Manchester Orchestra
Sunday March 21st 2010 at the Varsity Theatre
By: Joe Toeben
Anyone who missed the chance to see Manchester Orchestra live at the Varsity Theatre missed on something that feels like once in a lifetime. Manchester Orchestra is an indie rock outfit formed by the lead singer Andy Hull. Hull who also runs a folk-sy solo project called Right Away, Great Captain is one helluva musician. The guy stands about 6 feet tall with a powerful voice and a massive beard that would put Zach Galifianakis’s to shame. Since achieving massive success with their newest album Mean Everything To Nothing in 2009, Manchester went on a huge US tour supported by The Features, O’Brother and Biffy Clyro.
The first band to play was O’Brother and for this tour they could have been consistently called little brother to Manchester because their sound seemed to reflect them quite a bit. With 2 drummers and a lead singer with a deep, grizzly voice, O’Brother was a very solid opening band that ended with one of the best pounding drum solos ever. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Biffy Clyro please get your shit together and up to date. Biffy is a trio from Scotland that plays a very eclectic mix of music involving alternative, experimental rock and even some post hardcore thrown in. Literally the first thing the band did was take their shits off as soon as sound check was finished. Mixing heavy riffs with light, airy pop bass lines, Biffy played a few songs off older albums and one of my favorites from the new album “Many of Horror.” Biffy Clyro is a band to be checked out just because of their shear weirdness. The Features where the final opening band to play before Manchester and they were just a unique twist to end the opening sets. The Features is an indie rock band from Nashville with a serious Johnny Cash fetish. Indie rock is not intentionally supposed to be mixed with anything country or folk but when combined in the way The Features present it, it works pretty well. While their music was a little lackluster and generic, the song titles like “Mama’s Gonna Whip Us Good” was enough to keep the crowd interested. They finished and Manchester took the stage once and for all.
The one thing I wanted from Manchester at this concert was for them to play Mean Everything To Nothing in it’s entirety, and I was granted my wish. While they didn’t play all the songs from METN in order they still hit every single one of them. If you are familiar with Manchester but have never seen the new songs performed live you need to as soon as you can. Who would have EVER thought you could mosh to “Shake It Out” and “The Only One?” It turns out if you put a bunch of stupid, energetic kids in a tight space, that is can happen. There was so much emotion emitting from Andy Hull’s body that I was almost worried he was going to burst into flames instantly. All kidding aside this concert was one of the best performances I have ever seen in my life. While that might not hold much meaning being I am only 20 years old, it was a fantastic performance worthy of another go around when they come through the Twin Cities area again. Highlights from Manchester set list were “I Can Feel a Hot One”, “The River”, “Shake It Out”, and “I’ve Got Friends.” Do yourself a favor and don’t ever, ever miss a performance by Manchester Orchestra near you.
