New Years Day – Manchester Academy 3 Review – 1st February 2025

After the concussion-filled antics of Silent Planet last week, it was another return to Manchester Academy this evening for New Years Day joined by Conquer Divide and Fearless Vampire Killers for what promised to be a night full of hard-hitting rock.

New Years Day is an American rock band from California formed in 2005 comprised of Ash Costello, Nikki Misery, Jeremy Valentyne, Brandon Wolfe, and Tommy Rockoff. This Manchester show was the final stop on their tour for their 2024 album Half Black Heart.

Photo Captured by McKenzie Jones for All About The Rock

Opening the set was FVK. I hadn’t heard much about them since they returned in 2022 after a six-year hiatus, so I was interested to see how they would be live. They came out in shirts and pants paired with Kevlar body armor vests. The six-song setlist covered songs from nearly their entire discography, including their 2024 single Back From The Void.

The set flew by with some hard-hitting tracks most notably the final track Neon in the Dance Halls which they were able to get the crowd singing back to and was a standout song in set list. I’m hoping we do get to see more from them in the near future and the wait to see them come back to Manchester isn’t as long as it was prior to this show.

Photo Captured by McKenzie Jones for All About The Rock

Following on from their set was Conquer Divide. I first heard about this band from their feature on the track Fuckboi by Electric Callboy on their seminal 2022 release Tekkno. The track was a great introduction to the band and whilst not fitting the rest of the album as much was by no means a bad song. Admittedly I never got around to checking out the rest of their stuff but they were a band that was on my radar.

Seeing them at this show seemed like the perfect chance to see if they held up to the same quality they gave on Fuckboi and I certainly wasn’t mistaken. Opening the setlist with Atonement (and admittedly a couple of technical issues) they got the lively Manchester crowd up off their feet and didn’t hold back for the entire 10 song set.

New member Spencer Maybe adds amazing lower pitched growls to go along with Kiarely Castillo’s clean vocals for a pairing that I do hope is a permanent one as the two are able to accompany one another so well especially in some of the earlier songs such as Chemicals & Pressure. 

Standouts in the set also included system_failure and the newest single the band has to offer Bad Dreams. The band managed to create a lively atmosphere despite having to fit onto an admittedly cramped stage. They are returning to Manchester in a couple of weeks to take the stage at Rebellion and I will definitely be heading over to catch them live again.

Photo Captured by McKenzie Jones for All About The Rock

Finally, New Years Day took to the stage to close out the evening. The show was building up with the emo anthems of Helena & I Write Sins Not Tragedies getting the crowd singing along. The lights went dark and Pantera’s Domination began and the energy in the crowd was dialed up to 11.

Before I talk about how good the show was I have to turn on my photographer brain for a quick rant; especially at this gig where at the highest I counted eleven photographers taking shots for various publications. It became a problem when the lighting for almost all of the three songs was incredibly poor for photos. When we have so many photographers at a gig and a band wants to put the three-song limit into effect which is something I completely understand my only ask is for the crew to make sure lighting in these songs is sufficient enough to allow us to do our jobs too.

Rant over so now it’s time to get back to New Year’s Day. The stage presence that these have is incredible and makes the show a genuine joy to watch. One example of this was in the song Come For Me. The rest of the band act almost like marionette puppets and Ashley is the one controlling them on the stage. Not only were they a band that sounded amazing they were able to put on a show to match the quality and could easily perform on a stage of any size.

The Pantera didn’t stop with a cover of Fucking Hostile being put into the set for good measure and come on, who is ever going to complain about getting to hear Pantera songs in a setlist. The band came back out for one encore doing Kill or be Killed ending the set on a high note and sending the Manchester crowd home happy.