Featured image and gallery: Gracie Hall
Talia Mar is a South London-born singer and YouTuber. She starts the evening with a lovely set that showcases her velvety vocals and vibrant sound. Despite releasing songs since 2016, Mar mentions that this is her first ever support tour. The crowd receives her well as she covers ‘No Scrubs’ by TLC, before launching into her collaboration with Sigala, ‘Stay the Night’, as its dance beat gets the party started for the evening.
21-year-old Southampton native Caity Baser makes an explosive entrance as she breaks through a massive paper sheet adorned with a red learner driver’s L, a reference to her latest mixtape, Still Learning. She smashes through this with a baseball bat before opening with hit song ‘I’m A Problem’.
Baser’s energy doesn’t falter once as she launches into an energetic set of pop songs, dancing and moving around the stage non-stop. Her outfit comprises a green and orange skin-tight suit, paired with orange moon boots that perfectly reflects Baser’s ability to be completely and unapologetically herself.
A fan holds up a sign that explains they were dumped by their boyfriend the night before and Caity decides to dedicate ‘STD’, a song about being cheated on, to her. For ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’, a love-heart shaped piñata is hung up on the skeleton of the frame that held the large learner’s L, with Caity furiously hitting it to symbolise her lack of faith in cupid.
Baser is a fantastic role model to her adoring fans. She shows that it’s okay to take up space, to be loud, to be out there, to be ‘too much’. Female artists are often told to “tone it down” or “stay quiet”, but it’s clear that Caity Baser is absolutely not like that, and she doesn’t want to be.
At one point, Caity infuses Queen’s ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ with her own ‘Oh Well’, a hyper-feminine and energetic number about being carefree and just saying “oh well” when life decides to go wrong. The song is reflective of the presence Caity radiates on stage, allowing fans to let go, dance and be silly whilst feeling seen and safe in doing so.
Baser ends her set with ‘Pretty Boys’, arguably her breakout hit with the help of TikTok. She has seen a gradual growth in her fanbase over the past few years, already upgrading her live show from Academy 2 last year to this show at the main Academy. With the release of her new album and appearances at Isle of Wight and Radio 1’s Big Weekend in the calendar, this rise will surely continue.
Featured image and gallery: Lucy Elson-Whittaker Fcukers headline a sold-out show at Manchester’s New Century Hall, in support of their long-awaited debut album, ‘ö’. Opening the night are Sydney-based Sleepazoid, whose hazy, atmospheric sound offers a sharp contrast to the headliners’ explosive energy. Their set feels cinematic and dream-like, serving as both a striking opener…
Featured image and gallery: Sub Khan Hailing from Manchester and playing a sold-out show at Manchester’s Lion’s Den, with an imminent EP on the way, aAh! speaks to Fred Farrell (vocals) and Danny Atherton (bass) of Dr Dr. Did you start the band during Covid times? Is that where it all originated? F: It was…
Featured image: Gary Walker Neo-blues soul artist Yellow Days, the stage name of Haslemere’s George van den Broek, returns to Manchester with his seventh album, Rock And A Hard Place, and a live show that proves just how far he has come. Before he steps out, London-based act Brian Nasty warms the room up nicely,…
Featured image and gallery: Sally Stretch The Royston Club perform alongside Overpass and Permanent (Joy) at a sold-out O2 Victoria Warehouse. Welsh indie rock band The Royston Club, school friends who began playing together in 2017, now headline O2 Victoria Warehouse in Manchester. Touring second album Songs For The Spine, they generate an energetic sold-out…
Leave a reply