Live Review: Stereophonics - AO Arena, Manchester 18/03/2022
Photo Credit: Scarlet Page
Welsh stadium rockers Stereophonics return to Manchester in support of their most recent album Oochya.
One of the most interesting things that comes from writing about live music, is the sheer variation in the experiences. One night you might be avoiding piss-filled plastic pint glasses at a punk gig, fearing for what one might smell like after, the next, you could be peering through a haze of incense in a smoky jazz bar.
Tonight, as we descend the stairs into the vacuous core of Manchester's AO arena, these disparities make themselves glaringly obvious. Where last night's gig took us small but classy-in-comparison confines of The Met in Bury for something a little more local, the crowd tonight borders on capacity, with the floor, and both tiers, a teeming mass of bodies.
As the house lights dim, the sheer roar that engulfs the arena shows just how full it is, drowning out the first notes of opening number 'Do Ya Feel My Love?' before slipping seamlessly into the kind of sing-along that populates the entirety of the evening.
Indeed, with a career spanning nearly 30 years, you'd think it might be difficult to keep everyone in the crowd happy, but the band seem to manage it, with almost every track earning the kind of response often only reserved for the closing moments of a show. Of course, there are moments where the pace of the evening feels somewhat stymied, though more often than not it's the later material that causes this.
Much of this is saved for the first half of the show however. By the time an anthemic 'Mr Writer' is belted out by both band and crowd alike, both feel equally warmed up, and what proceeds is a litany of singles and sing-alongs that don't just show how good Stereophonics are live, that's unquestionable. But also show just how much this band mean to the crowd as well.
Tracks from earlier in the band's career such as 'A Thousand Trees' and 'Just Looking' ignite the arena into some of the loudest crowd performances we've seen in the venue, yet even more recent tracks such as 'Mr and Mrs Smith' still earn the band an impressive response.
This is followed up by the aforementioned 'Just Looking', a euphoric 'Handbags and the Gladrags' and an anarchic 'Bartender and The Thief' that whips the crowd up into a fervent frenzy, or as much as one as a middle-aged crowd can muster, before the band disappear offstage amidst deafening applause.
Of course, the obligatory encore is welcomed with the same response. A trio of tracks made up of most recent single 'Forever', 2019's 'Make Friends Til Mourning' and of course 'Dakota' which one again sees the crowd belt back every word as if their lives depended on it.
Though critically Stereophonics are a band who have struggled somewhat in recent years, leading doubters to think they just might be over the hill, their live shows are flawless and their music clearly means so much to so many. And whilst a couple of more recent records have fallen flat, this year's Oochya feels like the band aren't quite out of ideas. Don't write Stereophonics off just yet, especially as far as their shows are concerned.
Words by Dave Beech
