The Burning Hell returned to Manchester last night, playing to a small but intimate crowd at the Soup Kitchen.
The Canadian duo, who hold a world record for playing 10 gigs in 10 different countries in 24 hours, were backed by a full band, and played a range of their guitar-led beat-heavy sounds.
Despite an eclectic array of instruments and a lively stage presence, the real attraction was the lyrics.
Simultaneously abrasive, funny and charming the performance was at times deeply personal.
Death was undoubtedly a theme, as befits the claim of the lead singer that the ‘inevitability of death can also be fun to dance to’.
Frontman Mathias Kom read the room well, joking with the audience, but never to the point of ‘please just shut up and play some music’.
The Newfoundland-based band has been on the road, in various forms, for seven years, having toured back and forth across Canada and Europe since 2007.
According to their website they’ve played everywhere from ‘festivals to bars to living rooms – and once even a mental asylum in rural France’.
The audience seemed to be a genuine mix of those who knew the band’s music well, and those who had come along on the back of a quick Google and a couple of YouTube listens.
The Burning Hell are touring the UK to promote their new album People and with fourteen shows scheduled over the next two months fans who attend these gigs can be sure to be taken on a rollercoaster of emotion.
And on the strength of last night’s performance, their next visit to Manchester may well find them playing to a much more partisan crowd.
Image courtesy of fotografien, with thanks
