Manchester Music Review of Longcut Show - 25/05/06

Downstairs in the Student Union bar, there's a bizarre experiment in mind control going on. If you accept a free T-shirt being handed out on the door and wear it to the bar, you can get two free pints. The slightly sinister result is a bar full of identically clad people advertising something that's not immediately clear.

Meanwhile, those who dare to resist (or can carry two pints up three flights of stairs) are rewarded with The Nightjars. Mixing classic Northern post-punk urgency with Pavement and Sonic Youth influences, it's frontman Ollie Wright's intricate basslines which really makes them stand out from the crowd - the four strings used as a lead instrument to back up his darkly intelligent lyrics.

It seems like a long time since The Longcut played in Manchester, after a couple of months at the start of the year concentrating on London, followed by a national tour in support of the album which seems to have been imminent for as long as anyone can remember, and to call this gig eagerly anticipated would be something of an understatement. The trio wander onstage almost unobtrusively, Stuart presses a button and kicks off an hour of what can only be described as blistering intensity. Strobes flash almost constantly as the pulsing electrobeat grabs your central nervous system; stage lights render the band green and blue in front of a blood red background which complements their apocalyptic disco punk perfectly. And then there's -'The Moment'-, when he walks casually back to the drumkit, and even though most of those down the front will have seen -'The Moment'- scores of times, when he crashes the first cymbal and unleashes a blizzard of noise the crowd goes wild.

One of the regular criticisms of this band is that they only really do one thing. This is clearly not true; the popular image might well involve the hard post-punk frenzy of "Transition" with a mass of pogoing bodies shouting along, but there's a more atmospheric side to them too with almost orchestral post-rock epics which dispense completely with the three-minute rulebook. And an interesting choice of cover as well - not for these lads some cool Wire track or reappraised 80s kitsch classic, but a hard, dirty take on The Source & Candi Staton's rave anthem "You Got The Love" which they somehow manage to make sound like Cabaret Voltaire. "That's the last time we're doing that song... ever" muses Stuart afterwards in one of his rare addresses to the crowd, and a well-known local bootlegger smiles to himself.

Finally there's the majestic "Spires", six or seven or ten minutes of spiralling crescendo. The sound mix has been a little rough at times, and later I'm surprised to hear some fans further back saying they were a little underwhelmed, but down the front in the middle of the sound and light and atmosphere, this felt like every bit the triumphant homecoming we'd hoped for.

Cath Aubergine