WORDS AND IMAGES BY WARREN MILLAR
It’s back down the M62 to Manchester Academy again tonight as we go check out Filipino born British singer-songwriter Beatrice Kristi Laus professionally known as “Beabadoobee”
Nominated in 2020 for the Brits Rising Star Award and predicted as a breakthrough act for 2020 in an annual BBC poll of music critics, Sound of 2020, she also supported The 1975 on several legs of their Music For Cars tour. This tour is named after her second studio album “Beatopia” released in July this year.
On arriving in Manchester and walking up to the venue we become amazed at the length of the queue to get into tonight’s gig it stretches way beyond Academy 2&3 (tonight’s sister venues) and well around the corner and this is some time before the doors are due to open. It’s mainly formed of younger gig goers some with parents getting dragged along. This girl has a big young fan base so it seems. We get into the venue not long after the doors open and on entering people are running to get to the barrier and a front row view and it’s only a matter of second before all these places are taken up. You only usually see this for massive artists/bands, these fans are keen !
First up we have American indie rock band from New York City “Pretty Sick” usually a 4 piece but tonight a 3 piece with Singer Sabrina Fuentes, Bassist Orazio Argentero and drummer Austin Williamson. What struck us immediately was that both Sabrina and Orazio were both playing Bass with Orazio belting out some unreal solos during songs on his bass which sounded incredible ! If a band ever had a better and more apt name, it’s these guys, because they are for sure “Pretty Sick” . Sabrina’s voice is powerful when it needs to be and yet a tuneful soulful type of power and control. It’s a grungy raw type of indie with plenty of energy thrown in. It’s was well received by such a large and vocal crowd. Top Marks “Pretty Sick”
The crowd now was big and you could feel the excitement growing for the main act of the night. I think every member of the road crew who came on stage during the stage reset was given a great cheer !! The house lights dimmed and as us photographers took our places in the pit the noise and cheers from the punters behind us was massive, it was like being at a big arena gig. We honestly haven’t heard a reception like that in a medium size venue like the Academy in a long long time. Beabadoobee has some vocal and adoring fans that’s for sure. It’s straight into one of the tracks from her new album “10:36” We then get a couple of older tracks (we say older but we also have to remember this girl is just 22) “Apple Cider” and “Care”
Her band are a joy to listen to Eliana Sewell on bass Jacob Bugden on guitar and Louis Semlekan-Faith on drums. They really add texture and fullness of sound to all the tunes. Her fans were well up for a great night out and showed it, singing along to every song word for word, dancing and jumping around with even a little moshing going on. Our own personal picks from tonight would be “Fairy Song”, “She Plays Bass” and “Last day on Earth”
Towards the end it was a stripped back two song acoustic set up as Beabadooee sang to her faithful fans “Coffee” and “Ripples” and then hitting us straight back to excite the crowd even more with her last tune “Cologne”. Flowers hit the from the crowd as “Beabadoobe” and her band bid their farewell
What a night and what a fan base this 22 year old has, they adore her so much and from tonights performance it’s easy to understand why.
SETLIST
1/ 10:36
2/ Apple Cider
3/ Care
4/ Fairy Song
5/ Worth It
6/ Together
7/ Charlie Brown
8/ The Perfect Pair
9/ Sunny Day
10/ He Gets Me So High
11/ Yoshimi, Forest, Magdalene
12/ See You Soon
13/ Sorry
14/ She Plays Bass
15/ Back to Mars
16/ Last Day on Earth
17/ Dye It Red
18/ Talk
Encore:
19/ Coffee
20/ Ripples
21/ Cologne
FOLLOW BEABADOOBEE
FOLLOW PRETTY SICK
Warren is a live music and festival photographer based in Cheshire and covers gigs/festivals mostly in the North West of England. He has been photographing live music for over 10 years and has covered major artists and festivals
