Hurrah for Chutzpah!
It’s unusual to see The Wildhearts playing the basement Academy venue in Manchester but whatever the reason (slow initial ticket sales seems the favoured explanation) it’s a rare opportunity to get up close and personal with band and just for the record this venue is completely sold out!
The stage is low and the barrier pretty close, which means the front rows get plenty of interaction from Ginger and the rest of the band. The set is split into two halves, the first a complete run through of the new album in order and the second comprising some old favourites. It’s great to hear the new songs played live for the first time and all the songs that you thought had crowd potential are duly put through their paces, most of the audience having had a few weeks now to learn all the words! The pit at the front is bouncing straight away to opener ‘The Jackson Whites’ and every song is greeted with the same enthusiastic response.
As we’ve come to expect there is plenty of banter with the crowd, all good natured and it’s clear from the smiles on everybody’s faces (band included) that the atmosphere in here tonight is more like friends getting together to have a damn good laugh than a regular gig. It takes the edge off the performance a little as the band are so relaxed but they are such a tight unit at the moment that you can’t fault the delivery. Highlights of the first part of the set are a thundering rendition of ‘Tim Smith’ and fast becoming a fan favourite ‘You Took the Sunshine from New York’. It’s unfortunate for those in the audience that haven’t bought the new album yet but on this evidence that doesn’t seem to be many! Playing the album in full was in response to the reaction on the bands forum from fans and it certainly seems to have worked. They hit the last chord of title track ‘Chutzpah!’ and head off for a 5 minute break.
The second part of the set is as you’d expect, just classic after classic from ‘Nothing Ever Changes but the Shoes’, ‘29 x The Pain’ and ‘Red Light Green Light’ through to the closing shot of ‘Caffeine Bomb’ and the always rousing ‘I Wanna Go’. The band never stop smiling and the crowd never stop moving or singing and it’s hard to find fault but worthy of a maximum rating? Well, no and for one good reason; the material on the recent ‘The Wildhearts’ album was so good that it deserves to be represented in a greatest hits set, the fact that it wasn’t is disappointing but then you can’t please everyone. In every other respect yet another outstanding performance from a band that continue to ride the crest of their own impressive wave.