WORDS AND IMAGES RHYS GROVER
The Hoosiers pull their tour bus into Manchester for an intimate night of hits and new tracks and they brought Crystal Tides along for the ride and some ride it was.
Crystal Tides have currently only got a handful of singles released, but you can’t help but feel that an EP may not be far off for them. There was a buzz around the venue as they did their thing on stage, they clearly have already built themselves a bit of a fanbase, as a fair proportion of the crowd were singing along and those that weren’t familiar were still lapping their set up. They have a great indie sound with a fantastic energy on stage, and have the sort of attitude that could definitely get them places. Their music has quality and is refined, and as their fan base grows, it’ll be a great wave of success that they will ride into 2024. They did mention having more dates planned for next year and more music releases, so if you haven’t already, get their music saved on your Spotify, get them followed on their socials and watch them grow.
When this tour was first announced, the venues seemed questionably small, and this gig was originally planned for Gorilla, which in fairness, would have been the ideal venue for this gig, but with that venue currently out of action, Band On The Wall played a perfect host.
It’s my first time in there since the refurb, and what a change to the place. It somehow seems more intimate yet also more spacious. The atmosphere always bounces off the walls in venues of this size, and for The Hoosiers, they just played off this energy and it worked wonders. A few technical hitches kicked the gig off, but they laughed it off and were soon underway. Matching outfits and sparkly rainbow tassels gave some interesting viewing, but that’s not what you go for. It’s the music. Hearing some of those big tracks of the early 2000’s in a venue of this size is special. The Hoosiers have always been a band that people kind of put to the back of the mind, but as soon as you stick ‘The Trick To Life’ on, you realise why you liked them first off.
Huge tracks such as ‘Worried About Ray’, ‘Cops and Robbers’ and ‘Goodbye Mr A’ carried the early musical tastes of many of my generation, and this showed from the demographic in attendance. Mostly 20-25 year olds, some younger, some older, but every member of the crowd had their arms in the air and was blaring out the choruses of those aforementioned tracks. Tracks from ‘The Trick To Life’ dominated the setlist, with an even spread of their remaining discography filling the rest of the set. Their older stuff was definitely more appreciated by the crowd, but the new stuff still went down a treat, and it was a great night of killer tracks by a killer band. Personally, ‘Cops and Robbers’ would have been a fantastic edition, being one of my most liked tracks of theirs, but they can’t accommodate every track when their discography spans all the way back to 2007!
SET LIST
1. Lying
2. Hello Sunshine
3. Choices
4. Worried About Ray
5. Snowflake
(‘Ain’t Nobody’ outro)
6. Idaho
7. Unlikely Hero
8. Cops and Robbers
9. Who Said Anything (About Falling in Love)?
10. Goodbye Mr A
(Stripped, first verse and chorus only)
11. Lip Sinking
12. A Sadness Runs Through Him
13. Ruby Blue
14. Up to No Good
15. Making a Monster
16. Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)
(Backstreet Boys cover)
Encore:
17. Confidence (Is Easy)
18. The Trick to Life
19. So High
20. Goodbye Mr A
FOLLOW THE HOOSIERS
FOLLOW CRYSTAL TIDES
My life is a soundtrack, i track my life through music, photography is my passion, my escape, my expression. Without both i have pieces missing, thankfully i’m blessed and get to combine both.
Born in Manchester, lived in Australia for 22 years where i was heavily involved in the Australian Music Industry, firstly in bands (Singer) and then managing bands (all original), I moved back to the UK, Wales specifically 10 years ago
