Live Review: The Menzingers - Academy 1, Manchester 07/10/2022
Pennsylvania punks The Menzingers return to Manchester two and half years since their last visit for a show that’s chaotic, cathartic, and couldn’t be more perfect.
Back in early 2020, weeks before the world went to shit, Pennsylvania punks The Menzingers played to a capacity Albert Hall on a wet Saturday night in Manchester. It was a glorious evening. Chaotic and cathartic with a joyous crowd blissfully unaware of what was soon to follow.
It was a show made even more special given the fact that, for the 1800 in attendance, it proved to be their last show in a very, very long time. Fast forward two and a half years, and thankfully things are a little different. Shows are back in full force, and that same capacity crowd that filled one of Manchester’s most iconic venues back then, have done so tonight too.
Unfortunately arriving a little too late to catch either support thanks to another particularly vicious Mancunian downpour, hail and all. It’s a shame, given both Sincere Engineer and Joyce Manor are bands we’ve yet to catch, but there’s nothing punk about the pneumonia.
Late yet dry, the venue’s already full as we take our place in the crowd, hoping that the same sound issues that plagued the Academy last night aren’t going to rear their heads today. It’s a fear that thankfully proves unfounded. The band wait for the roar that greets them to quieten before they launch into the finger-picked intro of ‘Good Things’; the sound as clear as one could hope for over the chorus of voices that sing back each and every word.
It's a fitting opener, given that the reason we’re here tonight is to celebrate 10 years since the release of The Menzingers third record On the Impossible Past, it was the album that turned me onto the band, and from the looks on the faces of much of the crowd, the same goes for them.
Though not a full run through of the record, all of its highlights get an airing, alongside fan favourites from across the band’s canon in what ends up as near to a perfect Menzingers’ set as possible. Instantaneously, moshpits open up as crowd surfers soon begin pouring forward in a torrent as impressive as the earlier weather.
Tracks such as ‘Gates’ and ‘Burn After Writing’ nestle in effortlessly alongside more recent offerings such as ‘America (You’re Freaking Me Out)’, and the crowd response for each shows no sign of favouritism; later tracks received just as fervently as those that have been staples in the setlist for years.
‘Your Wild Years’ marks the halfway point of an already packed set. A brief moment of respite amidst the catharsis, it’s The Menzingers at arguably their most tender and serves as the perfect segue into the last half of their set.
And what a second half. A duo of ‘Anna’ and ‘Last to Know’ wrap up tracks from their most recent record before an anthemic version of ‘The Obituaries’ sends the whole room into a frenzy of flailing bodies both in, and above, the crowd.
‘Who’s Your Partner’ sees material from the band’s rawer second record Chamberlain Waits get some airtime, whilst both ‘Sculptures and Vandals’ and ‘In Remission’ close out the main set on a surprisingly more sombre note than one might expect.
Of course, those who’ve seen the band live before known there’s plenty still in store, and as they stroll back on stage and the crowd’s roar is replaced by the opening chorus of fan favourite ‘Lookers’, it’s impossible to fight the goosebumps. ‘Ava House’ follows it, whilst the traditional ending of ‘After the Party’ ignites the crowd for one final riotous moment of cathartic unison that leaves us blinking into the houselights, some of us battered, some of us bruised, all of us wearing the same sort of shit-eating grin that can only come from spending 90 minutes in the presence of one of the best punk bands around at the moment.
Words by Dave Beech
Photos by Maryleen Guevara
