LostAlone, The Dead Famous and Evarose

Lostalone, The Dead Famous and Evarose

Manchester Deaf Institute

February 23rd 2013

Tonight's venue was a new one for me. Having never been to Manchester's Deaf Institute I was unsure what to expect.

Manchester's Deaf Institute is an old stone building with three floors that features a basement bar, the ground floor cafe bar and a music hall on the top floor.  The music hall is a small concert room with a high stage and big domed roof.  It is decorated with flocked parrot wall paper and red velvet curtains with tier step seating to the rear and a bar on the far wall.  Whilst standing waiting for the show to start we got an added comedy show as many patrons did not read the lit bathroom sign for the boys room properly which stated that it was situated in the basement and opened the door below the sign to find a broom cupboard.  The girls room was located on the top floor at the back of the concert hall, however when you went inside it was decorated in bubblegum pink Dolly Parton Wall paper and was the smallest ladies room I have ever been in!

Evarose, an all girl rock band from Oxfordshire, were first to take the stage and although I had not heard any of their songs before I was really impressed with them. The lead singer had a fabulous strong voice and her vocals carried well over the rest of the band.  They had a good energy and you couldn't help but enjoy their performance.  I will definitely be checking these girls out the next time they hit the north west.

Next up were The Dead Famous a band that I first heard of thanks to Twitter. Drummer Dan Hetherton is very active on social networking sites and has been tweeting events and pictures from the tour to get fans in the mood.

The Dead Famous are a quartet from London consisting of James on vocals, Dan on drums, David on bass and Ollie on guitar.  Singing their single 'Superstar' as well as many other songs they showed why they are one of the rising bands on the scene.  

At one point James had to rescue Dan from an equipment malfunction (couldn't see what exactly from where I was stood).

Finishing with their current single 'Hide Your Halo' they left us with no doubt that we will be seeing more of these guys in the future.

Last up were headliners LostAlone from Derby consisting of Steven, Alan and Mark, )who is probably the tallest person I have ever met!)  Having seen LostAlone twice before I knew what I was letting myself in for............  or so I thought!

Although LostAlone started their set with technical difficulties (Steven had war of the world playing through his monitor instead of what he should have been hearing), although the crowd were unaware of the problem until Steven brought it to our attention during their opening song of 'Vesuvius'.  

Once the technical problem was sorted out Steven, Alan and Mark proceeded to rock our socks off playing songs such as 'Creatures', 'Paradox on Earth' and 'Do You Get What You Pray For?' from their album 'UFO in the City'

Half way through the set Steven picked up his acoustic guitar and walked into the centre of the crowd.  He then asked us all to sit on the floor with him while he sang 'Orchestra of Breathing'.  It was a completely unplugged, just Steven and his guitar with no loud guitars to hide behind.  Steven has an amazing voice and it showed even more during this part of the show. So much so that I got a major cases of goose bumps. In all of the years that I have been going to gigs I have never seen a singer do something like this.

The guys then carried on with the show with some rocking tunes, and a good old sing along to 'Love will eat you alive' to finish the night.  I always know that when I book a ticket for LostAlone I will not be disappointed and tonight they did not let me down.

After the show all of the bands came out into the concert hall to meet their fans.  All of the guys from all of the bands were really approachable and friendly and happy to meet their fans and spend time chatting and posing for photos with them.

There is one thing for sure after tonight.....  I will be going to watch all three of these bands again!