Luna Marble | Tay Temple | Vonum
Evening and Day, Manchester
eighth June 2023

Think about the Manchester music scene and also you’ll most likely consider punk, post-punk, Madchester, indie and so on. Nonetheless, there’s a rising variety of bands within the space in search of to make rock, blues and psychedelia cool once more with an emphasis on musicianship, songwriting and robust vocals and, on tonight’s proof, Luna Marble are proper on the forefront of this rising retro/fashionable pattern.

Native lads Vonum kick off with a sophisticated and completely fulfilling set. Wealthy, soulful vocals mix with a cool rhythm part, and the twin guitars give a more durable edge when the boys wish to rock. Angel Queen Dancer and Your Method are properly obtained and, in line with their cheerfully partaking stage presence, the fellows are assured sufficient to bask in a bit viewers participation throughout the chilled Candy Sugar Sunshine. Latest launch Checkmate suggests a heavier sound which fits them properly and might be a nod to the longer term.

Tay Temple and band are in flip rocky, punky, sweary, shouty and balladic with the singer’s bubbly, jocular presence at odds with the typically intense songs about self-doubt, nostalgia (is that even a factor at Tay’s age?) and crappy exes. This couldn’t be a lot completely different in really feel to the headliners’ model, however the set meets with heat approval regardless.

There’s solely actually one place to begin speaking about Luna Marble and that’s with Maria Rico’s fairly exceptional and beautiful vocals. Evoking the spirit of luminaries similar to Stevie Nicks, Janis Joplin, Maggie Bell and Grace Slick, it’s no exaggeration to say that she doesn’t endure one bit by comparability with such exalted firm. Taking the stage in hippyish shirt, purple velvet shorts and knee-length boots, Maria definitely appears the half too. Lengthy-haired guitar wizard Dragos Colceriu may additionally cross as a ’70s star and, whereas the rhythm part of David Grundy on bass and drummer Sean Stewart look completely fashionable, they lay down an amazing groove nonetheless. The band is augmented on stage tonight by Ross Munro on keys, including an genuine retro organ sound and feeling so significantly better than utilizing backing tracks instead of extra musicians.

Luna Marble get issues below means with the comparatively laid-back and atmospheric California Climate with Maria displaying her abilities on acoustic guitar. This is likely to be a daring transfer for a band famend for laborious rocking, nevertheless it units the temper completely. Miss Believing builds the depth earlier than slow-burner Loopy Loving sees the singer letting rip with that very good gravelly voice and the gurning Dragos firing off nice riffs. Maria introduces The Greatest Of Me as having solely simply been completed however already certainly one of her favourites and the viewers appear to concur.

Issues grow to be a bit critical because the singer tells us about Mad World, one of many first songs she wrote, which is from the attitude of a feminine artist struggling to make it in a male-dominated trade. Hopefully, the truth that she is now doing what she all the time needed to do, together with many different ladies on the Manchester scene and elsewhere, suggests the tide is popping. The band then actually hit their straps with Sea Of Sorrow. Maria’s acoustic is an efficient addition to the band’s sound, however she is a totally completely different animal when free of its constraint along with her dervish-like dancing offering a wide ranging spectacle alongside extra guitar heroics from Dragos.

Redemption sees Luna Marble at their heaviest but with the viewers actually stepping into the temper, whereas Begging Mercy lulls us right into a false sense of safety earlier than the singer hits us with a vocal of unbelievable energy. Time is a critical power-ballad drenched in keys which builds to an exhilarating crescendo earlier than the band actually return to their roots and deal with us to a crowd-pleasing rendition of Fleetwood Mac’s Rhiannon. After a be aware good intro, they lengthen their model into what sounds virtually like an improvised jam with a ferocity that Stevie would by no means have imagined. With visitor guitarist Tadhg Bradley taking the stage, a powerhouse run-through of single All Of My Love has the band and viewers shedding themselves in collective abandon and the inevitable encore, a mighty rendering of Operating, gives the look that the amount has simply been turned up one other couple of notches – an exhilarating finish to a exceptional set.

Maria appears genuinely stunned by the overwhelming viewers response and also you surprise if she realises herself fairly how particular her expertise is. However it’s not all in regards to the singer and these guys cowl all bases as musicians with aptitude and method to spare. Luna Marble make no secret of their need to play stadiums and, with the style apparently on the cusp of a resurgence, who’s to say that’s an unattainable dream?

Luna Marble Linktree

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All phrases by Robin Boardman. Extra writing from Robin for Louder Than Warfare could be discovered at his creator’s archive