Northwest Gig Highlights – February 2014

As the ever-miserable month of January finally fades into little more than an unpleasant memory, it’s time to congratulate ourselves. WE MADE IT, GUYS! It’s all in the past! We’re free to spend, and to live, and to love! Our pitiful finances will allow us to eat, or indeed drink, again! Today is a joyous day. So how shall we celebrate? Well, we could always go and watch some bands or something. Shall we see who’s on? Yes, let’s…

First of all, it is imperative that we begin our party by checking out Edinburgh-based hip-hoppers Young Fathers, who appear in both Manchester and Liverpool this month (the Deaf Institute on the 4th, and East Village Arts Club on the 5th). Their heads-down groove twists and turns around some pretty dark corners, but they’re more California than Caledonia: glistening future-pop to light up these winter months. On a more seasonally appropriate tip, Forest Swords’ chilling dub soundscapes also make an appearance at the Deaf Institute (8 Feb), doubtless leaving everyone discomfited but thoroughly thrilled.

Elsewhere, our old friends at Harvest Sun have yet another intensive month planned, starting with the unique stylings of Cate Le Bon (Leaf, Liverpool, 11 Feb – she's also at the Deaf Institute on the 15th). Psyched-out riff monsters The Wytches make a welcome return to The Shipping Forecast (13 Feb) before Cheatahs’ 90s-indebted slackerisms bring out plaid shirts in numbers at East Village Arts Club (19th), and Bristol’s own blues-tinged folkie George Ezra lights up Leaf (28th – also at the Deaf Institute, 24th).

Liverpool continues to offer variety this month, with the O2 Academy hosting everything from the goffier end of 90s frat-rock in the form of comedy cover veterans Me First and the Gimme Gimmes (2 Mar) to the wondrously ethereal Warpaint on the 20th; even East Village Arts Club seems to be getting in on the game, with reunited goons The Presidents of the United States of America playing their 20-year-old hits on the 24th, bringing along the lamentably named but rather ace Front Bottoms along with ‘em. Who knows what this means for the shape of punk to come in 2014? Hmmm. Best just go check out Big Ups’ angular post-hardcore at The Shipping Forecast in any case (25 Feb); your ears will thank you for it.

In Manchester, fans of all-conquering metal titans might be pleased to learn that they can check out Brazilian legends Sepultura (5 Feb, The Ritz) and their former frontman Max Cavalera’s Soulfly outfit (Sound Control, 26th), which doesn’t happen every day – but if it’s noisy guitars you’re after, then the exquisite pairing of Speedy Ortiz and Joanna Gruesome should see you right (16 Feb, The Deaf Institute). The former’s math-centric Massachusetts guitar mangling promises to sit well with the furious fuzz of their Cardiff tourmates – a genuine treat for fans of twisted noisepop.

A busy month at Gorilla sees visits from cult hip-hop leftists Dead Prez (10 Feb) and shoegaze-drenched psychedelicists TOY (24 Feb – they also visit Liverpool's East Village Arts Club on 28 Feb), but it’s Athens, Georgia’s favourite day-glo lunatics of Montreal (19th) that should really twist minds. Previous live shows have mixed trashy electro-glam with a surreal take on vaudeville theatre, but with recent album Lousy with Sylvianbriar paring down their more outré sensibilities, it’s anybody’s guess as to how they’ll choose to present it. Best go anyway, just to be sure. And if you prefer your rock thrills more chaotic in nature, you may as well check out Crystal Antlers at the Roadhouse for good measure (27 Feb).

The Night & Day may be fighting noise abatement notices at the time of writing, but they ain’t no slouches when it comes to packing 'em in. Take your pick from local lo-fi noiseniks Sex Hands with support from MiSTOA POLTSA (6 Feb), hotly-tipped anthemic types The Orwells (27th) or up’n’coming punkas Radkey (3 Mar).

There are no such problems over at Soup Kitchen, so why not indulge in Thumpers’ soaring melodies (17 Feb)? In fact, just make a note in your diary for Circa Waves (21st), if only to see whether Liverpool’s new favourite sons really can breathe new life into poor old indie. (They also join Interpol, Temples and Royal Blood to play Manchester Academy and Liverpool's O2 Academy as part of the NME Awards Tour in March – that's the 20th in Manchester, and the 22nd in Liverpool.)

One of the month’s absolute highlights comes in the form of NYC’s own Pharoahe Monch, who brings his ultra-complex rhymes and tight grooves to Liverpool's Kazimier on 19 Feb – and let’s just say you’d better have a darn good excuse for missing out. The Sundays-esque whispers of Paper Aeroplanes (25 Feb at the Deaf Institute, 26th at the Kazimier) seem as good a way as any to bring this month’s guide to a close, so we hope you’ve been taking notes. After all, it’s not like it’s every month that we’re as spoiled for choice as this… what’s that? It is? Right. May have just figured out why we’ve been so bloody skint.

DO NOT MISS:

Eagulls + Salem Rages + Mind Mountain + Autobahn
The Shipping Forecast, Liverpool, 27 Feb

It’s been a relatively quiet year for Leeds’ post-punk heroes Eagulls. Following 2012’s sterling self-titled EP, they’ve spent the last 12 months playing out with the likes of Fucked Up and Parquet Courts, working diligently and mysteriously on their long-awaited debut album. With that record finally due to see the light of day via New York’s Partisan Records on 3 March, they hit the road for a headlining tour that should cement their reputation as one the UK’s best live acts.

Drawing from the post-punk of Killing Joke and PiL, there’s an undercurrent of dark humour running through their best songs that calls to mind the indie foundations laid down by the Pixies – take frontman George’s manic insistence that 'I don’t think I have a problem, I just think I like to feel I’m possessed.' That particular track (the understandably titled Possessed) emerges red-eyed and woozy with the world’s dizziest guitar line, while retaining the hardcore-derived energy that sets the band apart from contemporaries dabbling in FX-laden noisepop – basically, they’re loud as hell, and they don’t care who knows it. Support comes from like-minded souls Autobahn, horror-punks Salem Rages, and motorik headfucksters Mind Mountain, ensuring there’s more than enough bang for your buck. [Will Fitzpatrick]