The big hitters from the album - What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Paranoid, Everything Is Boring and Edge Of The Earth - feel like they're built for stadiums on the rock of Eliza's drums that might get lost visually in what's going on up front. Dead centre Jordan owns the stage and the room with powerful lead vocals that give these songs more force than their recorded versions and have the audience hanging on every word.
They have a genuine generosity of spirit too, declaring their love of Manchester and it being the sexiest accent around and not being fazed about not being able to find a roast dinner in the city centre earlier in the day. There's lots of "thank you Manchester" throughout the night, but it's real and heartfelt and not dialled in, you suspect they're simply up there living their best lives and sharing the joy with us. There's a more serious side to this too. When Leandra takes over lead vocals on Kinkade, she comes down to the barrier to connect closer to the crowd, young and old, female and male, whilst dedicating Edge Of The Earth to anyone in the crowd with lesbian tendencies. It's in moments like this where The Beaches act as an empowering role model as well as being a thrilling exciting rock band.
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