LIVE REVIEW: Movements @ Club Academy, Manchester

The transition from Autumn to Winter is a time that can often start to feel pretty gloomy – the shorter days, often emerging and returning your home in darkness. And in terms of a soundtrack for that feeling, emo and post hardcore has to be up there to match it. Tonight’s headliners MOVEMENTS feel as though they simultaneously fit this while also having a summery feel to some of their new material. Fresh of the back of releasing latest album RUCKUS!, MOVEMENTS arrive in Manchester ready for a sold out Club Academy.

First up are Philadelphia-based rockers WEBBED WING arriving for the band’s first shows in the UK. The three piece bring a set ram packed with melodic driving grooves and feel-good energy. Movement for the trio is somewhat restricted with the two forward standing members in lead vocalist Taylor Madison and bassist Mike Paulshock singing for the majority of the set in tandem, the latter however swings his long locks around in an unhurried manner between vocal duties. The fairly muted crowd response is hard to gauge, but Madison brushes this off well joking that people don’t “like silliness that much here”. Despite the somewhat static response, their slow stepping grooves get most of the room nodding along and hopefully it won’t be long until WEBBED WING are back again.

Rating: 7/10

Sat in the middle of the bill, are Canadian duo SOFTCULT who emerge and bring a slow building ambient swell to welcome their free-flowing mix of grunge, shoegaze, and dream pop as they softly welcome opening track Spit It Out. The gentle melodies of lead vocalist and guitarist Mercedes Arn-Horn has an almost blasé presentation which is beautifully shrouded in the hard-hitting grunge setting as well as sitting at home in ambience. With tracks dedicated to cat callers who should mind their own business, how incels – women haters – can go fuck themselves and an announcement of “eat the rich”, they are not an outfit lacking in substance. The dynamic tracks are a beautiful combination of soft with harsh, muted vocals with headbanging guitar solos, and the room gratefully nods along with the group. They precede their closing track with a spoken word section dedicated to an abuser with the refrain of “you should’ve killed me when you had the chance”, a poignant moment in an equally strong-minded set. Ending with Arn-Horn’s guitar raised aloft surrounded by the echoing noise, they have notably endeared themselves to the room.

Rating: 9/10

In a flurry of disco lights and dance music, MOVEMENTS at long last arrive to the club academy stage and immediately incite movement in the room with opening track You’re One Of Us Now, sending the first crowd surfer of many over the course of the night sailing over the barrier.

Lead Pipe continues the energy with the whole floor bouncing for the choruses and arms raised throughout. Vocalist Patrick Miranda concedes that they had to cancel their last show in Manchester to excuse the amount of time since their last visit, meaning the crowd have to go twice as hard now that they are here. They incite this through playing an older fan favourite in Colourblind which has the whole room in full voice. Miranda transitions between crystal clean melodic vocals, biting screams and everything in between, with emotive spoken word sections only adding further gravitas to the impassioned singer.

In a very well-balanced set of older and new tracks, the outfit manoeuvre through their albums adeptly, Miranda accepting of the fact fans may not know some tracks off latest album but encourages the room to put in just as much energy regardless, which they dutifully do. “This is a song about someone you hate” he announces before plunging into bruiser I Hope You Choke with the crowd relishing in the titles yelled refrain. In contrast, keys led ballad Tightrope really allows the prowess of his vocals to shine. His total control bringing shivers during the line of “I would die to be somebody you could love”, only emboldened by the chorus of voices mirroring the emotional words back to the stage.

They close the night with three older tracks “two of which are high energy” discloses the ever-engaging Miranda, encouraging the room to give anything they have left which succeeds in erupting a circle pit and flood of crowd surfers to Deep Red and Kept, with the highest energy moments of the night appearing late on in proceedings. The lack of encore is a fresh perspective, announcing he thinks they’re “fucking stupid”, allowing the room the safe knowledge that fan favourite Daydreaming will be closing the night. A field of phones are raised aloft for the opening verse, which thankfully is replaced by bodies rolling over the barrier as the emo anthem continues.

MOVEMENTS may have had to cancel their last trip to Manchester, and the response seems to be a consensus that they have been missed, as a room of sweat and lost voices is all that is left once they depart.

Rating: 9/10

Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in Manchester from Jess Robinson here: 

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