Kill The Silence, Silent Confidant and What Will Be – Gulivers MANCHESTER; 11TH JANUARY 2025

Well… I never thought I’d be saying this but the 11th January marked a monumental moment for me. After my previous review when I visited this certain venue I had a fair lot of negative to throw around about this place however I feel I need to state tonight’s show has been some sort of small redemption for the venue (If you would like to read what was said you can read the article >> HERE <<). Which venue are you on about Laura? I hear no-one asking but I’m going to tell you – Gulivers, Manchester. Gulivers located on Oldham Street in Manchester’s Northern Quarter left a somewhat bitter taste in my mouth last time I was here and I swore to myself that I’d avoid this venue for future adventures, but after receiving a very lovely message from one of the bands on tonight’s line up – I thought you know what it’s 2025, New year… New me… Let’s give it another shot. Begrudgingly I dragged my ass to Manchester in the cold and snow thinking “Oh god, Why am I doing this to myself?”. I’d like to just say this thought process was no way in relation to the acts playing tonight but my internal PTSD from last time I was at this venue. I even agreed to bring my camera along for this venture after giving myself a mental breakdown dealing with the post-editing from the last spectacle of over cast red lighting but tonight was pleasant, it was nice (blegh, the word nice is grim) and I tell you something I actually enjoyed it. There were some seemingly some small technical difficulties throughout the evening but these could be easily overlooked, it happens to the best of people at the best of times and let’s face it technology can be a blessing and a curse.

First to take the stage on this evening were What Will Be. Now I didn’t really know what to expect with these guys I’d listened to their releases on spotify and thought, it’s “okay” and came to accept this isn’t my sort of music that I’d usually go out of the way to listen to just due to personal preference but I’ll approach this with an open mind. Queue the revelation – I loved them.

The band showed great charisma on stage with a very strong stage presence and knew how to interact with the crowd which is always something I adore to see during shows. If I was to categorize them in genre wise I’d probably describe their style as alternative / progressive rock and they do it really well, really fucking well actually.

 

Hailing from Manchester (Represent) I would definitely go and check these guys out again if they played another local show, loved the experience, loved the music and just really liked the fact that each song performed brought a new layer to their overall showcase. Well done lads, you have converted me.

Following on from Manchester locals were Silent Confidant. On the line up in general from a brief browse beforehand on the bus up (you know, be prepared and that… I’m joking I do like to go in with a very open mind to bands I’m not familiar with and enjoy actually having a surprise when the bands play so try to keep my listening time beforehand to a minimum) these guys in theory would have been what I would be looking for when seeing live music. Loud, noisy and obnoxious metal-leaning music – if it doesn’t sound like the vocalist is being sick at least once are you even doing it right comes to mind.

One thing I would like to comment on about this band before anything else, I absolutely applaud the humor these guys brought to the stage because I’m an immature twat I found it hilarious, would it be for everyone? Certainly not but I enjoyed it and it’s my review so fuck giving some pedestal talk about levels of humor and hitting target audiences – all I can say is keep that sort of vibe going, it was great to see. Musically, I feel sometimes that there was a slight off-mix with some of the sound and it was great to see the band identified this issue themselves with constantly requesting for things to be changed throughout however it did sometimes feel like these requests were falling on deaf ears which I can’t discredit them for so have not taken this into consideration in terms of performance value. My only negative for this set was I did get a bit “meh” with the ‘Wonder Wall’ cover – this is once again just my personal preference I absolutely hate Oasis and would rather shit in my hands and clap than listen to any rendition of their material – the positive is the crowd seemed to enjoy it and that’s all that matters in terms of music.

 

 

Overall, was an enjoyable set the mixing issue with sound did make it slightly grating but once again it was more triggering the flashbacks to last time being at Gulivers rather than the band themselves which is why I’ve stated and will state again for the record we’ll overlook that however it did effect the showcase a tiny bit but I would also go and see these guys again and would recommend if you have a sense of humor they are definitely a band that you should not sleep on.

Headlining the show for the evening was Kill the Silence, if it wasn’t for the kind invite from these guys this evening this gig may have not been something I had even heard of so firstly, I’d like to offer a gracious thank you for the invite as you have introduced me to not just yourselves as a solid band but also both bands who opened this evening. Coming from just up the road from Yorkshire this is a band I haven’t had much exposure too (Surprise, right?) however I’ll be honest I really enjoyed their music and their show.

I did have to leave a little bit earlier than I would have liked to due to being informed my water tank had burst in my house and there was water everywhere (bit of an overshare you didn’t need to know but hey, we’re all friends here). I feel it should be mentioned on thing I did love about this band was the synergy between members as a photographer alongside reviewer I often observe interactions between people on stage and there were some moments throughout the set which made you think “these guys work together”. It was great to see happy smiles and co-ordination that radiated through a very professional and polished overall stage presence even on a stage as small as Gulivers. There was a lot of low key dramat in movement from all members and the interactions that occurred on stage which I felt bolstered the overall experience for the evening.

Musically it felt a nostalgic nod to that awkward moment in music where people didn’t know if they wanted to listen to metal, pop punk or just somewhere in between not saying that’s a negative in anyway it was a very wholesome feeling that there are still bands out there blending the lines of genre. I’m sure I’ve used the word genrefluid before in one of my reviews so we’ll go with that for my descriptive with a nod to old alternative rock and a bit of progressive rock included. I would highly recommend seeing these guys also if you get the chance for both a musical auditory experience and also an entertaining stage show (a three for three hat-trick for the evening – just saying).

All in all, the evening felt really well organised and showcased some amazing talent throughout a variety of locations in the UK. I feel the fact as well that not all the bands were the same genre with What will be making the joke at the start of the evening proclaiming they were “not metal” worked really well for the evening keeping it interesting and engaging. As mentioned above, I would happily go and see all of these bands on this line up again and would highly recommend if you get the chance to check these guys out if you see they are playing local to you (or travel, go on an adventure – live a little!).

FOR EVERYTHING WHAT WILL BE CLICK >> HERE <<

FOR EVERYTHING SILENT CONFIDANT CLICK >> HERE <<

FOR EVERYTHING KILL THE SILENCE CLICK >> HERE <<