Summer is here. After a really difficult winter, and a very mild spring, we've made it.
Naturally, the highlight of Manchester's music scene this month will be Parklife. The festival in Heaton Park will draw in thousands to the city to see huge acts like The 1975, Fred Again, and Aitch, but it's worth remembering where they started.
That's why, for this month's grassroots gig preview, we've picked out some festival favourites playing away from a field - see Kurt Vile, for example - and some new acts (like Sir Chloe) who we think will be playing to various bits of British countryside soon. They're all playing in Manchester this month, so it's the perfect chance to support a venue and an act.
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We've also made time to celebrate some returning heroes (such as Mono), and the usual smattering of noise we need to keep this city singing. Festival season 2023 is upon us, and it's great to be back.
Sir Chloe — Band On The Wall — June 1
Indie-dream five-piece Sir Chloe was initially formed by frontwoman Dana Foote for a college project. A viral hit and a few years later, they’re dominating the alt-scene with quietly-rowdy tunes you can really melt into.
Track ‘Michelle’ went viral on TikTok - and it’s no surprise why, with its belting chorus and hints of ‘50s influences in its cadences. Debut album Party Favors soon followed in 2020, featuring stand-out tracks ‘Squaring Up’ and ‘Sedona.’
Constantly evolving, the Vermont-based outfit released second LP I Am The Dog last month. Explorations of love, control and agency are captured across 11 haunting tracks, with a thread of melancholy throughout.
Sir Chloe’s European tour is currently underway, with a date at Manchester’s Band On The Wall to kick off the month. Tickets are still available here.
Glass Beams — Yes (The Basement) — June 2
Melbourne-based musicians Glass Beams have embarked on a European tour. Making their way through the continent in May, their psychedelic sounding Indian-influenced music will arrive in Manchester at the start of the month.
The mysterious Australian outfit have only released four songs so far, but all 19 minutes of Mirage are magical. Think Khruangbin, but with sitars.
Recorded in 2020, the EP is an enticing introduction to the enigmatic band who will be exhibiting their ethereal Eastern-inspired sound in the basement of Yes on the first Friday in June. Tickets are still available here.
Mono — Band on the Wall — June 3
Japan’s love affair with shoegaze was, perhaps, one of the more surprising musical trends to come out of the 90s — but we’re ever-so-thankful the country fell in love with the genre. To this day, bands like Mono, Tricot, and Luminous Orange are still serving fans plenty of ethereal joy.
Mono are currently touring Europe, showing off their latest work, 2021’s Pilgrimage of the Soul, and last year’s soundtrack My Story, The Buraku Story. Those releases take the studio album count to 15 in total, having started out in 1999.
Gig-goers can expect a lot of wonder, and an equal amount of reflection in their carefully crafted songs. Some of those can run for more than 11 minutes, so it is a more ‘purist’ shoegaze outfit, so to speak.
Tickets are still available online.
Wednesday — Yes (The Basement) — June 5
The North Carolina quartet has shot to recent acclaim with their newest album, Rat Saw God. But this is actually Wednesday’s fifth studio effort - making that almost an album each year since their formation in 2017.
They keep busy by channeling their youth in the American suburbs. Karly Hartzman, the songwriter, vocalist and guitarist at the helm, takes you with her as she goes on a tour of her old neighbourhoods and haunts while plugged into her iPod nano which blasts early 00s rock.
But Wednesday makes the genre their own with increasingly loud and rumbly tracks. This band is at the crest of finding its voice.
You can get tickets here.
Le Tigre — Albert Hall — June 5
Eighteen years since they last appeared in Manchester at the Academy all the way back in March 2005, Le Tigre are visiting the Albert Hall on their first tour since reuniting. The US trio - Kathleen Hanna, JD Samson and Johanna Fateman - formed in the wake of Hanna's earlier band, Bikini Kill, who instigated the riot grrl movement.
Offering a DIY blend of danceable electropop, politics and colourful costumes, Le Tigre released three albums but took a break after 2004's This Island. However, they're now finding an audience with a new generation - see the mountain of videos on TikTok soundtracked by one of their best known songs, Deceptacon.
Their first reunion show, at a Californian festival last year, featured a setlist likely to please anyone hoping for a showcase of highlights from Le Tigre's original run. And the Albert Hall audience can expect more than music, too - multimedia performance art was a feature of their previous gigs.
Support will come from Belfast four-piece Problem Patterns. Tickets are still available.
Swim Deep - Manchester Academy 3 - June 6
Birmingham indie stalwarts Swim Deep are back in town for their 'Where the Heaven Are We' 10th Anniversary Tour. Yes - you read that right, it’s been a whole decade since the band released their debut offering.
Featuring fan favourites including ‘King City’ and ‘She Changes The Weather’, the indie pop band will play the LP in full at Manchester Academy 3. Announcing the tour, the band said: “We can’t wait to party with every one of you from the last 10 years and celebrate this very proud moment with us. I'll probably cry each night and so might you.”
Pongo — Band on the Wall — June 8
Born in Angola in 1992, Pongo grew up influenced by traditional Angolan songs, Caribbean Zouk and Brazilian beats. When she was eight she and her family fled the civil war and arrived in Portugal. Staying true to her roots she immersed herself in Lisbon’s Kuduro scene - a type of music and dance from Angola.
Initially recruited by a local band as a dancer, she soon picked up the mic and made a name for herself. In 2018 she released her first EP Baia in 2018, which was soon followed by her second EP UWA in 2020.
Her latest album Sakidila is a rich blend of genres and cultures, ranging from Afrobeats to Favela Funk, which she’s bringing to Band on the Wall on June 8. It’s the sort of music you can’t not resist dancing to. Tickets are still available here.
Glove — Night & Day — June 13
Hailing from the states, Glove sound Mancunian in some ways. The synth-driven beats of debut LP Boom Nights resemble those of New Order, while the vocals aren't entirely dissimilar to Joy Division's Ian Curtis.
Even the artwork of the nine-track album looks very eighties. But the musicians are doing their own thing and have moved on with a more modern - and perhaps a bit dancier - sound with their latest single, 'Chewing on a Wire'.
The four-piece from Florida will make their way around the UK in June for five shows including a slot supporting similarly synthy Nation of Language. The Manchester leg will be at Night & Day and tickets are still available here.
Eloise — Band on the Wall — June 14
Eloise’s part-British, part-French roots are clear to the ear within 15 seconds of listening to her. Born in the UK, but raised in Normandy, the 23-year-old singer-songwriter has had an interesting career to date.
She started out acting in an arthouse film aged 12, alongside Cillian Murphy and Lily James, and worked on the movie’s soundtrack with Damon Albarn. Five years later, she started posting her own acoustic numbers on social media.
Since those teenage tracks, Eloise has grown a sumptuous voice, with echoes of Jorja Smith in abundance. Simple and refreshingly transparent, Eloise’s show will be full of emotion and personality.
Tickets are still available online.
DMA's - Gorilla - June 14
After their biggest sell-out Manchester show to date at the O2 Apollo, Aussie band DMA’s are preparing to head back to town for their smallest gig in the city.
Celebrating the release of their latest album How Many Dreams, the trio will play a special set at Gorilla on Whitworth Street West.
The intimate venue will serve as the perfect setting for fans to hear both the band’s more recent offerings including ‘Fading Like A Picture’ and older hits like ‘Delete’ and ‘Silver’ up close and personal!
Kurt Vile & The Violators — New Century — June 19
For all his mastery of soft psychedelia, Kurt Vile’s greatest trick is his talents at turning his 70s influences into his own personal style of pop. Of course, Kurt and his band, The Violators, can turn out a drifting, happily rambling 10-minute soundtrack to a sunny day with the very best of them. Often, they come complete with a distinctly American blue-collar twang to his riffs.
Yet, with undeniable foot-stompers and head-nodders like ‘Pretty Pimpin’’ and ‘Loading Zones’, Kurt has proven his pop chops time and again. After all, this is the guy who named his solo debut album Constant Hitmaker.
Kurt has had a lengthy career - he was one half of the founding duo of indie rock band, The War on Drugs, and remained its leading guitarist for four years. A unifying force across his discography - from 2013’s Wakin on a Pretty Day to 2015’s Life Like This to 2022’s Mount Airy Hill - is his ability to whisk you off to the middle of some American forest, where he’s the resident plaid-shirted, long-haired oracle, leading songs round a campfire.
Watch him roll into town at the New Century Hall on June 19.
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