| The last time ex Moldy Peaches2000
member Adam Green was in Manchester supporting Cerys Mathews,
he never moved from
his chair and played an intimate solo acoustic set. This time
he was accompanied by his band who entered the stage first,
before Adam bounded on to stage with the exuberance of a spring
lamb and threw himself into the opener ‘Bluebirds’.
Tonight couldn’t have been more different as Adam bounced
around the stage with the vigour of an aerobics instructor,
clearly relishing the company of his band mates and the freedom
that this gave him. The title song from his latest album ‘Friends
Of Mine’ went down well with the masses who warmed to
the young Mr Green, as the set progressed. They responded to
his mixture of tenderness and ‘South Park’ style
humour, which was epitomised in the intriguing song ‘No
Legs’.
Front man of the headline act The
Thrills, Conor Deasey was keen to demonstrate that the
Irish quintet are not merely
a The Beach Boys tribute band singing the wrong songs. He
attempted this by doing the Rock n Roll thing of making a
point of swearing in his communication with the crowd. The
tender ‘Your Love Is Like Vegas’ was utilised
early on alongside the slower ‘Till The Tide Creeps
In’, that hadn’t been played much in previous
live performances. The crowd never really got into the set
until the previously released single ‘Big Sur’ got
them bouncing. The Thrills with their growing popularity
attracted a larger than average number of the ” too
cool to care hands by their side” brigade, despite
attempts by the guitarists to get some rhythmic overhead
handclapping going during the slower numbers.
There was the neat addition of background
videos for some of the songs. The highlight being the in
keeping with their
USA trend an opening to the sitcom “Cheers” style
video to the new tune “Whatever Happened To Corey Haim” an
interesting track about somebody who never existed. Fittingly
the track that made them known ‘Santa Cruz You’re
Not Far’ that got the liveliest crowd response and
ensured the band left to a heroes reception. The encore saw
the evening end with next single “Don’t Steal
Our Sun’, containing thumping drum beats and melodic
guitars, made sure things ended on a high and that The Thrills
bandwagon will keep on rolling.
David Adair
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