Skunk Anansie, Manchester Academy. 18th August 2019

We’re here tonight to see 90s rockers Skunk Anansie, but before they even hit the stage, support act Queen Zee threaten to steal the show. I’ve been itching to see Queen Zee for months and was not disappointed. Half an hour of high energy, punk-pop-rock, ear drum destruction. They’re a five headed assault on the senses, all leather clad, pogo jumping, guitar shredding, ball of lyrical wit and it’s absolutely fabulous! By far the best thing to come out of Liverpool in years. But on to the headliners. I called them 90s rockers, but that’s underselling it, something this band always suffered from. They were never strictly cool, not hard enough for the rock fraternity, too hard for the indie kids, the 90s were all about musical tribes and Skunk Anansie didn’t fit, but that was the whole point, they were different. The focus was always on Skin, she was gay (probably still is I imagine) and that scared the homophobic lad culture, couple that with her being black, intelligent and outspoken, Skin made for a scary badass front woman and it’s this take no shit attitude that fans took to... that and a truly magnificent voice. None of that has changed I’m pleased to say, Skin still kills it, which is just as well really, take her out of the band and you’re not left with much. Sure the rest of the band are competent backing, but it’s Skin who’s the star and blimey can she sing. I’ve never seen her live before and it’s quite something. Unfortunately Skunk Anansie are one of those bands where I liked the debut album, then lost interest, so there’s a lot of filler. In a set with over 20 songs this got a bit tedious, but hearing the songs of Paranoid & Sunburnt was still a treat. What wasn’t a treat was again the rudeness of a sold out academy audience. I don’t know if I’m getting more cranky (more than likely) or people are just increasingly unaware of how to behave in confined spaces, but I ended up telling several people to fuck off. I can’t say it was a great set either, I’d say I knew about a fifth of the songs and only enjoyed those and a handful of ones I hadn’t heard before, including a brand new, as yet unrecorded ‘This is War’ that proves this lot aren’t quite done yet. What I said before about being too hard for the 90s indie kids really doesn’t stand though, as a lot of this falls into soft rock territory and is instantly forgettable. As the encore heats up they blast out ‘Highway to Hell’ and ‘You Love Us’ and this proves the danger of putting covers in your set... they make your songs sound shit. Such a shame for a band that wrote stuff like Intellectualise My Blackness and Little Baby Swastika. It’s not Skunk Anansie’s fault I didn’t know many songs, but for me, tonight Queen Zee were the far more exciting band.