You Me At Six at Victoria Warehouse in Manchester review

Megan Roberts gave her verdict on one of two sold out shows for the Surrey rockers, who are celebrating the release of their fifth album 'VI'.

Date published: 29th Nov 2018

Image: You Me At Six

To mark a decade (like seriously how?) since the release of their debut Take Off Your Colours the album of your emo-fringed, shag-band wearing youth are back (but with a new album every two years of so, it’s almost as if they hardly left) Some ten years later, when many of their so-called noughties counterparts with the likes of Kids In Glass Houses now broken up and disappeared into the abyss. You Me At Six much still standing - and as we saw tonight still relevant, with two sold out nights at Manchester’s O2 Victoria Warehouse, the Surrey boys really ain’t doing too bad at all. 

Coming on to the head-bopping, funky 'Back Again' from the latest record, this is everything that guitar rock and understated American emo influences means to a 2018 audience. As we saw with solid tracks from VI and also 'Night People' from its self titled album, they are backed by credible tunes that mean something to a newer generation of followers, plus a tasty back-catalogue of catchy faves and a sound which has moved with the times but not enough to isolate their core fanbase. Re-imagined for the new gen but without losing their signature sound, sense of who they are and what their fans new and old love about them.

A night at a YMAS show is everything you expect it to be, fun and unpretentious. They are humble and don’t take themselves too seriously. They also really appreciate their fans and give them a show they deserve, never feeling like they’re going through the motions with songs they’ve played many a time before - it never really feels like that.

The highlight of the night was Franceschi’s tribute to last year’s tragic Manchester arena attacks, which was a prelude the most emotive performance of 'Take on the World' with lighters and phones in the air as far as the eyes could see, bringing a new meaning to the song.

As most gig-goers would tell you, when a bands tells a Manchester crowd how much they love the city, you could be forgiven for thinking each night of the tour probably gets told the same thing and there’s not a lot wrong with that. But it felt different this time, as you could sense the sincerity in his voice and subsequent vocal as he spoke of ‘the way you responded as a city.’

‘When I saw what happened at the Ariana Grande concert, I thought that if that happened at one of our concerts, it would have broken my heart.You are without a doubt one of the most beautiful places on planet earth and we love coming here…thank you for being f*cking Manchester.’

'Lyrics' seemed to almost tell the story of one of the most tragic live music events in recent memory, ’I won't pretend to know what you've been through’ spoke of Manchester’s fight and strength in unity in the ‘face of the worst’ made for pretty moving stuff. 

Truth be told, lots of people in the crowd were really having a moment to favourites like 'Save it for the Bedroom', 'Reckless' and 'Loverboy' - with the predictable 'Underdog' encore as we’d have guessed but at the same time, we also wouldn’t have it any other way. Even newer material from latest album was received well, albeit not quite as well as the TOYC classics but that’s to be expected, right? It was a solid effort from the lads who in all honesty, put on a really good show.