Live Review: Sea Girls - Manchester Academy, 17/10/2019
Indie rock quartet Sea Girls visited Manchester on Thursday night to play to a sold out, very energetic Academy 2. This comes after a string of incredible festival slots for the band this last summer, including Community Festival and Reading and Leeds.
Up and coming Liverpool rock band The Mysterines opened up the night, treating the crowd to a very lively performance of their hits. On the set list were ‘Take Control’ and ‘Gasoline’, while the crowd very clearly enjoyed the band, gracing each other’s shoulders and creating mosh pits. One great aspect about The Mysterines was the incredibly heavy bass rhythms of their tracks, especially in ‘Hormone’, which I found reminiscent of bands such as The Blinders.
Screams filled Academy 2 as Sea Girls appeared on stage, to the background of their classic three wave logo. Starting with ‘Violet’, their audience were on their feet from the very first note. Something that became apparent within the set, was that the band began their most popular songs with a simple, barely recognizable, chord arrangement of it on the guitar. This truly built suspense for the song to come, and made the crowd go wild when they began to recognise the tune. This was the case for ‘All I Want to Hear You Say’, which really was a highlight of the show, as the entire room shouted with the band ‘If you’re in Manchester will you come to my show?’.
Sea Girls are known for their summery, and both equally catchy and bouncy music, which is what makes them such a great festival band, but last night it was evident they could capture a small room in the same way. During ‘Damage Done’, front man Henry Camamile, donned in a vivid blue football shirt, made his way through the crowd to the sound desk at the back. This was a great effort for the security, but to the absolute delight of their fans. Other tracks played included ‘Too Much Fun’, ‘Open Up Your Head’, and a brand new unreleased song titled ‘Forever’, whereby the audience were asked to ‘light this place up’ with their phone torches.
Shouting that ‘Manchester makes us feel amazing!’, the band spent a while speaking about their belief that their gigs should be an inclusive and safe space, especially for girls, making them not just great performers, but great people as well. The energy of the audience never ceased, especially due to a surprise cover of The Cure’s ‘Friday I’m in Love’ during the encore. Camamile interacted with his crowd to the very end, bringing his mic down to the barrier for ‘Call Me Out’ so he could sing with the front row.
Overall, a fantastic show put on by Sea Girls, truly making them one of the most exciting bands on the indie scene at the moment. They are going from strength to strength at every gig, and I can’t wait to see them grow.
Words and Photography by Jess Foster