Live Review: Palm Reader – Academy 3, Manchester
6th July 2023
Support: Mastiff, Love Is Noise
Words: Dan Barnes
Photos: Bill Mawdsley
After thirteen years together, Nottingham’s post-Hardcore sextet, Palm Reader are calling it a day, and have embarked on four-date tour of England, ending in a fifth and final show at the 2000Trees Festival in Cheltenham next weekend. Last night was in London, tomorrow it’s their last home-town headlining show at the Rescue Rooms but, tonight, they’ve stopped off in Manchester.
It’s a Saturday night and England are playing Switzerland in the Euros quarter final. The bar in the Academy student union is packed, but photographer Will and myself have things other than penalties to discuss as we climb the stairs to the old Hop and Grape.
Hull thugs (their words, not mine) Mastiff seem a odd fit for this bill, but it’s always a pleasure to spend time in these lad’s company. Vocalist, Jim Hodge, slays two sacred cows immediately by showing an indignation to England’s progression to the semi-finals, and by dedicating the Pig Destroyer-esque Repulsive to “our new leaders… also a sack of shit” on the heels of Thursday’s election result. Mastiff are always a pleasure to spend time with, their blend of doomy-sludge and violent, heavy hardcore makes every show an eviscerating experience. From the filthiest of basslines and scatter-shot grooves, to artillery drums and ripping guitars, Mastiff might be something of a square-peg in tonight’s round hole, but they tap into the more aggressive aspects of the headliner’s dark side.
It’s almost exactly a year to the day that a saw Love Is Noise at the Star & Garter supporting Paledusk, and for all the cerebral musing of that night, the intervening twelve-months has seen the band develop their sound even further. Using Moon River as an intro is bold, dropping immediately into harsh electronics, with the low end at odds with the high, unsettling rhythms and a poppy sensibility delivered with a ferocious intent, mean the band are as elusive to categorise as ever.
All manner of vibes dance from the PA, alternative meets noise with a heavy hardcore aesthetic; there’s moments when it could be some Eighties chart-fodder, were it not for the abrasive accompaniment which feels as though it’s affecting the very air itself. There’s a jazz introduction which leads to something Portishead might come up with if they played about with distorted guitars; the “tears in rain” monologue from Blade Runner finds a widescreen tune wringing the emotion from the crowd, and we even get a new one, which hints at a continuance of the direction Love Is Noise have been heading.
The announcement was made back in March that these July shows were to be Palm Reader’s last and on the evidence of tonight it is surely not the reason that anything musical is driving the end. The six-piece walk onto the small Academy 3 stage and frontman, Josh McKeown simply says: “One last time.” It’s three words loaded with such emotion that will colour the night. Braille’s Internal Winter opens the show some juggernaut riffs and heavy attack; oldie I Watch the Fire Chase My Tongue finds the stage awash with red and yellow light, while the drums beat out an unsettling rhythm.
The band’s final album, the incredible Sleepless, would go on to dominate the set but, for now, we get the back-to-back Willow and Hold/ Release, including some intricate Pink Floyd-style slide guitar and a few post metal elements for good measure. These, and the Dillinger/ Converge take on modern progressive music shows if Palm Reader are to end, they do so at the height of their powers.
The older Inertia reminds us the band didn’t suddenly include those elements and they had been there much earlier; languid and soaring, the guitars paint a detailed picture all by themselves. I’m going out on a limb here, and suggesting the band have little to no love of our departing government, if Stay Down’s closing chant of “Fuck the Tories” is anything to go by – I know, I can be quite perceptive at times!
Seeing and Believing are Two Different Things appear on the self-titled EP and the 2013 debut album, Bad Weather, and the youthfully exuberant lack of polish can still be heard; same can be said for Spineless, though the fast and furious, almost Death Metal charge, covers a multitude of sins.
There’re people in from Belfast and Glasgow, and Josh apologises for not visiting those cities on this final jaunt. He has his tongue firmly in his cheek when states: “…as for the locals. Lazy.” Stacks, Like a Wave and False Thirst lead us to the end of the main set, but not before the last Palm Reader song for which the lyrics were written, and a song about the band itself – how poignant. Sounds like I’m being wise after the event, but Both Ends of the Rope has been my favourite of the band’s songs from the first time I heard it, and to see it in the context of tonight’s show was something special.
They took a leaf out of Body Count’s book and employed the Virtual Encore, the lights coming back on for Swarm, with calls for a circle pit as surfers took to the air, and one last emotional farewell, before ending with Sleepless’ central song, A Bird and Its Feathers.
Before the end, Josh spoke of the appreciation for people coming out to see the band over the years, and it got me thinking as to how we make decisions to spend our money, to gather with strangers and experience music played live. As someone who spends a lot of time do just that I should probably ask Google what Anthropologists and Sociologists make of it.
And then it was done. One of the most exciting UK post hardcore-cum-metalcore (or however else they should be described) have left the building, and the nation’s music scene is a little less interesting because of that. Good luck to all the band members in their future endeavours; we’ll always have Manchester.
Photo credits: Bill Mawdsley
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