The Stoke-on-Trent band justify the hype entirety at a deservedly packed out show.
Words: Marty Hill
Formal Sppeedwear are not short of admirers in Manchester. The queue wrapped half the way around Oxford Road when the Stoke-on-Trent trio took to the Deaf Institute stage at Psych Fest back in September. Such was the hype on that day, many friends of the band and even members of their management were unable to get in. Their set was the talk of the town in the weeks that followed. You might have expected their next headline show in the city to be a leveling up into the main room at Deaf Institute or perhaps a move across town to YES' Pink Room, but it's the latter venue's much smaller basement that hosts tonight. And my word is it full. It's sold out, of course, and the guestlist is not much smaller than the list of those who've bought a ticket.
Once bassist and vocalist Beck Clewlow negates a technical issue that forces a restart of the opener, we're underway. Almost instantly, the fact that we're watching this show in this space feels very special and also a bit daft. It is so easy to imagine this exact performance scaling up to pretty much any sized venue. It reminds me a little of watching Black County, New Road in the same room back in 2019, knowing that seeing those songs in such close confines was very likely to be a one-off.
All the motorik groove of krautrock greats, all the off-kilter hooks of DEVO and all the soaring synths of 'Warm Jets'-era Eno, Formal Sppeedwear are quite the proposition on paper but it's all the more impactful live. They play two unreleased songs really early on but are still able to capture attention in a way that some bands would struggle to do with their most popular work.
Most of their songs begin life as bass motifs over drum machine pattern and are fleshed out from that point. As such, their rhythm sections are always very strong which makes them a hypnotic live band. The early part of the set has the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd paying attention and the latter songs have them moving their feet. 'Bunto', 'Hit 'n' Run' and 'Wait (Hatchet Gets a New Rise)' is a flawless run that turns things into an all-out party and the fact that those two more recent releases are the most well-received of the night gives some insight into the trajectory that the band are on.
Typically, there's very little crowd interaction throughout the set. There's something really endearing about a band just storming through the setlist, playing these brilliant songs that are both complex and crowd-pleasing and employing a sort of business-like demeanour on stage. That does break at one point towards the end when lights are dimmed, candles are lit and drummer Conner Wells gets a full-room rendition of 'Happy Birthday' sung to him.
It takes an age for the basement to empty out as the lights come on, such is the queue for the merch stand near the door. Over the last year or so, Formal Sppeedwear have developed a reputation as one of the most exciting upcoming live bands around. It is fully deserved.
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