Howler live in Manchester
- By Lauren Mullineaux -
- Feb 01, 2012
We all know how gigs work these days, which is why we all turn up as late for them as I did for the Howler show at Manchester’s Deaf Institute. But with all the hype they’ve been getting of late the small upstairs room was packed tight with, “Excuse me,” and, “Sorry,” flying out of as many mouths as stern glances from bowed heads.
Quickly stepping onto the stage to give the bodies something to direct their attention to was Man Made a young local man—who knew? It takes guts to stand on stage in front of that many people alone with just a guitar and it takes something special for one man to stun an audience into silence; Man Made sadly didn’t quite quash the chatter.
His songs were finely crafted, his guitar playing and looping impeccable, his voice a soft velvet with edgy Gallagheresque moments, in theory Man Made is perfect and yet in practice he is dull. So dull in fact that he had to compensate by wearing a gold sequined jacket. After he played ‘Slowdance’ the audience were talking about him that’s for sure, but most people were naming other musicians that he sounded like while I was wondering when Razorlight’s lawyers would be joining the festivities. Luckily he mentioned Howler a few times which is who we were all there to see.
Howler took to the stage with swagger and proceeded to ooze attitude for the rest of the evening. They spent about as much time playing songs as they did bantering with each other and heckling their sound man for not putting set lists on stage, when they did play songs though they were as note perfect and reckless as they are on record.
Bequiffed guitarist Ian Nygaard was the epitome of old school class as he twisted around the stage in his pointed boots. The band raced their way through ‘Beach Sluts’, ‘Back Of Your Neck’, ‘Free Drunk’ and every other classic that they created on 'America Give Up'. They swapped instruments, broke strings, and harmonised with passion.
19 year old Jordan Gatesmith was relishing his opportunity to live the rock and roll lifestyle swigging from the communal bottle of JD and pandering to the crowd. The crowd though were largely docile with only the odd person showing signs of life which is strange because not only are the tracks energetic, but Howler are one of the most effervescent bands around.
This is a band that simply don’t accept not looking cool and while they give the audience a crash course in guitar rock smashing through an array of songs that could have come from The Strokes, The Ramones, The Beach Boys, or The Jesus And Mary Chain it’s hard not to think that these bands are merely the cold sweat that drips off of Howler in the course of an evening.
Howler are only two years old and they play with all the joyous immaturity of an infant, they are a band that are happy to be where they are right now and it shows in their performance. Howler play like every band should. The question isn’t ‘are Howler America’s only hope for a decent guitar band?’ But when will America notice that Howler are a decent guitar band?
By Lauren Mullineaux. Blogs at metajunkies and tweets at @trachimbrod
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