Lower Than Atlantis, Don Bronco, A Dangerous Summer and Gnarwolves

October 7th 2012

Manchester Club Academy

Club Academy is a small night club area hidden in the basement of Manchester University's student union.  It has a small bar and small stage but is a brilliant venue for intimate gigs.

Kicking off tonight was the Gnarwolves, a small up and coming band from Brighton.  They came onto the stage dressed in matching pizza take out tee shirts and treated us to a full on punk rock set.  The drummer was so enthusiastic that he even managed to break both his drum sticks (at the same time).

Next to the stage were A Dangerous Summer from Maryland USA.  The lead singer had a good strong gravelly voice and their songs were all original and good.  Not to be out done by the drummer of the Gnarwolves this guy broke both a cymbal and a drum skin.

Having seen some of the hype about Don Bronco I was excited to see what they were like but I was very shocked when they walked on stage.  For a band that graced this years Download Festival they didn't have a tattoo amongst them and looked like a mature version of One Direction!  However, although they looked like a boy band they sounded nothing like a boy band and instead of cheesy ballads we got face melting rock (with a few perfectly synchronised boy band dance moves thrown in for good measure).  Don Bronco managed to get a circle pit going and the whole crowd bouncing.  They may be the posh lads of modern rock but these boys sure know how to get the party going.

By the time that Lower Than Atlantis hit the stage the room was, as Mike Duce (vocals) put it "Hotter than the equator being f***ed by the sun". However this did not stop LTA showing us what they were made of.

"When the hairy man says jump up what are you going to do?" 

From getting the entire crowd to jump up in unison on his command to encouraging circle pits and crowd surfers Mr Duce showed who was in charge.

Playing new songs from their new album 'Changing Tune' as well as old favourites such as 'If The Worlds Was To End' and 'Deadliest Catch', the boys produced a brilliant high energy set that left the crowd begging for more.