Review & Photography by Ritchie Birnie for MPM
This has been one of my most anticipated gigs for years. Having only discovered the band when I reviewed recent album What Doesn’t Kill Me and being completely blown away I was desperate to see how good this band is live and boy did I leave that venue impressed.
Not that the night went smoothly, from the moment they stepped onto the stage they were plagued with technical difficulties but it did not impact the show and the band just battled on through.
With it being Halloween the trip to the show was eventful but the only scary thing was the amount of complete idiots that are allowed to walk the streets unsupervised but the band stepped into the mood with Alez and his sideburns doing a cracking job of Chuck Garric (although, obviously far more handsome), Liam Barnes doing a cracking Hamburgler (McDonalds robber) and the main lady covering up that beautiful face with a Kiss/ Crow make up job.
They kicked off the show in style as they burst into “Get it off my Chest” and instantly Marissa’s voice grabs you, there are no YouTube videos that come close to the power inside that frame, the bar was set and throughout the night it was pushed higher and higher.
We then moved onto the debut with “Wither Away” and in just two songs you can see the progression this band has made in such a short time and this is obvious on “Fake it Till you Make it” but there is no faking here, MatM are the real deal.
Back to the debut for “69” which is seemingly about maths. Alez effortlessly pumps out the heavy assed riffs as the rest of the band try and rip your face off and that continues as we slip into “Slave” a song which obviously dips its toes into the Grunge that the band are labelled with (unfairly in my opinion).
“Choke” kicks the party into overdrive with the crowd going ape and singing every word back. A song that pushed the band forward and followed up with “Borderline” a totally different vibe, a different tone and a dive into Pop/ Punk with style.
Next we are treated to some solo action as Liam drops the bass, picks up the guitar and stuns us all with his voice…who knew its not just for shit talking and then Marissa, acoustic in one hand and heart in the other with “Straight Laced” and boy did this kick me in the chest with its impact…and I can confirm she was not the only one with tears in her eyes come the end of this song.
After we all got our composure back we jump into “Gaslight” and we may still dealing with the heart but this one reflects the anger, hate and shock of being ripped apart from the inside. This is musical violence and brutality and the band play it so tight and so heavy.
This set up the last quarter of the show, it was as emotional as listening to the latest album, We get rocked, we get drained and we are entertained throughout.
We get so many more bangers with the likes of “Serotonin”, “Devil”and set closer “Needy”and I wished that this show would not finish. the album is in my top 5 of the year and so is this show.
So many times my most highly anticipated shows have failed to live up to my expectations but Marissa and the Moths exceeded every hope that I had for this show and then some.
This band deserves to be seen by everyone, I would say once but after one show you will be back and I am already desperate to see them again.
