Hot Mulligan - New Century Hall, Manchester 02.09.2023

Hot Mulligan with support from Spanish Love Songs took to a sold out New Century Hall in Manchester to promote their recently released albums. Having upgraded a few venues due to their high demand I was eagerly awaiting their appearances in one of the best medium sized venues Manchester has to offer.

With both bands being at the forefront of a new take on Emo and Pop Punk, this line-up was well thought out to include two bands pushing the boundaries of the genres and no doubt sharing fan bases too.

Unusually this night was all about just these two bands which meant more time for fans to witness both of the emotive performances on display and enjoy lengthy sets from both.

Spanish Love Songs having just released their 4th studio album 'No Joy' via Pure Noise Records were ready to show the UK what they have been working on and they did just that, playing new tracks such as 'Clean-up Crew', 'Haunted' and 'Marvel' together with songs from their 3rd album 'Brave Faces Everyone'. This set was made up of their last two albums and arguably their best works. The crowd seemed to enjoy the new tracks just as much which shows Spanish Love Songs sticking to what they know best - the two albums blended together well and the 9 track setlist included proportionately more loud voices from the crowd as 'Losers' pulsated through the venue with its emotive and meaningful lyricism. Spanish Love Songs are back in the UK in January for their own headline tour and I’m sure their will be familiar faces wanting to catch them in Manchester again.

Hot Mulligan's set was similar to that of the support with their last two albums at the focus of the proceedings for the evening. Surprisingly Hot Mulligan were able to fit a huge amount of tracks from their catalogue and it was clear they were here to show their new material, with almost the entire new album 'Why Would I Watch' performed.

Crowd favourites were ‘SPS’ and ‘BCKYRD’ as fans sung their hearts out and got involved more than ever. Hot Mulligans awkward but charming conversations in between songs kept them very much connected with the audience and the reception to each song played was that of heart wrenching singing and plenty of crowd surfers really enjoying themselves too. A fantastic gig was executed by both bands on display here and its good to see the rock scene in Manchester very much thriving.

Hot Mulligan - https://www.facebook.com/HotMulligan

Spanish Love Songs - https://www.facebook.com/SpanishLoveSongs

Photos & Review - Jess Jones Photography