Now Wave all dayer at The White Hotel review

Image: Now Wave

The White Hotel is a former car garage nestled in the shadows of Manchester’s omniscient Strangeways. Burrowed in an industrial park in deepest and darkest Salford, the name pays homage to the D.M Thomas novel “The White Hotel”, so don’t be expecting room service or look for any reviews on Trip Advisor. 

Manchester was built on its industrial backdrop, and The White Hotel is a throwback to those days of using spaces for something beyond it’s primary uses.

The bar is the old garage inspection pit: in years gone by greased up mechanics changed nuts and bolts from beneath the engine, now the bar attendants bustle in their underground warren for drinks.

There is something poetic about the venture from Sways Records, the Manchester Stalwarts are now legendary for bringing through acts like Money, Wu Lyf and Bernard & Edith.

Everyone and everything is not what they seem at The White Hotel. Author, Poet and now head mixologist of the White Hotel, Austin Collings recently took on the task of being Mark E Smith’s biographer. His poem on the White Hotel is exactly the ethos the place exudes:

“Jobs bore the piss out of us. We have gone as far as we can with sanity. The White Hotel is a democracy of degeneracy. Under the underground, we burrow and booze. We are the mole people. Delete your history.”

The venue itself is only in it’s infancy, but already has a reputation for madness. Now Wave, Manchester’s premier promoters are usually found in the bigger venues of the rainy city. But for today, they took up residency in the White Hotel and programmed a stellar line-up of new music. 

Whitney (above) had flown in from Chicago for a four-day UK tour. It seemed the band hadn’t expected the Salford elements to be as sharp as they were and a retired car garage to await them.

Opening their set by admitting that this was the coldest show they had ever played. The band, although recording as a six-piece with two guitars, bass, keys, horns and drums, is primarily the brain child of guitarist Max Kakacek, formally of The Smith Westerns, and Julien Ehrlich, the former drummer of Unknown Mortal Orchestra.

Whitney juxtapose despondent lyrics with a bouncing, jovial, almost sun laced feel. The band skirt folk, country and soul - and seem to exude imagery of an indie teen rom-com soundtrack.

You could almost see Michael Cera pining over the one that got away. They were joined by Aldous RH on stage for a questionable instrumental. Maybe, the cold, dark, Salfordian setting wasn’t the place for sun drenched guitar licks and horns.

Next to step up to the Salford climate were London four-piece The Big Moon. The band are a collective of solo musicians who met on the basis of wanting to create something special, and cooler than a Salfordian February.

Shivering as they line checked, a special chemistry was evident. A mix of soulful vocals and lyrics, reminiscent of the classic sixties and seventies soul greats, fused with raw and gritty riffs.

Beach Boys-esque vocal harmonies and melodies encounter the grit of Nirvana or The Kills. A cover of Madonna’s 'Beautiful Stranger' was an homage to the power that these girls’ potentially posses.

A mad 2015 has made way for a tumultuous 2016 so far. Arriving on the scene with 'Eureka Moment', they following that up with three more equally powerful gems in 'The Road', 'Sucker', and 'Nothing Without You'. Could an album be on the horizon? 

Childhood brought their classic indie sound to the Hotel. The Londoners have been slowly simmering for a while now. Showcasing songs to be on the follow up to 2014’s Lacuna, they brought a touch of 2007 and nu rave to deepest darkest Salford. The new songs settled right alongside the older tracks without blowing anyone away. The White Hotel did at least warm up a wee bit though. 

The Bunker, the older brother to The White Hotel, is found by walking through the meandering corridors of the former car garage. The Bunker has gone down in Manchester folklore after the legendary Savages show in 2012.

The wooden skeleton encumbering the room leads like a labyrinth towards a low pit were New York’s Punk/Hip Hop three-piece Show Me The Body were set up.

Show Me The Body are known for their rapturous gigs and bring an extremely hip hop centric atmosphere to their music and gigs. As a live presence Julian Cashwan embroiled with a banjo delivers rare dissonant plucks alongside his best MC Ride impression. Their rapturous live shows are built on an ability to channel an anger in the audience, instantly a pit was opened and continued throughout the set.  

Real Lies brought the live proceedings to a close for the evening. Their album Real Life was for many an album of the year contender  The North Londoners channel an Oasis-like knack to story telling while lyrically perched on a spoken word The Streets like styling through frontman Kev Kharas.

Guitarist and co-vocalist, Tom Watson simultaneously has the ability to match Kev’s spoken word poetry to a catchy chorus.“This is like a house party in here and house parties are where we started, this is our thing”, frontman Kev claimed on arrival before springing into album opener “Blackmarket Blues”: a track equally poignant and stunning, reminiscent of The Street’s 'Weak Become Heroes'. 

'Deeper' officially starts the party with its nineties rave synths and 'Dab Housing', a reggae inspired anthem that conjures up imagery of summer in the city. They closed the all-dayer with 'World Peace' and had turned the heat up considerably. The Manchester crowd reacted with an equally warm reaction. 

Real Lies summed up The White Hotel’s aura perfectly with their house party summary. The place reverberations with a DIY mentality; it is that mentality that great things are built from.

The cold was a factor to fight but the bands on show - and the cheap drink prices – toppled that challenge. The Big Moon undoubtedly stole the show, if you get the chance to see them, see them quick. 

Read: Spring King at Deaf Institute review