You don't get many cooler venues in Manchester with a decent capacity (2,290) for acoustics than the Albert Hall, so this old church was just the perfect setting for what was a night of elctropop heaven!
First up were French due Double Mixte. I'd never heard of them prior to the set list announcements that afternoon. As with most of the support bands I go and see these guys were superb. Their music was beautiful, their lyrics were in French (mostly) and if anything it made their performance even more magical.
Up next were DESIRE who are Megan Louise and multi-instrumentalists Johnny Jewel and Nat Walker who are also in Chromatics and other Italians Do It Better Groups. Another band that I hadn't listened to or heard before tonight but one that nevertheless blew me away. Singer Megan Louise has a haunting voice and couple this with her mesmerising dancing and magnificent electronic music and you have the perfect trio. Their cover of New Orders Bizarre Love Triangle going down especially well with the Manchester crowd.
Last and by no means least were Chromatics. You know I don't know if anyone else noticed but the Albert Hall has a flag pole outside the main entrance. There was a checkered flag hanging there last night which was obviously a subliminal reference and I loved it. Understated yet present.
They took to the stage around 5 minutes late and the anticipation from the now packed Albert Hall was fizzing. You could feel the electricity in the air. I just couldn't stop dancing, smiling, singing and being in awe of this incredible band. Not only did they do many many of their own hits they also managed to pull off 2 incredible covers with Running Up That Hill, (that one) as well as Ruth in the encore doing I'm On Fire - just magical.
Some bands are cool, some bands are super cool - Chromatics are absolute zero. They're that cool.
This band have been around since 2001 yet most people I told I was going to see them had never heard of them. Their latest album Closer To Grey was released a few weeks ago to much critical aplomb and rightly so. These guys are absolute geniuses of their craft and if you're a fan of electronic music and you've not listened to them then do yourself a favour and do so.
*I did video many songs from tonight's performance, however Italians Do It Better the record company for all of last nights artists commented on one of them asking me to remove all videos from that nights performance. As I respect their wishes I've since deleted them from YouTube. I ve emailed them asking if I can embed them into this article. The response is outstanding.
Spotify:
As always all pics are my own:
