Tonight was a reminder of why I go to gigs, photograph gigs, (try to) write about gigs and occasionally put on gigs – nothing else has such a transformative effect on your mood, from leaving the house after a stressful day yet go home walking on air (even though I missed my train by 1 minute and had to get the train that stops at every single stop between Manchester and Liverpool – I’d swear they make up new stations every time I get that train) the way that good live music does.
ALT BLK ERA have been on the radars of my friends with reliable taste for quite a while now, I was fashionably late to this particular party.
Earlier in the year I was speaking to a friend from London about the possibility of him DJing our All-Dayer this August. I was going through the bands we’d booked so far and he asked “Have you thought about ALT BLK ERA?” he’d seen them in Richmond the night before and they’d blown away the room.
Knowing he has excellent taste, I immediately put on the album Rave Immortal, and on first listen I was hooked.
I’ve always loved albums that mix genres anyway, but few manage to pull-off every genre they tackle, quite as well as ALT BLK ERA do. Indeed, they don’t just mix genres, they smash their boundaries to pieces!
Reading more about them, they seemed too big an act for our 275 cap festival – they were nominated for Best Alternative Act at the MoBo’s (which they subsequently won) and having packed out big stages at festivals such as Download, cover stars of magazines such as Kerrang and Rave Immortal was in the album charts – but nothing ventured etc, so we spoke to their agent, and it looked promising at first, but sadly they had a prior-engagement.
I checked out where they were playing – if I’d discovered them a week earlier I could have seen them in Liverpool, a timely reminder to keep an eye on local listings.
In the end I saw they were playing tonight’s show in Manchester so I immediately bought a ticket – just as well, since the show sold out shortly afterwards.
The album stands on its own musical merits, but once you start reading the band’s story it elevates the experience of listening to it even more, fleshing out the already incredible songs with meaning.
The core of the band are 2 sisters – Nyrobi and Chaya from Nottingham, Nyrobi developed Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, hypersomnolence, and Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome – hidden disabilities which was so bad that she became housebound, as if that’s not bad enough, some of her friends abandoned her.
Yet they’ve managed to take what life has thrown at them as a family and turn these experiences into a killer album.
Whilst Nyrobi is no longer housebound, she still faces day to day challenges from her hidden disability – yet you’d never know it from tonight’s performance – she must be such an inspiration to other sufferers.
I’m a massive fan of Skating Polly, and like them, each sister in ALT BLK ERA brings something different to the table, and the combination is pure dynamite.
Turning up at the Deaf Institute’s Lodge venue, I always try to get to shows as soon after doors as possible if I’m taking photographs when there’s no photo pit.
Tonight, I arrived about 10 minutes after doors, and already the room was packed – and the anticipation was palpable.
The opening act was called BEX.
I hadn’t had a chance to check them out before the show, but that mattered not a jot!
A 3 piece band full of energy with a front-woman who oozes stage presence, I suspect they couldn’t fail to win over any room whether you knew their music or not. Indeed, they could probably get the occupants of a morgue up and dancing.
The singer had the comedy timing and wit of Peter Kay so had tonight’s audience in the palm of her hands from the start.
After the first song she said
Do you hear that sound Manchester?
It’s silence, don’t let it happen again.
I know where you all live.
Manchester.
Anybody from anywhere else?
Someone shouts “Liverpool” (not me!)
I know where you live now too.
You probably had to be there, but it was hilarious and really broke the ice. The whole room was bouncing, no “chat to your mates during the support act” ignorance in this room!
By the end of their set, she just had to look at the audience a certain way to make us clap louder (and if we weren’t clapping loud enough in the first place I’m sure it was down to British reserve rather than anything else).
But she didn’t have to use “the look” often as their songs were so good, they even did a class cover of “American Idiot” by Green Day.
Definitely a band I’ll try and catch again in future.
After a short-break, it was time for the headliner ALT BLK ERA.
Sometimes bands who come to prominence through a dazzling album, can be disappointing live if things have happened too quickly for them to hone their stage craft. And after BEX developing such a rapport with the audience, ALT BLK ERA had a tough act to follow.
But any fears that they might not live up to expectations were smashed to smithereens as soon as they took to the stage!
Effortlessly cool yet never aloof, great natural stage presence and they sounded amazing.
They performed the album in order, with an introduction to each song talking about the experiences that inspired them, which really added a depth to the songs.
The album really does have everything including big anthems that had everyone singing along.
Tonight’s atmosphere reminded me a lot of when I saw Wet Leg at This Must Be the Place in Leeds – it was most people’s first gig after lockdown, there was lots of anticipation as they’d only released the 1 song at that stage, and the whole room went absolutely wild. This was a similar atmosphere but didn’t require a lockdown as a prequel to achieve it!
My personal favourite on the album is, well every track. But if pushed I’d say “Hunt you down”.
During the song, they opened up a “runway” where the audience split down the middle clearing a space for members of the audience to walk down and dance. I’m probably not explaining it very well (you had to be there) but I loved it, it was great fun!
It was pretty much a flawless set, if I had to be mega picky, I’d still struggle to find fault.
I’ve been working with an expert in viral video recently to see if we can get more people to the gigs we put on, since it’s getting harder and harder to get people along to shows. We were talking about how people my age who grew up going to grassroots gigs are getting older (I originally went to grassroots gigs because I couldn’t afford to see the bands I knew off the radio, now I still can’t afford arena prices but I prefer grassroots shows), and it’s not even on the radar of young people to go to grassroots shows (my daughter was on the guestlist for Skating Polly so she came, but when my missus asked her what she thought, she said “Well I didn’t know any of the songs” it never occurred to her to listen to them on Spotify before the show), but young people will travel across the country for a jacket potato or bag of chips from a place that’s gone viral on TikTok so the bar is actually quite low if we could just convey how good grassroots gigs can be and give people a reason to go.
I reckon if someone had professionally filmed tonight’s show and really got the essence of it, and showed it in schools, the crisis causing venue closures across the country would be ended overnight!
The band seem to really appreciate their fans – straight after the set they went to the merch stall to chat with their fans, and practically everyone in the venue waiting in the queue. I had to get back to Liverpool, but I was one of the few to leave.
I feel honored to have witnessed this show! At a personal level I’m sad that we’ve probably missed the boat to host one of their shows at a venue that we can afford, a double-bill with Skating Polly would be awesome, add Delilah Bon and I’ve friends in America who’d probably fly over for it!
Nevertheless, they deserve every success. And with all the shit going on in the world at the moment, the world needs a bit of ALT BLK ERA in their lives to get through it. And BEX for that matter.
I look forward to their ongoing rise, and boring people with “I saw them before they fully blew-up”.
Catch them when you get the chance! I hope to catch them at Bearded Theory.
