Live Review: Plini – Manchester

Live Review: Plini - Club, AdaemyManchester

23rd May 2025
Support: Sungazer
Words: Oli Gonzalez

If there’s one guarantee in life, it’s that there are no guarantees. This aptly applies to the weather in Manchester. Things we’re hotting up on this Saturday evening in more ways than one, with the city baked in unusually hot rays of sun. Tonight’s headline act was equally hot, riding a wave of momentum since the release of a new album a month or so prior. The artist in question, Plini. Beginning life as a solo project, the Australian musician had been labelled ‘the future of exceptional guitar’ by none other than Grammy award winning guitarist Steve Vai. QUITE the accolade! Plini would be returning to the UK after a successful run of shows that culminated in an Arctangent Festival set, a where they closed the Yokhai stage. They would return to the UK after releasing “An Unnameable Desire” in late April 2026. Having listened to it prior to tonight, it was clear we’d be in for an instrumental guitar and progressive metal masterclass!

The cooler basement environment in Manchester’s Club Academy provided some protection from the heat. Though for those dressed in anything other than shorts and T-shirt (like my Maltese friend in attendance tonight who had dressed expecting colder weather) would soon be struggling! Having seen the likes of Cryptopsy, Kataklysm, and most recently Dragged Into Sunlight tear the venue apart this year alone, it felt strange to see the venue not in a sea of black shirts and battle jackets, but rather a more colourful array of floral shirts and bright colours. As if the venue isn’t able to accommodate genres other than extreme metal!

Forty five minutes between doors and the first band may have been a little excessive. Though conversely, this provided plenty of time for people to arrive, get settled with some liquid refreshment, and visit the merch stand if so desired. This also provided time for myself and my gig buddy for the evening to compare thoughts and experiences with Plini, as well as our thoughts on the opening act for tonight, Sungazer.

Arriving on stage in uniform tie dye attire, it was clear they weren’t here to make up numbers judging by the roaring ovation from the packed out Club Academy. Having played Arctangent Festival in 2025, they were a band who were unfortunately victims of many painful clashes from that weekend. Tonight would provide my first chance to see them without other distractions.

The set began with ‘Against The Fall Of Night’, characterised by a riff suspiciously close to that of the iconic Baker Street, though Sungazer’s rendition was more that of an electronic-jazz fusion. A fusion consisting of drums, bass, guitar, and saxophone; all four most capable and talented individuals. Though the whole is greater than sum of it’s parts with genuinely mind-boggling complex compositions and arrays. Compositions that leave the realms of traditional Western music, with songs like ‘Whiskey And Mes’ providing an intriguing blend of Irish and Ethiopian music, personified non-conventional rhythmic patterns going way beyond the canonical 4-beat! Music that even the band acknowledge can be difficult to dance to. Solution? Get everybody to do the Sungazer Two Step.

Very simple.

Take two steps to the left, then two to the right. Rinse and repeat. Simple but very effective. Sungazer had the crowd right where they wanted them. How do I remember all these little niche

details? Simple; the band introduced the songs and underlying meanings before each one, a lost art and such a wasted opportunity when bands don’t do this. Though Sungazer forged a genuine and meaningful connection with the Manchester collective tonight and certainly won some new fans.

Was a 30 minute change between sets necessary? Maybe. Maybe not. For Plini though, details matter, and even before the group had taken to the stage you could judge by the elaborate and sophisticated lighting display on stage that this was going to be extraordinary. Hence more time needed to ensure the stage was configured correctly to permit this.

No fancy introductions or walk on, just all 4 musicians calmly taking to the stage and resume positions before launching straight into the title track from their latest album. Remember what I said about details and how they matter? Well, given the devastatingly complex interplay between both guitarists tonight, one slight note out of place would have crumbled the entire set to rubble and dust. This was made even more challenging with the rhythm section being held by drummer Chris and bassist Simon. Though they were all tight. Mechanically tight; their chemistry and telepathic understanding of one another unmissable! Though it wasn’t all proggy-woggy noodling. There was room for all this to breathe in extended shoegaze-style ambient passages. Though any quieter parts were quickly drowned out with roars of approval from the crowd.

It was only three songs in that the band actually addressed the crowd. They did with so much charisma oozing and handling playful heckles, making you wonder why they didn’t this more often. When they played, there was virtually no interaction with the crowd, with them almost looking disinterested at times! If I hadn’t have snagged a setlist, I wouldn’t have known the names of any of the songs played on this night!

As such, it seemed like Sungazer were clear winners in terms of crowd engagement and overall entertainment tonight. Though when it come to sheer technical ability and musical prowess, Plini were on a different level, with a performance that can assert themselves with the likes of Animals As Leaders and Periphery as being top tier technical metal exponents!