REVIEW: Theory of a Deadman, Manchester Ritz.

rattlemag
Mar 8, 2016
2 min read

This was the second time that Theory of a Deadman have visited Manchester while promoting their

Savages album, having previously sold out Manchester Academy 2 in April 2015. This time the band headlined the evening at the O2 Manchester Ritz with support from Essex based Forever Never and Swedish rockers Royal Republic.

Forever Never were the first band on stage with a set that included many of their most recent songs

such as Never Giving Up and One Life, there was also a cover of the John Farnham 80’s tune You’re the Voice. This was a highly enjoyable set and I am looking forward to seeing Forever Never live again at some point in the future.

Up next was the unique sound of Royal Republic, although it was an enjoyable set five out of the

seven songs they performed were from their latest album Weekend Man which was only released

on the 26th of February. The set also included the song with possibly the longest title ever, Make Love Not War (If you have to make war - make sure to make time to make love in between) along with Full Steam Spacemachine but I was a little disappointed with the fact that Tommy Gun or Underwear failed to make it onto the set list.

It was then time for the headline act, Theory of a Deadman. The Canadian four piece came on stage

to the South Park tune Blame Canada, although I’m not too sure what we were blaming Canada for,

Justin Bieber perhaps? The set then kicked off with a personal favourite Lowlife, followed by So

Happy and The Bitch Came Back which Tyler introduced as “a song for the ladies”.

Blow which is the bands very catchy dig at certain aspects of modern life featured as the forth song in the set before things slowed down a bit for one of the bands earlier tunes Santa Monica. The main set was finished with arguably the bands most well-known song Hate My Life which is a great sing along song, in particular the line “I still hate my job, my boss is a dick, I don't get paid nearly enough to put up with all of your shit" which the people around me in the crowd really seemed to identify with.

The encore consisted of covers of parts of the classics Sweet Home Alabama and Paradise City followed by the song that the band always seem to finish their sets with, Bad Girlfriend. This was a fantastic gig with the usual guitar and drum solos squeezed between many of Theory of a Deadmans most well-known songs, one thing I did take note of is how different the vocals from Tyler Connolly sound live, not that this is a bad thing.