Hot Mulligan – New Century Hall, Manchester.

It’s a Saturday night in Manchester, and Hot Mulligan are kicking off this show at a sold out New Century Hall. With a room full of alternative people in their 30s, they’re ready to belt their hearts out to sad emo music that their inner teenage self used to relate to all too well.

There’s only two bands on tonight’s bill with two huge sets to satisfy everyone in the room, after seeing parts of Spanish Love Songs at Slam-dunk Festival in the past it’s great to see them get a close to headline length set. Spanish Love Songs kick off the start of this night as the only support act. The room is filled with what society would call Elder Emo’s and they’re ready for their knees to die and their backs to ache to all hell as the band takes to the stage. The lights are turned down low and there is no hesitation for the sad tunes to begin.

The set begins quite slow with little to no movement from most of the band as everyone starts to warm up. But halfway through the set the sad emo energy kicks into full gear and everyone is running around the stage and doing jump kicks left to right when the crowd cries their eyes out to songs that target everyone in a deep and emotional way. If someone wanted me to tell them what 2020s pop punk is I’d show them Spanish Love Songs as the perfect example, the entire set sends you back to being sixteen and crying about your first breakup and the heartbreaking betrayal you’re feeling at that young age.

But it’s the tracks from Brave Faces Everyone that resonate strongest with the crowd tonight, the likes of ‘Routine Pain’, ‘Kick’, and ‘Losers’ which causes an insane amount of tears being shed around the room. The entire room had an insane amount of emotions as they belted out every word back to the band.

They may have been the first band of the evening but you could tell everyone in that room was not just here for Hot Mulligan but they were here fully for Spanish Love Songs too. The guys are also heading out on their own headline tour over in the UK in January and I cannot wait to see what else they bring out as they get bigger and bigger.

Setlist:

Routine Pain
Clean-Up Crew
Pendulum
Kick
Haunted
Marvel
Losers 2
Losers
Brave Faces, Everyone

It’s now time for the headliners, as Spanish Love Songs go off the stage, the crowd runs to the bar and the merch stands are still full of emotions, while most make sure they still have that spot at the barrier secure. Both bands get put in the category of emo, but my friends and I love to describe them as “sad emo boy shit” which is pretty accurate if I’m going to be completely honest.

Despite the sad emo boy reputation that they have, their set is insanely energetic and frantic throughout, with all members of the band running around and doing high kicks left right and centre which for guitarist’s i always see as an insane skill to have. The energy in the room is insane but so is the amount of tears that I’m seeing appear in the eyes of the crowd in front of me.

Opening with “OG Pale Blue Sky” before moving into “Equips Sunglasses”, the crowd was stoic in its emotions. Of course like any emo gig, if you have the energy then you also have the crowd surfers, and they are coming from every part of that crowd, with the security having the toughest job pulling body after body over the barrier. I’m wondering how many fans’ knees ache from just doing that alone.

But it doesn’t mean that they still can’t have fun, we may be getting old and we may be tired because it’s past 10pm but that doesn’t stop a single person in the crowd from giving it their all. The vocals are on point despite frontman Nathan Sanville saying that he has a throat infection and “feels like shit”. But it doesn’t make a single difference to their set and nothing is slowed down despite how he feels, as they jump into tracks such as “Shhh! Golf Is On” and “No Shoes in the Coffee Shop (Or Socks)”.

No one can put a label on what exactly Hot Mulligan’s sound is but after that set I’m sticking with my friends Sad Emo Boy title, with looking into the crowd and seeing their reactions to each song on this packed out setlist, it seems the most fitting as there were a lot of seemingly sad emo boys around. Ending on a trio of tracks in the form of “Losing Days / Featuring Mark Hoppus”, “John ‘The Rock’ Cena, Can You Smell What the Undertaker’ for all the wrestling fans out there aka my people, emo mixed with wrestling what’s not to love? Then finally “Bckyrd”, naturally they finish the set with their biggest tracks and the final tear sheds from the crowd before the end, this is a show that was insanely enjoyable and I can’t wait for more Hot Mulligan shows.

Setlist: