Northwest Gig Highlights – January 2014

A January without pseudo self-betterment and clued-in music industry tastemakers peddling to hyperbole at every mention of the phrase ‘The Sound of [insert year here]’ is a January without romance. Cue the annual glut of Nostradamus’ prophecies, proliferated gym memberships and futile attempts to curb those unshakable – and in some cases repugnant – habits.

While your excessive binge drinking is no longer socially acceptable, there’s ample opportunity for post-Christmas beer swilling at Manchester Academy, with Cheshire natives The 1975 headlining a hat-trick of homecoming shows (6-8 Jan) in support of their eponymous debut LP. The support is strong, too, in the form of Wolf Alice’s folk-leaning Pixie-isms and the kitsch stoner-pop of B-town staples Swim Deep. Or, if having bile spat in your face by recently vindicated Lamb of God singer Randy Blythe is your penchant, then it’s ill-advised you overlook this metal aficionado’s wet dream – those partial to batshit crazy moshpits, bands named for archaic methods of capital punishment (yes, the support act is called Decapitation) and the visceral brutality of 2012’s Resolution writ large need look no further than 19 Jan at Academy 1. Those with sensibilities more aligned to chart-friendly gloss-pop, on the other hand, should home in on London Grammar at Academy 1 on 29 Jan instead: to hear Hannah Reid’s doleful Jessie Ware-esque vocals on the trio’s debut long-player If You Wait is to feel your heartstrings being tugged gently.

There’s no dearth of great gigs at the other end of the M62, either, as Californian pop-punk upstarts This Wild Life play Liverpool’s newest shoebox venue Korova on 12 Jan, before thrash metal three-piece God Damn tear the Wood Street venue a new one on 22 Jan. If you seek more opulent climes, however, then perhaps the grandeur of the Liverpool Philharmonic is more to your taste. Here – on 17 Jan – you can catch one of British rock music’s unsung heroes, Paul Carrack, mine the depths of an oeuvre that traverses three decades. More of a belts-and-braces journeyman than an eminent solo careerist – having recorded sessions for Roxy Music, The Smiths, Eric Clapton and B.B. King – he’s nothing short of a national treasure; let his slow-burning, winsome soft-rock warm your cockles.

On a similar wormhole-from-the-past trick, Fun Lovin’ Criminals are pushing the pulpits aside in Manchester’s Cathedral on 15 Jan, as the place of worship will be gloriously re-imaged in aid of the New York natives’ slightly-too-sleazy-for-church funkadelic canon. Disclaimer: those stood in close proximity to Huey Morgan are likely to be unceremoniously harangued and peppered with shards of shattered mug. If the thought of a Scooby Snacks-incited clap-along doesn’t pique your interest, then behold NME co-opted buzz band Darlia: the 90s-indebted Cobain class of 2013. On 21 Jan at Sound Control, expect previously unheard tracks to see the light of day alongside cuts from the Blackpool three-piece’s debut EP, Knock Knock.

Meanwhile back on Merseyside, there’s plenty more to keep your ears occupied this month as Poltergeist – the brainchild of erstwhile Bunnymen members Will Sergeant, Les Pattinson and Nick Kilroe – unleash their instrumental krautrock at East Village Arts Club; they're the pick of a clutch of eclectic acts on 24 Jan including confessionalists Neck Deep (at District) and the doe-eyed melancholia of virtuoso singer-songwriter Nathaniel Rateliff (at Leaf).

What about Manchester’s Soup Kitchen, though? Well, other than the aforesaid Nathaniel Rateliff (who swings by the Kitchen on 26 Jan), the intimate basement space will host the mercurial Kiwi Connan Mockasin on 24 Jan for a sold out show, which subsequently means you’ll hurl with jealously when everyone’s talking about it. That’s unless you already have tickets to see him unpick the clusterfuck of derailed electronics and wah-wah jazz chords that is Caramel, his sophomore LP. Besides, you could do worse than hunker down and get freakish to the caustic motorik assaults of East India Youth – the electronica/krautrock solo project of William Doyle. He’ll be treating gig-goers at both Gullivers (in Manchester, on 30 Jan) and Korova (in Liverpool, on 1 Feb) to swathes of cuts from his debut album Total Strife Forever, which hits the shelves on 13 Jan.

To put it plainly, there’s a wealth of gigs to salivate over this month, with strength in depth right across the board. We plead with you to remain faithful to the only New Year’s resolution that really matters: your collective and unwavering commitment to the Northwest’s live music scene. Welcome to 2014.

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Do Not Miss Bill Callahan @ The Ritz, Manchester, 3 Feb

Singer/songwriter Bill Callahan’s deep-pan baritone could crumble mountains to dust and traverse continents in mere minutes. But it doesn’t. Instead, on newest LP Dream River, the onus is firmly on less, not more, contorting conventional song structures to the effect of keeping his sardonic croons in check – resulting in a simultaneously authoritative and apathetic force of human nature. If his previous incarnation under the pseudonym of Smog cast him as something of a miserablist, Dream River’s no-hooks, no-thrills policy simply smacks of anhedonia. It’s totally cool, though, in an era that postures the contrived working-class heroism of Jake Bugg as genuine melancholia; his sparing words resonate with immaculate authenticity. And when he sings, “The only words I’ve said today are beer and thank you” on the album’s first track The Sing, he’s more poet than songwriter.

To miss his only visit to the Northwest – for a career-spanning set that straddles over two decades – would be a missed opportunity to peer voyeuristically into the sheltered world of a man of extreme introspection. Rest assured, those privy to his languishing, stripped-down strings and barely-there percussive arrangements will be gratified in a delayed and untimely manner. [Joshua Nevett]