Blossoms' five night stand of Manchester's mid-sized venues in support of their fourth number one album Gary. Performing tracks from across their career they brought the big arena show vibe to the intimate surroundings of the Ritz.
Delights open the night to a rapidly filling Ritz and the five-piece make a favourable impression on the early arrivers. Mixing tracks like I Think You Should Know from their forthcoming second album If Heaven Looks A Little Like This with more familiar tracks like Tender and 1989 from their debut Cool Sports they deliver a twenty-five minute set that acts as an introduction to their sound that takes in multiple keyboards and bongos on top of the usual indie set-up.
Neon Waltz may not have the indie cred of some of the names on the support bills this week, but they've got the songs. Heavy Heartless and in particular Dreamers are bold and anthemic as is Thoughts / Dreams / Regrets from their second album Honey Now and they even have time for a new song. With the six of them very cramped on stage, there's little room to move and Jordan seems intent on not winning new fans by telling us that Scotland is better than England. The crowd don't seem to know what to make of them though so the response is a little lukewarm which is a shame as we love them.
Soundtracked by the usual mix of eighties and Manchester classics, there's a really special atmosphere building in The Ritz as stage time approaches. With nine of them on stage as well as the ridiculously huge lighting rack at either side there's not a lot of space up there for them which just adds to the incredibly intimate feel of the night. Blossoms kick straight into Your Girlfriend and the downstairs of The Ritz erupts, bouncing way past the edges of the sprung dancefloor and that barely stops all night as they power through twenty-one songs from across their five albums.
Tom mentions near the end of the set they first played here back in 2014 supporting The Rifles. One of the endearing things about Blossoms is that they've never forgotten where they've come from when they're headlining arenas and parks. There may be no big production here, other than those huge lights, just an orange curtain and raised platforms for Joe Donovan on drums and Myles Kellock on keyboards and a couple of small steps for Tom to stand on at the front, but they still manage to convey just how big they've done by the energy and joy in their performance.
There's some theatrical moves, standing together on the drum riser as Tom shines a light on them at the end of If You Think This Is Real Life that concludes their set, choreographed moves on What Can I Say After I'm Sorry, Nightclub and the gloriously camp I Like Your Look, and lighting tricks as Tom tells the story behind Big Star. However, the focus shines mostly on the music and Blossoms seemingly effortless ability to create huge indie pop anthems that capture the audience's hearts and to continue to do this album after album.
Live, they take them to new levels, subtle changes, the brilliant additional percussion of John Simm and Colette Williams fleshing them out and bringing them to life. They throw in short snippets of the likes of Oasis, Queen, Robbie Williams and The Wannadies into the songs and make them feel like they own them. It's a simple formula in many ways, but one that no one else around masters as well as the five lads from Stockport.
From tracks from their self-titled debut - Honey Sweet, Getaway, the seductive Blown Rose, euphoric At Most One Kiss and their calling card Charlemagne - right through to this year's Gary, the quality never drops throughout. There's the urgency of I Can't Stand It, If You Think This Is Real Life and There's A Reason Why (I Never Returned Your Calls), the irresistible pop of The Keeper and My Swimming Brain and the new songs that more than stand their ground against their previous work. Whilst many artists, some much bigger than them, are lumbered with the albatross of a debut album that everyone measures them by and wants to hear, the Blossoms audience are as thrilled by the likes of Nightclub, Mothers, Perfect Me and, of course, Gary. The story behind the album's title track might be a little silly, but somehow Blossoms make it make perfect sense and fifteen hundred of us are left singing its impossibly catchy hook line as they take their bows at the end of the night.
Blossoms played Your Girlfriend, Perfect Me, I Can't Stand It, Getaway, Oh No (I Think I'm in Love), What Can I Say After I'm Sorry?, The Keeper, Nightclub, Mothers, Care For, Honey Sweet, My Swimming Brain, Blown Rose, Big Star, I Like Your Look, At Most A Kiss, If You Think This Is Real Life, My Favourite Room, There's A Reason Why (I Never Returned Your Calls), Charlemagne and Gary.
Follow Even The Stars on Twitter at @eventhestarsuk and like our Facebook page for all the latest updates
No comments:
Post a Comment