SKIES, Jimmy’s Manchester. 13th November 2019

I tend to go to gigs with bands I like or know there’s a very good chance I’m going to like. Hence most of my reviews are largely positive. Now I’ve said that, you’ll expect me to tell you that Skies are rubbish. Tonight is my first visit to Jimmy’s Manchester (there’s a sister club in Liverpool). It’s nice, pretty small, a good club venue. Shame in a way that it’s rumoured to be moving to larger premises, after being forced to make way for an office development (another one), but encouraging to see a grassroots venue not giving up and going on to bigger and hopefully better things. Back to the bands, first up is Lightscape. I generally go by the ‘If you’ve no kind words’ saying, so I’ll keep this brief. They play pretty standard power pop, it’s not bad, but to be honest I’ve already forgotten what they sound like. Some of the very unusual crowd seem to enjoy it though, so who am I to judge. What I will say is they do have some presence about them, new bands tend to manage to squeak the odd “erm” out between songs, but they’re chatty, energetic and that’s pretty refreshing, the music though isn’t for me. When headliners Skies take to the stage, there’s a genuine surge of excitement. I first saw this two-piece supporting The Slow Readers Club a couple of years back and they left a good impression. Euphoric synths ala Chvrches, but with guitars thrown over the top with pretty decent effect. If you listen on Spotify, it could be easy to dismiss them... especially if like me you tend to sway to darker sounds, which this certainly isn’t. You need to see them live to get it. There’s a heavy emo feel, a big sound, they’re going for anthems and it’s ambitious, but the backing track covers a lot of the heavy lifting, allowing Jericho Tozer (great name) to smash the drums, as Alie shreds and let’s loose with some pretty powerful vocals. It’s angsty, but with the edges rounded off a bit and if I’m honest that’s a shame. I’m here because of The Readers, as are several others in the crowd judging by their shirts, plus what seems like quite a lot of family/friends, giving the crowd the aforementioned unusual feel. Aaron from The Readers is here too, which is lovely to see. Bands supporting bands, cross-pollination of audiences, supporting small venues, the whole evening feels really positive and although I don’t think I can give either band five stars personally, the night, the first on their tour, is still a success and I do love the venue.