REVIEW: Spring King at Band On The Wall, Manchester

MANCHESTER based band, Spring King held their debut album launch party at Band on the Wall last night (June 10), and our entertainment reporter, Abi White, was there to see what the album had to offer…

The four-piece outfit began as a solo artist in 2012, with songwriter and producer, Tarek Musa, who now sings and plays drums in the band. The post-punk band’s song, City’ also famously featured as the first song featured on Zane Lowe’s ‘Beats 1’.

Opening the evening for the launch party was the four-piece, Get Inuit. The band delivered a brilliantly fitting support slot, encouraging the audience to get involved with their energetic set, commenting to Spring King that the “audience were one of the best we’ve ever played for”.

Even before the venue had filled up to its full capacity, the crowd still made the most of the opportunity of live music. Despite only a small crowd in front of the stage, fans were still managing to crowd surf and jump whilst on each others shoulders. The liveliness of the audience at this point was only a small reflection of what was to come during Spring King’s set.

When it was the turn for Spring King to arrive on stage, the venue had suitably filled, with fans already pushing within the crowd. The venue choice was perfect for the album launch due to the intimacy, and furthermore this meant that the band had a lot more interaction with the audience throughout the whole set.

The evening was frenzy from start to finish. Mosh pits were erupting at every possible opportunity, a handful of fans decided to stage invade and another handful enjoyed standing on the stage and jumping off in efforts to crowd surf to the post-punk band.

Wild scenes @bandonthewall for @springkingband's album launch ?

— NOW WAVE (@nowwave) June 10, 2016

The band also has a very unique feature that is very rare to see through bands, where the drummer, Musa, is also the lead singer. Not one member of the band lacked in energy through the whole set, with constant movement from all members throughout.

With a set list consisting of 10 songs, the band opened their set with ‘Better Man’, closely followed by ‘Tell Me If You Like To’ and ‘The Summer’, which all resulted in a very sweaty and exuberant audience. The next song on the set list was the track, ‘Demons,’ which stood out as a favourite, with strong chord structure and a catchy nature.

The debut album consists of a compilation of old and new songs from the band, featuring songs off old EP’s, including the well known tracks from the band ‘Who Are You?’ and ‘Rectifier’. The tracks are the infectious kind that made every member in the audience want to move.

Undoubtedly, the band chose to end their set on their most well-known and post-punk packed track ‘City’. Filled with distorted guitars and intensity, the audience went wild when the band ended their set on a track that managed to represent the band’s style and what they stand for in less than four minutes.

This exciting band to come from Manchester’s music scene is certainly one to watch for the future.