Featured image: Zyanya Lorenzo
The crowd plunges into darkness as NewDad take the stage. Haze fills the room and the deep blue lights flood the venue, reflecting the aesthetic of their newly released debut album, Madra.
Cheers erupt from the sold-out room as the band rip into the grunge-filled ‘Angel’. Julie Dawson’s enchanting voice comes to life, outshining the crafted brilliance of the studio recording of Madra’s opening track. The heaviness of the guitars over their dreamy atmospherics transforms the audience into a sea of head bopping.
‘Slowly’ from NewDad’s 2021 debut Waves EP, has the faithful singing along in unison while swaying hypnotically to the gauzy indie-pop sound. The band intertwine elements of the past and present through tracks ‘In My Head’, ‘Say It’, ‘Let Go’ and ‘Blue’.
Their performance is stunning, yet is not without technical difficulties; the sound cuts out multiple times for the crowd while persisting through the band’s monitors, leading to multiple replays of songs. Dawson makes light of the glitches, quipping that the crowd is in for extended versions.
With a set already filled with standout moments comes their cover of The Cure’s ‘Just Like Heaven’. It receives a distinctive NewDad transformation with their distinctive shoegaze touch, while the set closes with ‘I Don’t Recognise You’ and debut single, ‘How’.
After a brief interlude, Dawson and drummer, Fiachre Parslow reappear for a beautiful stripped-back performance of Madra’s ‘White Ribbons’, creating the most intimate moment of the night, before the whole band reunite to deliver the album’s title track. A graceful conclusion to the show.
NewDad are set for big things and return to the city in August for Manchester Psych Fest.
Featured image and gallery: Hoang Phan Notebooks were carried from one workshop to another. Writers from different generations sat around tables, sharing manuscripts and listening to each other. Outdoors, small groups strolled along Oxford Road, pausing before buildings steeped in literary history. This was the scene during the Manchester Writing School Summer Festival 2026, held…
Featured image: Katja Ogrin With many sore heads and limbs this morning after the most hardcore day of the festival taking place yesterday, many are recovering from the moshing and pit brutality of the previous day’s antics. As the tradition of a morning movie in the Serpents Lair prevails, the crowd sprawls out onto the plush,…
Featured image: Abbi Draper After an electrifying start to the weekend, with temperatures slowly climbing, many lather themselves in suncream, shed their band shirts and rise from their tents to trek towards the arena. Saturday has big things incoming for the humans of Bloodstock 2026. Some pace themselves for the day and hide from the early…
Featured image: Abbi Draper After a memorable Thursday opener, Bloodstock 2026 opens its gates once again onto the Hallowed Grounds of Catton Park, kicking off day two of its 25th-anniversary celebration of metal. As the sun rises on Catton Park, festivalgoers emerge from their tents to prepare for another day of mayhem. The morning brings…
Leave a reply