Headlining Manchester Academy 3 tonight is alternative rock band, As December Falls. Originating from Nottingham the 4 piece band, comprising of vocalist Bethany Hunter, Ande (guitar), Timmy (guitar) and Luke (drums), have had a busy year on the festival circuit culminating in a headline tour at their largest venues to date. Blending a style of rock, pop, punk and emo, As December Falls offer a little bit of something for everyone.
Early into the set the band play a cover of the well-known rock/emo anthem “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)’ by My Chemical Romance to much excitement among the crowd with the crowd shouting back the lyrics. Before launching into ‘Break Your Heart’, the band recall how when they were last in Manchester, they played at Gulliver’s to a 100 person crowd and now they’re playing at Academy 3 to over 300 people so 200 more people are here to listen to their music.
The band pause to encourage some crowd participation before playing ‘No Money’. Before playing the track, Bethany says that she wants the crowd to sing along with her for this next song and to deafen her telling the crowd that the words to learn are “No” and “Money”. Ending the track, Bethany says how the crowd are born singers and should be on stage instead of her. ‘Happier’ sees the band play an acoustic version, which is unusual for the band as their songs are often fast paced. Before playing the song, Ande tells the crowd that he wants to see everybody’s phone torches.
With a tease of a new album coming soon, the band joke they aren’t supposed to be telling people yet! The band end their set with their most successful song to date, ‘Ride’ with some of the crowd actually booing purely because they don’t want the set to come to an end.
After the song the lights go out and the band leave the stage without saying anything, the drum is then played and the band return to the stage with a two song encore featuring ‘More to You’ and ‘Tears’. The band end the night with “Manchester, thank you, have a good night!’. This band have the feel of one who are going places and are definitely one to watch!
As December Falls continue the UK tour with several dates left. Tickets can be purchased here and the band have recently been announced as the support act for Hot Milk’s Tour in February 2023.
