I think it's fair to say that we don't get masses of hardcore gigs passing through the North West, so it’s a real treat to have a band with the calibre of Comeback Kid headlining a gig in Manchester. The Bread Shed offers everything you need to make this kind of gig work, with that underground vibe and close-up intimate stage. In fact, as would be hoped at a hardcore gig, there’s no barrier tonight - something our photographer is a bit nervous about it’s plain to see!

I arrive just in time for openers XL Life. Hailing from Cardiff they bring a delightful initial slab of hardcore to the evening. The vocals have loads of echoey delay and evoke similarities to Higher Power but with a lower vocal range. There’s plenty of driving galloping drums alongside the guitar and bass., and whilst there’s classic overdriven hardcore guitar riffs, there’s also some intriguing ska and even surfer vibes too. Singles ‘Just do it’ and ‘World Keeps Spinnin’ are both great, allowing the songs to groove as well as having that smash-and-grab drums and vocals.

Next are Buffalo’s Spaced. Their hardcore offering is fresh and enthusiastic, to which they themselves have labelled their genre ‘Far Out Hardcore’. In vocalist Lexi Reyngoudt they have an engaging and charismatic figure. Her delivery is direct and clearly influenced by bands like Trapped Under Ice. As with XL Life, we’re treated to some impressively intricate driving drum-work, and again almost skacore guitar riffs and groove at times that makes me think of Voodoo Glow Skulls instrumentally (just no horns of course). But then we see heavily Turnstile influenced guitars and we back firmly in a hardcore gig with the crowd warming greatly to the band. This gig sees the band celebrating exactly one year since their first recording release and debut, and with this being their first trip to play overseas, you can only think we’ll be hearing and seeing more of them in the future. 

Headliners Comeback Kid are always a tremendous band live, and tonight they don't disappoint. Making the lengthy trip from Winnipeg, Canada for a handful of headline shows and festival appearances every member of the band enthusiastically jumps straight into the action with opener ‘False Idols Fall’. We’re then offered up the chance to sing, mosh, two-step and gleefully bask in a variety of songs from the bands entire catalogue. All of them have that CBK ix of catchy riff (especially ‘Do Yourself a Favor), high octane tempo, impassioned vocals and the intangible feeling that we’re all intrinsically involved in what’s being performed. A true hardcore experience. CBK are a melodic hardcore delight, especially when frontman Andrew Neufeld is in full flow - right up in the crowd’s face directing the dance floor while still delivering his distinctive and absorbing vocals. All the hardcore punk passion and verve you’d hope for is found in each CBK song, but they add in just enough variety into each that allows for distinct and memorably catchy songs that you end up singing to yourself for hours later. In fact, the crowd are singing at the top of their voices from start to finish, with some highlights being ‘Absolute’ and ‘Should Know Better’. Eventually though they have to bring a close to the set with closer ‘Wake the Dead’, and we all pour out into the street a rabble of sweaty messes. I make my way to the station to wait two hours for a rail replacement bus which turns out to be a hair-raising minibus journey - but that’s a tail for my memoirs not here - safe to say I live to tell the tale of the night Comeback Kid ruled the roost.