REVIEW: Basement at Manchester Academy Two

FIVE-piece Basement took to the stage at Manchester Academy 2 last night. Quays News entertainment reporter Tara Weaver went along…

Basement are coming towards the end of their 2016 UK tour shortly after releasing the long awaited album ‘Promise Everything’. The band performed at Manchester Academy Two and were supported by Alex G and Tigers Jaw. The band is formed of Andrew Fisher (vocals), Alex Henery (guitar/vocals), Ronan Crix (guitar), Duncan Stewart (bass) and James Fisher (drums).

Basement doesn’t necessarily fit one genre, as you would typically expect. They’re very relaxed in terms of varied sound, they could be classed as emo/alternative with pop punk influences but less positive than pop punk bands such as The Story So Far or Knuckle Puck.

ALSO. Holy cow Manchester! That was possibly the best show of this tour yet! Thank you!!!

— Basement (@basementuk) February 10, 2016

Alexander Giannascoli known on stage as Alex G was first to take up the inconceivably daunting task of warming up the crowd. The band had a consistent indie rock sound throughout the set.

They came on with a positive stage presence and engaged with the crowd talking about where they were from and even making a few jokes about needing a place to sleep for the night. Jokes aside someone now has a group of grown men on their floor tonight, payment via merchandise? The crowd didn’t react much to the band, perhaps due to the fact people were still filtering in or buying merchandise, but that didn’t discourage them. After only being signed to Domino records in 2015, they performed with confidence and the vocals were very unique and definitely worth a listen.

Tigers Jaw were the next supporting act. The room had started to fill by this point making the songs feel more intimate that Ben Walsh and Brianna Collins are known for. The acoustic songs received a lot of feedback from the crowd singing back to them especially when Brianna sang a ‘Never saw it coming’ solo.

They may have benefited from a smaller venue to make the performance seem more intimate and personal, however the show had almost sold out meaning it would be impossible to fit everybody.

Tigers Jaw has previous ties with Basement so it was no surprise that they would be supporting. Members of Basement filled in for Tigers Jaw in their 2013 UK tour after the band suffered horrendously when three other members left with no warning. Coming to the end of the set they covered The Cure’s ‘Inbetween Days’ which was completely unexpected and left the crowd revved up for the headliners.

Basement is an English band formed in 2009. They broke up briefly for two years in 2012 after releasing the successful ‘Colourmeinkindness’ album consisting of some of the bands most popular songs such as ‘Covet’ and ‘Bad Apple’.

Basement opened up with ‘Brothers Keeper’, a song from the new album. This song has a longer introduction that really got the crowd excited in anticipation for the set. They continued the set going back and forth through older songs such as ‘Earl Grey’ from the ‘Wish I Could Stay’ album and ‘Spoiled’ from ‘Colourmeinkindness’. They were very varied with what songs they chose rather than only playing music from the new release ‘Promise Everything’ which a lot of bands are known for doing, in order to appeal to everyone in the audience. You could visibly see the majority of the audience didn’t know the lyrics for the newer songs, unless they were hardcore fans, as they’d only been released a week or so ago.

Similarly to Tigers Jaw, Basement may have excelled with their stage performance had it been in a more intimate venue. On Basement’s previous tour in late 2015 they supported Brand New in the Albert Hall. Basement has always had amazing stage presence and audience interaction, talking to the fans, asking how they were and they briefly mentioned that Manchester had been one of the best shows so far. On the night Academy Two had well under 100 tickets left for sale and the three shows previous had even sold out..

During the middle of the set they slowed the songs down and played ‘Canada Square’ and ‘Oversized’. These are slower more personal songs, connected with the audience as they sang every word back, seeing every person in the audience with their arms in the air.

As the band reached the end of the set Basement picked the pace back up doing a two song encore of their new song ‘Promise Everything’ and arguably the most well known song ‘Covet’. The audience had bounds of energy and you could see that the band vibrated from this making the performance even better. Overall the set felt personal and it felt as though you weren’t watching a well-known band from behind barriers, you were just hanging out with friends singing along to some of your favorite songs.

Overall every band performed well, and didn’t show that they may be overworked or tired coming towards the end of the UK tour. However I feel they would have been better suited in a smaller venue. Alex G is especially worth checking out as an up and coming band securing more shows worldwide this coming year. They may be one to watch out for.

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