Yours Truly – Manchester Academy 3

Manchester Academy 3 plays host tonight to Yours Truly on their headline tour with support from Lizzy Farrell and South Arcade!

Lizzy and her band take to the stage and straight away there is a vibe about the group. With regards to group interaction on stage, there isn’t any from start to finish, which isn’t a bad thing it just felt like they all wouldn’t acknowledge each other. Lizzy, on the other hand, for sure knows how to keep a big stage presence tonight, she lets herself own that stage. At this moment it’s her stage as she struts back and forth dancing like there is no tomorrow.

There’s an element of ownership and glory in all the best ways, but there’s an element of cringe to go into it too at times, I couldn’t tell if this was based on the atmosphere in the room at the start of the show, at first it felt rather off from the pit.

It gets to the last couple of songs and everything has picked up nicely, the crowd has warmed up to Lizzy and they have arms in the air and jump around and are cheering her on throughout the final song.

Lizzy for sure has the stage presence to boost her career even further, there is just a feeling of edginess that feels rather forced. It’s not a natural edge to the performance or personality of those on stage, but at times it feels like a fake edginess to sell the show at times.

If I had to give an artist comparison I’m going with the theme of an edgier Lana Del Ray mixed with Melanie Martinez.

The final song had way more edge and heavier vocals added to it than the rest of the performance adding a bit of punk to the soft mix. The guitar riffs got heavier as well as bass and drums seemed way more activated in terms of energy, which made a huge possible change to the performance. The cringe aspect of the entire show is the soft babyish domineering vocals that got added, for some it could work but for me it has a cringe add on.

South Arcade is your second act on the bill, they’re here to warm you up and get this crowd going. And when I took one look at this band I was going expecting something like In This Moment, Maria Brinks kind of style. I was proven wrong within seconds of them getting on that stage.

Their vocalist’s voice is giving the vibe of Gwen Stefani mixed in with Delilah Bon the high voice mixed in with the edgy anger that tells men to go ‘F’ themselves.

She also gives off that vibe on stage too, I’ve never seen a woman look insanely intimidating but with a smile that lights up the room and a voice so soft and happy. But the look she gives during each song could easily make you listen to every word she has to say. I can’t deny that the woman knows how to hold your attention completely.

Everyone in this band looks like they’re having the happiest time of their lives, the smile on their faces can’t be ignored for a second. We go from edgy punk to happy go loving pop punk with each song, I don’t know if I’m going to scream at the world or praise it at this point. Basically you’ll feel a couple of different emotions if you catch these guys on tour.

Definitely get these guys on a Neck Deep or State Champs track at some point because they would 100% kill it! They’ve lifted my mood for sure. But one downside isn’t to do with them but the crowd could do with some caffeine being it’s very dead in here at times.

That is until the order of the infamous “get Down on the ground” gets shouted out, I mean you have to do it and it’s one way to get the jumps going throughout.

One incredible highlight from their performance as it comes to an end is an amazing cover of I Kissed a Girl by Katy Perry, as if we’re back to the OG Warped Tour days.

Yours Truly make their way onto the stage and are immediately greeted with an insane amount of cheers from the audience. Vocalist Mikaila Delgado walks on sporting a striped black and white top with black shorts and white fishnets looking incredible! The fishnet mesh seems to be a theme for these guys and I’m loving it!

Straight away this girl has energy kicks going everywhere, she’s jumping half her height with her kicks that could hit the ceiling. The crowd is going nuts and everything about this set is incredible. The vocals, the guitar riffs and bass lines with the drummer doing an insane job, it all combined together is making every single song sound incredible live, the stage presence is one thing you can’t ignore.

There was a negative about this night however, one thing that ruined the mood and the positive vibe that was filling the room. The amount of creepy men in the audience, as the photographer and reviewer in this crowd, I was past the barrier and noticed multiple times older men watching me and the various other female photographers and younger members of the audience. One thing I have to say is props to the Yours Trulycrew and Academy security and other photographers too for jumping into action, when unfortunately an underage fan was sexually assaulted at the barrier for this show. Shows are meant to be a safe environment, where everyone attending can feel safe and enjoy every minute of this experience, and it shouldn’t be ruined by creepy men who are well over the age of 30 creeping on really young girls.

Sadly this did ruin the night, the band kept it all going and helped bring the atmosphere back up once the situation was dealt with, to those around the situation and those who didn’t notice what had happened they looked to be having the time of their lives. Mikaila did an amazing job, interacting with the crowd and keeping everything about her performance entertaining with her goofy ways, but amazing energy and a voice that holds no bounds.