Photo Credit: @midlandstomanchester
Southampton band WELLY proved they are more than just ‘big in the suburbs’ as they hit the stage of AATMA in Manchester on Saturday night. The gig was originally organised for The Deaf Institute, however, due to a power outage, it was moved earlier on in the day.
Scheduled to release on the 21st of March, the band’s debut album ‘Big In The Suburbs’ has already taken over the minds of their fans with four hit singles already released.
The band opened up the show with their hit ‘It’s Not Like This In France‘, eager to get the crowd roaring with the loop of chants taking over the building. Who knew the question ‘Who here speaks French?‘ could excite a crowd? It wasn’t only the crowd that was jumping; the band’s interaction with their fans was something never seen before, with bassist Jacob joining the crowd multiple times in the chaos.
To keep the fans on their toes, the band made us touch grass with puppeteering mimics of a lawnmower to help start the song ‘Deere John‘. However, the song couldn’t go on without a couple of microphone problems; however, that did not stop the show, as the crowd took over, momentarily screaming the lyrics back to the band.
The third song hit, and the crowd really ‘Soaked Up The Culture’ while taking the mick out of gap years and allowing us to hear others’ stories about their gap years (luckily for the band, no one had taken one). The mixture of humour and dance brought the band and fans together. One of their top singles followed when the band took the fans on a ‘Shopping’ trip; the vibe of the crowd instantly shifted as the floor began to shake with all the jumping and dancing around.
It wasn’t long until the band were performing the final few songs of the evening, bringing a slower, calmer note to the gig with a newly released single, ‘Cul-De-Sac’, before hyping the crowd up again with the new lead single from their upcoming album ‘Big In The Suburbs’. This song was arguably the night’s biggest hit, as the fans parted and began to form a circle within the centre of the crowd before crashing into an exhilarating mosh which quickly took over the room, not long before the band ran off stage for the encore.
‘Me And Your Mates’ closed the show, with Jacob once again throwing himself into the crowd to celebrate the end of their set. The vibes of the performance were immaculate, and it was a moment of pure happiness and joy for all involved; taking the lyrics “I’m bouncing off the walls of the flat and I love it” straight from the flat to AATMA on a Saturday night in Manchester.
WELLY are a band that will take the indie music scene by storm; with both their energy and humour combined, their shows are ones that you won’t want to miss in the future. With a new tour in April just announced, the band are going from ‘big in the suburbs’ to big in the indie music industry.
Taped Magazine 