It’s the 30th Birthday of Manchester’s Night & Day Cafe this week, and to celebrate they lined up a week of special gigs (and received a noise complaint to boot). Tonight fans are in for a treat with a holy trinity of Manchester bands on the bill, promising a night you’re not likely to forgot.
Opening are Threads, a post punk four piece who offer up some beefy bass-line driven sounds that have lyrics everyone can relate too and enjoy dancing along too. The room is packed early on for them and as there set progresses it becomes apparent that there is some real talent on display here and they’re a really enjoyable watch to start things off.
Following them are the lesser known but becoming notorious SPLINT. They aren’t on any social media and so you can’t look them up, which only adds to the intrigue. We reviewed them a couple of weeks ago supporting Avalanche Party [see here] and as it’s the same set there isn’t really much to add, other than they really are quite something and you should go and see them live as soon as you can and judge for yourself.
Headliners Blanketman have garnered somewhat of a cult following thanks to their association with ex-Fall members, but that isn’t all they are about. With a slight change in line up on board, they are here tonight promoting their new 7” single ‘Yard Sale’, which one received a copy of with their ticket for tonight. Or at least they would have done, had they arrived from the pressers, IOUs are issued instead.
Their set contains songs such as ‘Taking You With Me’ who’s early appearance shows their post punk influences and how they have brought the genre right up to date. ‘Yard Sale’ goes down a storm and when coupled with ‘National Trust’ it’s a heady cocktail of singing faces and dancing bodies. ‘Leave the South’ is another jangly one who’s guitar hook grabs and you can’t resist dancing too. B-side to the new single ‘Signalman’ goes down well and looks set to become a firm feature in their live sets. They conclude with ‘Harold’, and even thought the crowd begs for more, they explain that due to aforementioned lineup change; they haven’t rehearsed anymore songs – more honesty you could not ask for.
As fans vacate a very sweaty Night & Day, you can feel the residual energy that’s in the room; something amazing has been witnessed here tonight. All 3 bands gave it their all. Happy Birthday Night & Day – long may you continue.
