Concert Review: Manchester Orchestra at the Beaumont
By CHANCE DIBBEN
The music of Manchester Orchestra mimics its band members: muscle-bound, heavy, and overwrought. In the world steeped in radio-friendly alterna-rawk, the Athens, Georgia quartet proves themselves viable heirs to former heavy-hitting princes like Staind and Godsmack.
This young band, fronted by lead singer and songwriter Andy Hull, is content with rocking-the-fuck-out; and during their performance at a filled Beaumont Club on Friday night that’s exactly what they did.
That’s neither praise nor demerit. If you can do one thing, do it well.
Manchester Orchestra lacked diversity, though, creating a gauzy blur of thick pummeling riffs and pounded snares. This kind of consistency can give an album a diamond-cut quality, with firm sonic boundaries outlining the integral whole; that’s probably why Manchester Orchestra’s second album, Mean Everything to Nothing, was released to such wide praise last year. Translated to the stage, however, the experience becomes overwhelming and rocking-the-fuck-out fatigue sets in.
