After having to postpone the original date due to ill health, ska-punks Millie Manders and the Shut Up (MMATSU) are back in Newcastle tonight, and they’ve brought along with them Sheffield’s Air Drawn Dagger to kick things off.
Now, if you had a ticket to see MMATSU at their original date back in December at Head of Steam, you may already be familiar with the evening’s support. Air Drawn Dagger were travelling back from Scotland when they got the news of said cancellation, wasted no time in arranging a last-minute support slot at local venue Little Buildings that very same night and, judging by the amount of their merch on display in the crowd tonight, won over a bunch of new fans who have come back for more.
If, however, you aren’t so familiar, I higlhy recommend checking out their track ‘You Put The Con in Congregation‘.
Lead singer Maisie Manterfield spends most of the set at the front of the stage, right in the face of the collective audience, that is, until she strolls through the packed crowd and up the stairs to the back of the room during ‘My Murder of Crows’.
Their six-song set is over in a flash, the majority of which is pulled from their 2022 album ‘The Séance Season Mixtape’ and works wonders in hyping up the crowd and getting them ready for the headliner.
Tonight is a sell-out, with barely any room to manoeuvre on the floor. This doesn’t stop anyone at all however, as they jump, skank and dance around for the entirety of the near 90-minute set.
From the opening barrage of ‘Bacchus’ and ‘Obsession Transgression’ to the sing-alongs of ‘One That Got Away’ and ‘Here We Go Again’, MMATSU truly have the room in the palm of their hands. In fact, I haven’t seen a crowd reaction quite like this in The Cluny 2 in all the time I’ve been shooting here.
Any worries about Millie’s voice are soon put to bed tonight, as her powerful vocals are on display throughout, especially during 2020’s ‘Telling Truths, Breaking Ties’ opener ‘Your Story’.
Newest single ‘Rebound’, released Valentine’s Day, is a “big fuck you to anyone who gets into a relationship as a rebound” and goes down a storm.
MMATSU don’t do encores, this is stated to the audience by Millie herself, before announcing “So what we’re going to do is play three more songs and that’ll be that,” before they deliver the trio of ‘Sweet Melody’, ‘Not Ok’ and ‘Bitter’.
Overall, tonight was an incredible night, with a band who have honed their craft in rooms of this size for years and are now ready to take that next step forward, to bigger rooms and bigger stages (one of which will be The Dickies Stage when they open this year’s Slam Dunk festival!).