05 November 2007

Hadouken! Academy One

I SAY: Standing tall on Oxford Road is The Holy Name Church, lyrically immortalised in The Smiths' 'Vicar in a Tutu'. Lying just across the road is Manchester Academy, the place of worship for today's musical gods.

Both Hadouken! and The Ghost Frequency are bands rising from online obscurity, but this loyal fanbase has been a good catalyst for both bands' success. Ever since I was sent a link to Hadouken!'s Myspace their music has filled a strange gap on my playlists. Their mix of Electro/Rap/Rock that can be compared to Jay-Z playing Tetris against Funeral For A Friend is shamefully brilliant. I can't describe the love/hate relationship that I have with their music. It is trashy but not ashamed of being trashy. It has an essence of "gangsta'" but humourous light-hearted lyrics like "you live with your mum and you work in Asda" keep the kiddies entertained. The balance between being creatively humourous and simply being a novelty act is a hard one but they seem to have it sorted, with most bandwaggon Nu Raverz eating out of their hands. I snapped up the gig tickets as soon as I could, epecially seeing as GF were supporting.

I headed through security into Academy One, below the stage was a melee of glowsticks being broken and chucked around-A firework display of Neon one day before bonfire night. I headed out to the glamerous portaloos, picked up some glowsticks off the floor and got in prime position.

The surprise of the night was that support act Ghost Frequency seemed to steal the show away from Hadouken! Their highlight was during (We Threw) Money on the Fire. The electronically charged anthem had an amazing reaction with the crowd (and my mate got a shout-out during the intro!). Even though GF proved themselves well, the typical Mancunian audience grew slightly impatient by the end of GF's set. They were waiting for the main attraction.

Hadouken! came on to an array of screams, airbourne glowsticks and chants. The commanding "H!" above the centre of the stage was illuminated. A "We love you Manchester" started up the engines and Hadouken were ready for electronic blast off. The intensity of crowd members in the pit was as good as any heavy metal gig, and the rythms of Bounce and Dance Lessons created a surge of sweatty student excitement. The electronic aspects to their music that have made their songs so popular were recreated rather poorly, what sounded brilliant on the record sounded rather drained live. A good night!

Look out for Ghost Frequency, I can see them bringing the nation's alternative venues into their Atari-inspired trance.

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