Heading to O2 Manchester Academy, to capture Post Grunge, Hard rockers from New York, The Pretty Reckless, Billy Seagrave was eager to see how the band have developed over the last few years.
The evening kicked off with The Cruel Knives, who set about preparing the rather full and boisterous crowd, for tonight’s headline act. The Cruel Knives formed following the demise of Heavens Basement with Sid Glover and Rob Ellershaw. Many fans were queuing up from mid-afternoon, to grab the best spots.
They put on a stellar performance with searing guitars and booming bass, they powered through a great set that perfectly set the crowd up for tonight’s headline act. Opening with, “Black Eye Friday” instantly looking relaxed and ready to rock the stage. It was effortless for the band to win over the crowd. The music is pounding, and big riffs follow big riffs, “Overdose” is a solid rock piece, which had the crowd playing their part. Hands were raised in the air, closing their set with “Crawl” from their first EP. The roar of appreciation gave them the signal that they had done their job well tonight as they kept everyone entertained as the support for tonight’s headliner.
SET LIST
1/ Black Eye Friday
2/ Life That We Made
3/ Overdose
4/ Hollow People
5/ Shotgun to the Head
6/ Crawl
As the stage is hastily re-arranged, the build up of noise from the crowd in anticipation is deafening. The Pretty Reckless are an American rock band from New York City, formed in 2009. The band consists of Taylor Momsen (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Ben Phillips (lead guitar, backing vocals), Mark Damon (bass), and Jamie Perkins (drums). Tonight, they bring their “Death by Rock and Roll tour to Manchester Academy.
As the lights drop and the dry ice billows relentlessly from the stage, fluorescent blue lights engulf the band as they take to the stage, the opening shot is “Death by Rock and Roll”, a formidable opening, seeing the band quickly into the groove, Taylor is covering the stage from side-to-side front to back, nothing like putting down a marker.
Then came “Since You’re Gone” and “Only Love Can Save Me Now” as Taylor took to stepping up to the boxes placed either side of the stage and reaching out to the crowd who were going lapping it all up. Going back to early single, “You Make Me Want to Die” as well as “My Bones” and “Sweet Things”. “Witches Burn”, was dedicated to “all the women in the audience”, has the crowd chanting “Taylor, Taylor”, in unison.
“Heaven Knows” has an awesome extended guitar solo, as we go into “Take me down”, Taylor invites the crowd to sing if they know it, this they duly did. The last song of the evening is “Fucked up World”, which has a fantastic drum solo, that has a real euphoric appeal. Tonight’s performance is a triumph, a splendid mixture of musical performance and vocal depth that sees the band probably in the best stage of their existence. What a way to end the evening and disappear into the Manchester night.
SET LIST
1/ Death by Rock and Roll
2/ Since You’re Gone
3/ Only Love Can Save Me Now
4/ And So It Went
5/ Make Me Wanna Die
6/ Goin’ Down
7/ Sweet Things
8/ Witches Burn
9/ My Bones
10/ My Medicine
11/ Going to Hell
12/ Heaven Knows
13/ Take Me Down
Encore:
14/ Fucked Up World
FOLLOW THE PRETTY RECKLESS
FOLLOW THE CRUEL KNIVES
