October Drift – Gorilla, Manchester.

It’s an intensely windy night in Manchester which is just about fitting for the city in all honesty, when I got to Gorilla there was already a hefty queue forming from under the bridge for tonight’s event which is October Drift on their headline tour!

October Drift, a four piece band from South West England consisting of Kiran Roy on vocals/guitar, Alex Bispham on bass, Chris Holmes on Drums/Vocals and Dan Young on guitar released their third album Blame The Young on 27th September of this year via Physical Education Recordings, with this being their most powerful and personal record yet.

But first it’s their support for their upcoming band, Rude Films. Starting off the show with a mixture of Indie and Punk rock the guys in Rude Films really did get the energy flowing for the start of the night, they did what they came to do which was to get the energy flowing and get the crowd hyped up for the headline act. The crowd loved these guys. Looking around you saw impressed faces at vocalist Liam Miro’s voice throughout the performance as he captured the crowd’s attention with his soft exterior leading you to not expect the sound that comes out of that man. His vocals were electrifying and his performance with them just made it even better. Rick, Aaron and James brought in incredible back up from start to finish, each one of them having unique features about them that makes them stand out but be a joint force at the same time.

From putting guitars on your head during breaks, to having a calm exterior while shredding away, each one of these guys has a unique selling point that makes you watch them with interest whilst being blown away by their incredible sound.

The guys from October Drift make a dramatic and high energy entrance, underscored by strobe lights that really increased the tension just as they took their places on the stage. Now before they came on before the lights went down the entire crowd was patiently waiting, no-one going nuts, everyone was calm, but the second, and I mean the second, the lights went up it was like you were in a room with completely different people compared to 30 seconds ago. Everyone was up on their feet going insane by the start of the first guitar chord being played. There was a bunch of young lads from one generation who came together who jumped in with a bunch of older fans like they were the best of friends, like they turned up to this show together and that they had met a billion times over.

From the start of the show, October Drift’s stage presence was amazing, all the way until the end the energy was electric, the room was bouncing and it flowed throughout the entire room. Every single member of that band fed into the relentless energy, whilst all adding their own bits into the sound to make it even better. I’m not an indie rock fan at all, but this was a performance that grabbed my attention within seconds, their chemistry with the audience was effortless as if everyone was one of their closest friends.

October Drift are on their third album with, hopefully, many more to come in the future, and the venues will keep getting bigger and bigger with the crowds from this performance following them all the way. Keep going lads because something big is coming!

Setlist: