MONEY @ Pavilion Theatre, Festival Square, 12 Jul

Last issue's cover stars MONEY confirmed their love affair with Manchester by unveiling their debut album as part of the Manchester International Festival. In a pavilion in Festival Square (The Square Formerly Known as Albert Square), the band played The Shadow of Heaven in its entirety, save for some off-piste interludes.

Despite being such fervent Mancophiles – 'Manchester is Paradise' propaganda is distributed shamelessly throughout the show – the scope of their reference points makes it wrong to consider them an anomaly in relation to the festival’s ‘international’ agenda. In fact, the album, and thus the live show, draws inspiration from even further afield – lyrics are laced with metaphysical poetry and theological musings, yet are still grounded in intensely personal emotional conflict.

Accompanied by dreamy and disparate back projections, the band run an impeccably tight ship all the way through their “hell-descent” of an album, despite the maverick roaming of frontman Jamie Lee. The extended rendition of debut single Bluebell Fields, with its sweeping, synth-laden landscapes, unravels and reconstructs itself without ever losing direction. Current single Hold Me Forever, with its piercingly bittersweet instrumentation, showcases Lee’s much-documented choirboy vocals, which provide an element of piety that is somewhat offset by the likes of So Long, a song that insists ‘It’s a shame that God is dead.’

The relatively unheard Cold Water perhaps signals more strident things to come, eschewing tenderness for wholehearted delirium. If the album is a “hell-descent,” then this is the hysterical return to earth.

Considering the show’s drag queen compère and the a cappella accosting of audience members, it’s clear that MONEY have a desire to unnerve – or at the very least upset the balance. But if an institution like MIF can handle them, it might just beckon a new tide of guitar bands with eloquence and conviction. [Lucy Holt]