Delights/Dolphin Centre/Good for Gordon-Aatma manchester-28/06/19

It's Friday night and down in a small alleyway, lays a well-hidden venue by the name of 'Aatma', you could say the evening was to be Delightful. Anticipation looms as the room rings with excited chatter, ready for a party. Good For Gordon The best way to start a party properly is with a bit of adrenaline and with first band Good for Gordon energy is their speciality. Good for Gordon started strong with their first track with its crystal clear vocals with evanescence-like style and grace, matched with strong bass riffs and hard-hitting raw energy. Moving onto a lighter track, which already happened to be a favourite of the crowd who moved perfectly in sync with each note. This track definitely has the potential of doing very well at future shows. 'this is a cover we play at every show, so if you've us before, then you know what's coming' The bands Lead singer, Ashley, introduced their next song, a cover of Chris Isaak's 'Wicked Game', which went down an absolute treat with the crowd,it had the passion and rawness of the original track with a rocky, punchy twist. 'Black Rose' their newest single, was welcomed with excited applause and cheers, which from the get-go, you can understand why it was popular with fans. Even with some minor technical issues, leading to them having to start one of their songs again, they gave it their absolute all which carried through into their musicality. Their second to last track was a perfect mix of grungy, rough guitar riffs and soft vocals. With their final song, described as their saddest in tone by the band themselves, had the room lulled into silence from the first note, concentrated on the band's performance, the emotion of the song seeping through in the lyrics and guitars alongside heavy drums. It was the perfect song to end with, they left the crowd with something truly special. Overall, Good for Gordon were energetic and had excellent musicality, even though in parts their stage presence did lack a little, but that is understandable for a fairly new band. I believe that they have excellent potential to take the manchester rock scene by storm. Dolphin Centre Before the show, I was aware of Dolphin centre and had heard excellent things about the band, so I had some high expectations for their performance. Starting their set with their second single, they immediately stood out with their mix of sweet vocals, reverb guitars and keyboard alongside some hard drum beats, that perfect contrast set the tone for their set perfectly. Surfy Reggae is probably the best way to describe their music, very summery in tone. Dolphin centre created a match made in heaven in the form of rock and Reggae within their third track which is a combination you cannot imagine working together, but somehow does, a little like chilli and chocolate, sweet and salty. With their next track, Dolphin Centre brought the excitement down a little, with a soulful introduction and change of instruments added dimension to their set and showed that they weren't afraid to bare all, which really gave the crowd something beautiful to sink their teeth into. Quickly bringing the energy back up with their next track with its rocky and punchy tone, before moving onto 'Treacherous Terrain' their first single, which really showed how effortlessly rock and reggae intertwined together, and you could see the band enjoying themselves encouraging the crowd to enjoy themselves more. As they began to set up their final track, they thanked the crow for coming down to see them, with a sense of comedy as the two lead singers worked out who would do the thanking, a little like the chuckle brothers. During this final track, the band announced that they 'hadn't performed in a while' and truly you couldn't tell, their energy perfect throughout. Ending their show with a bang of strong vocals and bright build-ups similar to that of 2000s indie, vampire weekend come to mind. To end, Dolphin Centre had some final words, 'real bands leave their equipment on stage...' before pausing as the guitar reverb rang loudly, unplugging it and then continuing 'We're not quite there yet. Goodnight!' Overall, Dolphin Centre were fun and fantastic, however, I do feel that everything sounded quite similar but they definitely made up for that in stage presence. After Dolphin Centre, the room was abuzz with people awaiting the headline act Delights who were excited to get on stage. Delights Delights were are treat. Starting strong with 'Naked heart' bringing a mix of dreamy pop toning and punchy guitars flowing alongside sugary Vocals. By the second song 'Sun visor' , the leopard jacket that their lead singer wore seemed to become an annoyance stating that he was 'fucking boiling in this coat' in amusement which caused chants of 'take it off ' from the crowd, 'one more song, I'll wear it for one more song' One thing you can always guarantee with Delights is crowd participation. 'Sunlounger' brought sunshine into the venue, with bright guitars and retro styling, whereas 'Daydream' was chilled out and nostalgic in style, and was a crowd favourite compared to some of the others, with it's hypnotic, dreaming lyrics and rhythmic drumming. 'so I have this t-shirt' one of the band's guitarist proclaimed causing the crowd to move forward to grab it, 'but the person who gets this is whoever goes mad to this song' aka 'Paradise', and let me tell you,the crowd went crazy , beers were thrown and people were pushed forward, a wild moment for a usually calm set. But at least fun was had. After everyone had, literally, dried off, they moved onto their next track ' which with its infectious riffs was another hit was the now wild crowd, and managing to tame them into swaying. 'now this one is for the golden oldies' commented the band's lead singer,those who've followed us from the beginning, this is called cascade'. Which was followed by a huge thank you. 'thank you from everyone here,to you for coming and paying your money as you have for the last two years' they thanked the crowd receiving Cheers in response 'Sometimes,lately', delights newest single,was infectious in energy,and to add a bit of fun,another t-shirt was up for grabs, for singing the chorus of the song,and the crowd went wild,a chorus of voices filling the empty space in the corners of the room, singing along to the sweet lyrics. Another thank you followed as they set up their next track,this is the first-ever song we put out, this is called bloom' it's rockier compared to their other songs and stood out with its indie-rock guitars and raw vocals. Sounding closer to early 2000s/2010s indie rock than chill dream pop that delights usually put out, it was a refreshing change, and made the night unforgettable.