The Devil Wears Prada
The Devil Wears Prada brought their Flowers Tour to Manchester New Century Hall on the 24th October, the ensuing energy blossomed into a great performance, sing along’s and rowdy energy in the Hall. Before that I have to mention the stellar acts on the bill before the Mighty TDWP though.
Oversize opened up by cutting through the bleak Manchester rain with a thick tinted wall of what I’ve been told to call grunge-gaze. A mix of heavy undertones and distorted shoe gaze was a perfect fit to catch the filling room, wake them up and get some movement going. They handled the early set with class and style and proved exactly why they deserve to be on the bill opening for such a great tour.
The chill vibes didn’t last long though, as Pittsburgh’s 156/Silence entered and immediately threw the crowd into a frenzy. They played a 30 minute set of non stop aggression, and the crowd absolutely loved every second of it. Primarily playing material from their album People Watching, with a few new songs from their album released this year From A Distance. Which is currently my album of the year! Red lights bathed the quintet for the majority of their set time, which seemed very fitting and in tune with the hyped up patrons of New Century Hall.
By the time the Parisian band NOVELISTS arrived, the crowd was already primed and engaged, front woman Camille Contreras took full control. Shifting from beautiful melodies to gut crunching screams on a flip of a coin. The whole band were completely in sync, giving just as much energy back to the crowd as they received. Overall they played a pitch perfect set, had astonishing songs and I genuinely can’t wait to see them again.
When the house lights dropped for the The Devil Wears Prada, the energy shifted from anticipation to immediate silence in preparation to sing every word from the crowd. TDWP played a stacked 18 song set with features from all Eras they’ve been through, feeling like an emotional rollercoaster.
After 20+ years of being a band, you can still feel and see the enthusiasm and love for their craft has never dwindled. Opening with the beautiful Where the Flowers Never Grow from their Newest Album, to closing with Hey John from Plagues. Every single word was recited back to them.
The whole band glowed with pure ecstasy on stage, bouncing off of one of another to deliver a perfect performance. Venue wide sing along’s ran by Jeremy DePoyster, to Mike Hranica pacing the stage with throat-shredding screams. The crowd ate it all up. I haven’t seen them since their new album was released, but this showed me that their new material holds just as much weight as their classics to the masses.
Final track Hey John, What’s Your Name Again? Transformed the venue into a sea of vibrations and crowd surfers shaking the building's floor. Proving that they aren’t sustaining on past glory, but on a continuous evolution of sound, and a love for their craft and fans.
It was a masterclass from all bands on the bill to show how a proper heavy music tour should be done.
