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Gig Review: The Breeders @ Manchester Academy 2, 14th April 2008

The Breeders @ Manchester Academy 2, 14th April 2008The new Breeders album, Mountain Battles, is a bit of a grower, by all accounts. I hope it’s true as I was pretty underwhelmed after a couple of listens and haven’t been back since, mainly due to there being not enough hours in the day. The Breeders’ gig at the Academy 2 last week was also a bit of a grower, starting off in subdued fashion with a slowed down version of The Amps’ “Tipp City”. If there was little enthusiasm on stage, save for the ever grinning Kim Deal, there was even less in the crowd as many of the gathered 30 and 40-somethings barely seem to have noticed that the gig had started. “Huffer” got a few heads nodding and while I was lapping up their excellent cover of Guided By Voices’ “Shocker In Gloomtown” others seemed to be getting restless, already starting with the pointless requests for “Cannonball”. It wasn’t until “Happiness Is A Warm Gun”, the first of three selections from their brilliant debut, Pod, that both band and audience suddenly came to life and set the tone for the rest of the evening. From then on there was banter aplenty between sisters Kim and Kelley and the crowd, as well as a bit of good-natured heckling. And there were plenty of great songs; “Pacer”, another Amps track, was a bundle of brisk country harmonies while the eerie “We’re Gonna Rise” was a great advert for the new album, as were “Overglazed” and “German Studies”, which were saved for the encore. They rolled back the years with crackling versions of those other Pod tracks, “Iris” and “Fortunately Gone” while the inevitable “Cannonball” was as scruffy as Kim Deal herself (she might have been wearing her office best on the Pixies reunion tour a couple of years back but with The Breeders it’s definitely dress-down Friday every night) and pretty much summed up the whole gig: a stuttering start but then electrifying, ramshackle and great fun.

The Breeders – We’re Gonna Rise

The Amps – Pacer

Posted by The Ledge on 23rd April 2008 at 7:03 pm | comments (2)
File under Gig Reviews,manchester academy 2,mp3,Reviews,the breeders.