Live Review: Skindred - Manchester Academy 14/03/2024
To celebrate the release of their latest record Smile, Welsh rock act Skindred are embarking on a three-date tour and they have found the best place to begin: the home of punk, the centre of heavy music, the northwestern charm of Manchester. Taking over the Academy for a sold-out night of laughs, cries, cheers and arms, there is no better way to begin a tour than in this very spot.
Opening the night is one of the most exciting metal acts rising through the scene this side of the water, As Everything Unfolds. Promoting their latest studio release Ultraviolet, they guaranteed themselves a spike in sales from the first song performed. The energy is electric, the guitar chords fill the air, and frontwoman Charlie Rolfe has the sweet innocence of a nu-metal newbie but the deep and captivating vocals of a seasoned axe-smasher.
Playing through their latest hits such as ‘Flip Side’, ‘Felt Like Home’, and title track ‘Ultraviolet’, they got everyone jumping, singing, and maybe even a bit of moshing. That is the greatest honour a crowd can give an alternative rock opening act, and it was happily bestowed upon the High Wycombe act. It’s what they deserved and what they received.
Following on is an act that have made waves in nu-metal since the party years of the 90s and have been riding it through the decades. San Diego outfit P.O.D. took the second support slot to a roaring audience and they deserved no less. Bringing out their latest record Veritas later this year, they prove that punk never dies and metal never rusts; playing classics such as ‘Youth of the Nation’, ‘Southtown’, and the closer and overall crowd-pleaser ‘Alive’ alongside newer track such as the ever-so-catchy ‘Afraid to Die’ proves to be the perfect combination. Bringing together older fans from their humble beginnings and newer fans who are seeing and hearing them for the first time, music pulls everyone closer and bonds everyone tighter. P.O.D. made everyone promise to come back when they bring their next headline tour to the city and the promise was not even necessary - everyone was going to return, and everyone will. When the time comes, the metal will play, and the crowd will unify once again.
Time for the night to become much wilder and less predictable. Skindred are ready to rock the house down, and with the crowd bunched together and waiting patiently, it feels like it’s only a matter of minutes until they bring their charismatic blend of metal, pop, punk and reggae to the Manchester masses once again.
Coming out after an electrifying light show to the tune of AC/DC’s ‘Thunderstruck’, the group wasted no time and dove straight into opening ‘Set Fazers’; and this won’t be the only time the band samples other works in their live performance. Causing short-lived singalongs of the likes of Oasis’ ‘Wonderwall’ and Van Halen’s ‘Jump’, it further solidifies frontman Benji Webbe’s label as the most fun-loving frontman in rock right now. A man who is all laughs, all good vibrations, and most importantly, all talent all the time.
Mixing their crowd favourite hits with newer singles such as ‘Gimme That Boom’, ‘If I Could’ and ‘L.O.V.E. (Smile Please)’, it shows the lasting power of Skindred as everyone knew every word from the music of then to the music of now. The Newport metalheads were making the most of the enthusiasm, from pitting the crowd against each other in the loudest singing and chanting for ‘That’s My Jam’, or even Webbe’s constant wardrobe changes to bring out fringed leather jackets, large fur coats, and the now iconic pink bucket hat from the ‘L.O.V.E. (Smile Please)’ music video. As much as Webbe is a man of music, he is as strong a man of fashion.
The audience got moving on the real rock-party classics that got Skindred to where they are today. The likes of ‘Nobody’ and ‘Kill the Power’, and the one song that will always win over a Skindred gig attendee: ‘Warning’. The closer for this night’s show, ‘Warning’ is where Webbe and the band get everyone to take off their shirts, tops, jackets, and perform their arm-swinging trademark move, lovingly titled the Newport Helicopter. One that is as joyous and freeing as it is dangerous for the taller gig-goers, it was the ideal way to see the band off on the rest of their tour journeys for the week.
Skindred have never failed to bring a smile to someone’s face, and bring renewed faith to someone’s heart. Sharing his own stories of love and loss, and finding what he wanted to do based on the chance encounter of The Specials playing on his childhood television, Benji Webbe has made it his own mission to inform, entertain, and encourage those in the arts to never stop working, never stop trying, never stop taking chances. As he says, if he listened to people discouraging his dreams - such as his own brother Clifford - there would be no Skindred and he could never dream of that reality coming to fruition.
Whether it’s at a festival or at the local venue, when the opportunity to witness Skindred live presents itself, it’s always the smartest option to take it. Everyone will leave with a new lease on life, and a massive smile. And if Webbe has taught anyone anything last year, it’s that everyone needs to smile more.
Words by Jo Cosgrove
Photography by Maryleen Guevara
