Live Review: Hollywood Undead - Manchester Academy, 25/01/2018
Hollywood Undead on their recent UK tour when they made a pitstop at the Manchester Academy, with support coming from The One Hundred.
Supporting a band as big a Hollywood Undead is not an easy task, especially with the amount of people in the venue. With a clean and minimal stage setup consisting of two lights and their instruments the guys put on a high energy performance with great professionalism. Lead singer, Jacob had a badass yet surprisingly dancey stage presence, making the set entertaining to watch. Despite a lot of the crowd being unfamiliar with the band they had warmed up to them very quickly and before I knew everyone was bouncing their arms and moshing. After throwing in a cheeky dab, Jacob ask the entire from the get down on the ground. They did as they were told and as soon as the drop kicked in everyone was up in the air. I could definitely feel the ground shaking. To close up their set the band played ‘Downfall’ the crowd were singing back every word. To close the song Jacob chanted ‘OGGY OGGY OGGY’ to which you can imagine everyone chanted back ‘OI OI OI’ completing the set, it would’ve been a hard set to beat.
After a short wait with the bands ‘five’ banner draped in front of the stage, the lights went out and smoke filled the visible edges of the stage. Lights illuminated the banner and it dropped.
Hollywood Undead were here to tear the venue down.
Smoke flooded the stage and the rap/rock group entered to the stage taking the places. One of the members pulled out the English flag with a Manchester bee printed on it to show support for the music scene and to those affected by the horrible attack at Manchester Arena last year. I looked around the stage, it was completely occupied, members everywhere. Their chemistry was seamless. You could tell they’d been at this for a long time and put a lot of effort and dedication in to performance and stage presence.
The chosen backdrop for this tour was a mock-up of the Hollywood sign with undead underneath. It was simple but impressive. The stage lighting was also extremely well done. The band members were switching from vocals to guitar and back to vocals like there was no issue. I noticed a figure moving in the corner of my eye. One of the guys was sporting the England flag around his shoulder like a cape. I thought this was a great gesture, it also led me to notice a bra that had been thrown up and hung on a microphone stand. The venue was packed by this point with tons of fans singing every single word. I’m not kidding when I say every single word either. There was moshing, circle pits, the lot. There were people surfing the entirety of the crowd all the way into the photo pit. As I was admiring the lighting a sudden flash of light arose, and sparks came flying up across the back of the stage with streams of fog from the front. I was truly astonished I hadn’t seen a performance like this in a long time. You could tell they were very focused on the theatrics of this show. I hadn’t seen them before or really listened to them at that but after watching this show I would highly recommend anyone thinking about catching them on tour should do so!
Words and Photography by Tomm Lee