This isn’t really much of a gig review I’m afraid. And it’s certainly not one of the glowing fan reviews I usually write.
I love Pure Reason Revolution’s first album “The Dark Third”, a superb album mixing atmospheric heaviness with wonderful vocal harmonies. So I jumped at the chance to see them live in Manchester, at a new venue to me, Moho Live in Tib Street. But the evening turned into something of a disappointment, which I attribute for more to the venue than the band.
To start with I turn up at the venue at 7pm as printed on the ticket only to find that the gig had been put back to 8pm. Not only that, there were two support bands, and the headliners wouldn’t take the stage until gone 10pm, which meant an expensive taxi trip hope unless I wanted to miss more than half of PRR’s set. Bollocks!
Then there was the confusion about the stages. There were actually two stages two different rooms; the two support bands on the main stage, and a whole host of what I presume were unknown local bands in a little room at the side. Early arrivals were directed into this small side room. There wasn’t any explanation at the door, but the list of set times making no mention of Pure Reason Revolution made me wonder. It wasn’t until I went to the loo that I actually realised there was another hall with a much bigger stage where PRR would actually be playing. In the event, this side room’s bands were timed to finish before PRR started, so in effect you had a choice of support. But it would have been nice if someone told us this.
The main hall was clearly a nightclub trying to pretend it’s a live venue. Converted from the ground floor of a warehouse it has a low ceiling meaning the stage is ridiculously low, with only the front three or four rows having a chance to see the band. From further back the view was obstructed by pillars and a bloody great staircase intruding into the middle of the room.
I positioned myself about three rows back from the centre of the stage for the start of Pure Reason Revolution’s set. While you don’t always get optimum sound down the front, what we heard was absolutely awful, very bass-heavy and muddy, with the vocals so low in the mix that those wonderful harmonies from the records were all but lost. PRR tried their best, and certainly rocked hard in places, but all the subtleties of their sound just got lost in the horrible mix. With sound that bad, their music didn’t really have much of a chance.
The band themselves really deserve another go – I’m not going to write them off as a band who sound good on record but can’t cut it live until I’ve had the chance to hear them in a proper venue with decent acoustics. As for Moho Live, I have no intention of going there again in a hurry.
