Live Review

Travie McCoy – Academy 3, Manchester

• 2nd Nov 2010

After a chat with the man himself about his latest projects, the time has come to see the man go to work with his friends. The room is fizzing with excitement for both acts tonight and first up it’s the man of the moment Bruno Mars, and the room goes ape shit when he arrives on stage.

Every song is received with the same utter jubilation and pure screaming from every oestrogen overdosing female. His tones are so sweet that your dentist would advise against over indulging. Midway through his set he pauses to talk and play with the audience, even thrusting his hips to the beat of a drum, once at first and then, after a request from an audience member, six times which causes the crowd to erupt.

Both of the big hitters in the set go down a storm, with the crowd loving his single “Just The Way You Are” as well as the remixed version of “Beautiful Girls”, the B.O.B track he featured on.

But now, it’s time for the man that’s printed boldly on every ticket and has his name on the posters – Travie McCoy. To introduce him and get the crowd buzzing his own personal DJ takes to the stage first. This works a treat for when “Akidogen” is mixed in and the crowd goes mental, enough to call the men in white coats… well not quite. Everyone rushes to the front and on steps Travie, slamming every word into the crowd and everyone responds.

Throughout the set he’s electric with excitement and energy. During his rendition of “Don’t Pretend” you can see the pain he is holding on to for the muse for this song. This is also apparent for the climax of “Critical” when, as a shock to everyone, he starts screaming in the most metal hardcore way!

It’s amazing that he can perform Gym Class Heroes’ biggest track in this country “Cupids Chokehold” what with it being so specific to the elephant in the room, Katy Perry. However, he pulls it off and after thanking the crowd for being his favourite on his tour thus far, as well as being reminded that it was the venue for the first UK Gym Class Heroes gig the crowd went wild.