The March Violets, Manchester Academy 3.
It may be the beginning to a heatwave in Manchester, but the lace, chunky boots and coffin backpacks have entered Manchester for a night of classic goth music. The March Violets pretty much legends to the goth scene have landed in Manchester with one hell of a tour to promote their new album. With supports of younger goths Vision Video and Kristen Young.
Starting off the night is Vision Video, already there is a large crowd forming in Manchester Academy 3 ready for the early start. From Athens, Georgia the band is fronted by the very charismatic and lovely Dusty Gannon, Dusty who is helped his band go viral via Tiktok in recent years, after gaining the title Goth Dad and to be fair to him with his talks to the crowd in between songs while the rest of the band has a breather he gives you the comforting Goth Dad vibes.
Vision Video kicked off the set with the dark grooves of Static Drone from their 2021 debut Inked In Red. Dusty’s vocals are powerful and not what you would expect from a gothic band, the band is full of energy and there is a clear heavy influence of The Cure and Joy Division. At one point Dusty asked for the audience’s permission for them to cover Joy Division’s Transmission. Which he nailed perfectly as did the rest of the band the entire way through the song.
They mention even paying a visit to Salford Lads Club, where the iconic picture of The Smiths was taken, we all know which picture.
Dusty makes it clear throughout the show the meaning behind every song that they write, the trauma he’s witnessed when he was stationed in Afghanistan and also how the US Government has destroyed the country and is sending them back in time with the new bills they’re passing. He talks about his time as a firefighter and paramedic and gives a massive round of applause for anyone working in the medical industry. Every single message was delivered with the same amount of passion that he put into each and every song.
The set was an emotional performance, bringing the sounds of the 80s dark-wave pioneers to this new generation that have a lot ahead of them. Their Keyboardist joined Dusty for a song and the quiet girl at the side turned into the confident person within seconds, and dominated that stage fully letting the vibe in the room take over and she owned that stage with every ounce of her being!
Next up is singer/songwriter Kristeen Young from Missouri, bringing you something insanely different to the table but entertaining nonetheless. She brought in some elaborate set whips with a brew of caustic beats, and also putting her voice really to the test with the throw in of Opera singing. She came on stage with just a keyboard as her band, but it’s the charm that she brings that really fills the stage. A performance full of the unexpected, she announced that she has nine songs for all of us tonight, but also demanded that the audience keep reminding her of how many she has left, which immediately threw me off but it’s a way of keeping the audience engaged and also intrigued. And intrigued we were right to be, the amazing dances around the stage as if she’s telling a story with the way she moves, throw the singing into the mix and it’s like you’re watching a one woman play in front of you with elaborate dance moves.
After releasing eleven albums over 25 years and having worked with the likes of David Bowie, Tony Visconti and Gave Grohl this incredible woman is not someone you want to mess with, she knows her stuff and she’s going to show it in the most unique way possible.
Kristeen’s performance was unique and intriguing, not one person left the room throughout the entire performance. It’s like everyone in the room was stuck in a trance like state as they watched her glide around the stage.
The main act is upon us, the stage is set quickly and before you know it they’ve all taken to the stage in all their glory, with their trusty drum machine in place, the band embraces the crowd like old friends or old fuckers as said by frontwoman Rosie Garland as she describes herself and her band mates.
Formed back in Leeds in 1981, The March Violets are legends in the gothic music scene, tonight Rosie is joined by band founder and original guitarist Tom Ashton, with William Faith, who Garland claims has been in every band except for Sisters of Mercy.
Rosie’s background in poetry is shown in her performance, she’s the perfect host and knows how to keep a grip on your attention throughout, with her elaborate dance moves, and hard, stern facial expressions she brings you in deep to every single song.
They kick things off with one of their earliest songs, Crow Baby, then gave us something a little more recent with Made Glorious; when you’re a band that’s been around as long as they have you can’t not take the new baby bats back in time to show them how it all began.
Rosie again calling herself and the band a bunch of old fuckers, which results in a member of the audience saying how they all still look gorgeous, leads them right back to the beginning of the bands hits, stating how those songs have a lot more energy because they were doing ‘things’ that made them have energy that they shouldn’t have been doing in the 80s. If you know anything about music in the 80s, they weren’t alone with this.
Despite being a traditional gothic band, they never make you feel gloomy, sad or depressed in the slightest, the performance they delivered brings you back to life and it brings the older bats and baby bats together, passing on the torch in a way. They bring the darker notions to life by infusing an infectious and at times poppy groove with dizzying, reverb drenched riffs, brazen basslines and astute vocal interplay.
The band even brings out two new songs from their upcoming album, with Garland hinting that this will all possibly be coming out later this year. Heading For the Fire comes in with a catchy chorus and it’s even sung back to the band on this first listen.
The night ends as the sun has finally set with the final three songs being Walk Into The Sun, Virgin Sheep and Snake Dance. The March Violets still have what they had all those years ago, with a possible new album coming out later this year. Baby bats embrace the legends of goth – that’s an order!
Words & images: Lauren Allard
