She Past Away / ACTORS, Gorilla. 25th September 2026

I was caught out a bit last night, with a band delivering a set I wasn’t expecting. That can be good of course, but not always. I feel I might be on firmer footing tonight, with some Turkish darkwave from She Past Away.

Before that though, support from Canadian outfit ACTORS needs a mention. They deal in massive slabs of cinematic synths, dramatic bass and a hearty dose of soaring 80s vocals. It’s pop, very dark pop. Driving melodies underpinned by the sort of drumming that could be mistaken for a drum machine, if we couldn’t see the Ryan Gosling lookalike pounding away in the corner. They’re a good looking bunch and certainly look the part. It’s all very slick, stylish and sincere. We’re having fun, they’re having fun and seem genuinely humble to have pulled a full crowd early doors, although I suspect on home turf they’re used to much bigger rooms. They’d suit a bigger space for sure, with some genuine bangers in their arsenal, like ‘CTRL’, which sounds like a nailed on goth disco floor filler. They’re the sort of band you can walk in on cold and get swept up in. Very accessible. Instantly lovable. It’s lovely to see a crowd like this in Manchester too. Regulation black throughout Gorilla. Leather, lace and crushed velvet, the dark side looks healthy and quite frankly, utterly gorgeous.

She Past Away look the part too, all teased up hair and vampiric make up, although that could be the lighting, but it’s pure 80s goth. With minimal keyboards and a guitar, neither of the duo move all that much. They don’t need to in all honesty, they create a wonderfully deep doomy disco that’s rhythm sweeps throughout the room. Yes they’re heavily indebted to Sisters, but there’s less menace more dare I say it, euphoria, albeit the kind that might soundtrack a 80s slasher film. The vocals are dark, deep… and Turkish so a mystery to me, but they work with the Cure-esque guitar, the emotive synth and the relentless drum machine that really drives the whole endeavour. Over the course of an hour, it’s fair to say they don’t deviate from the script much and I’d be lying if I didn’t say they could do with switching things up a touch here and there, but it’s still great even if any variation in energy is largely down to the bpm. Great to see two bands flexing some goth love from opposite ends of the spectrum to a very polite and adoring bunker full of moody mancs.