Live Review

We Are The Ocean – Roadhouse, Manchester

• 18th Apr 2008

A jam packed all-ages gig at the Roadhouse shows that there’s still a lot of fun in Manchester, and no amount of hairspray could stop the bands from some amazing performances.

Yes Sensei opened to a half full room, with mega queues still outside, and put on a good show. Rock riffs with a female influence made the band shine.

The Honeymoon Suite, Manchester’s own pop-punk outlet, really made this gig, it was their last show before hiatus and they put on the best performance of the night. They had bags full of charisma, attitude and an incredible, fully choreographed cover of ‘Backstreet’s Back”!

Saving Aimee had a hard act to follow but managed to pull it off with the crowd more than warmed up. With encouragement from the band there was plenty of audience participation during this would-be epic pop fest. The vocals could have been stronger and they concentrated more on banter than performance, but it was still enjoyable.

We Are The Ocean have a real “hard band” look, but as soon as they took the stage, they had an amazing presence and great banter with the other bands and the audience. Unfortunately they only had one stand out song, and although the others were played well it was more of a disappointment of a headline act than expected.