Live Review : Employed To Serve + Pupil Slicer + Going Off @ FAC251, Manchester on October 28th 2023

This show was meant to mark the triumphant return of Mancunian institution Gorilla. Sadly, the British blight of "overrunning engineering works" means that at the 11th hour, it has had to be hastily moved down the road to the iconic FAC251. A cavernous labyrinth of dingy dance floors, it was the former home of Tony Wilson's groundbreaking Factory Records and also the site of a lot of ill-gotten raving by my good self during the '90s. The downstairs space that hosts tonight’s gig is a lot smaller than its intended home, meaning we get an intimate and exceedingly sweaty show. It also provides a rare opportunity to observe three of the most exciting bands on the UK scene in incredibly close quarters.

Going Off are local lads and to mark the fact that Halloween is almost upon us they have raided the dressing-up box big-time. Vocalist Jake Huxley is in full clown get-up including comedic honker and juggling balls. The latter comes into more usage than potentially expected when all sound on stage inexplicably ceases before the start of the second track. There is an awful lot of curfuffling with Sammy from Employed to Serve and Kate from Pupil Slicer both joining in the various prodding and preening of wires and sockets. Jake is born to perform, and he uses the un-scheduled intermission to playfully banter with his hometown crowd.

Thankfully with a veritable wail of guitar, normal service is resumed and Going Off power back into their set. They are very much punk without any of that nauseous pop to worry about. Their sound is corrosive, minimal, striking, and beholden with lashings of power. They are a swirling cauldron of in-your-face energy. There is little complexity to the music but frankly, that is not the point. They are a simmering pot of molten rage, and their performance is just utterly incendiary.

Jake grasps the rafters above him and glares malevolently into the crowd. As his face paint starts to smudge, his menacing presence is enough to give anybody with Coulrophobia night terrors. Each track is built on short, sharp primal riffs. Organically, heavy it shows how uncompromising pure simplicity can be. Nasty, jagged, and fuelled by indignant anger, they are very much the sound of the streets, and believe me the street aren’t happy.

The rise of Pupil Slicer has been nothing short of phenomenal. When their debut album “Mirrors” arose during the latter days of the pandemic it was the subject of a deafening avalanche of Chinese whispers. Every extreme metal forum that I lurked upon was full of evangelical spluttering "Have you heard this album?” Their rise has been unassailable, however this is inexplicably only their second proper jaunt around the country and their first since the release of their sophomore effort “Blossoms”.

I've said it before, but I will say it again. There is something inordinately wonderful about covering emerging outfits like Pupil Slicer and watching them evolve before your very eyes. Every time I see them, they are a better band. They are tighter, more in control of their output, and frankly better musicians. Their performance at Download during the summer was astonishing but this evening they take those foundations and build even further.

What is extraordinary about Pupil Slicer is how different their sound is from just anything else. It doesn't operate in usual linear melodic refrains, and it does away with anything as pastiche as time signatures. Instead, the songs seem to unfold in a chaotic and random way. Instead of following a well-worn structure they burst off in different mind-boggling directions. However, in the middle of this deconstructed anarchy, there is an utter beauty to behold. It is obvious that every track is a personal treaty for Kate and what we are witnessing is a very private process of soul bearing. For all the disconnected noise that rains down upon us, there is a fragile and delicate nature to their sound.

They are very much grown into their status of "band to watch” and any spectre of impostor syndrome has been banished. What has emerged in its place is an outfit that is comfortable in his own skin and knows how to hold themselves on stage. Luke Fabian on bass has very much assumed the position as Kate's lieutenant, taking up lots of the heavy lifting in regard to audience motivation. From our chat with Kate earlier, not even the band seems to know what the future holds for them but the fact that a group this angular and disconnected from the mainstream can become this popular illustrates the thirst for difficult and challenging music. Pupil Slicer are not just one of the most exciting bands we probably have in this country they are the most exciting band and I for one cannot wait to see what happens next.

Aside from being an astonishingly good live proposition, Employed to Serve will always have a place in my heart as they were the last band I saw before all those lockdown shenanigans were catapulted upon us. My ticket stub for their March 2020 Academy 3 show is for posterity framed on a wall as testimony for what we almost lost forever. Three and a half years later this is inexplicably their first headline UK outing since those truncated shows. They seem reluctant to call this the “Conquering” tour as the album it is erstwhile promoting was released over 24 months ago. However, no matter the timeline it is an absolute beast of a record (number one in our 2021 countdown) and it is wonderful to finally hear these songs live.

Understandably the majority of the set is made up of components from “Conquering”, though they do choose to start the show with ‘Void Ambition’ from 2017’s “The Warmth of a Dying Sun”. Commencing with a reminder of their previous sound, just proves how far Employed to Serve have audibly evolved. I know it's facile to say, but they are a hardcore band playing heavy metal. They take the uncompromising attitude of the former and weld it to the musical complexities of the latter.

As the recent Gojira shows, Sweden Rock and Bloodstock performances showed, they have become a band entirely comfortable with larger stages. However, it is obvious this evening that the cramped confines of a pulsating club are the happiest. They tear through their set like they have a curfew looming over them. They seem genuinely touched by the chaos that unleashes in front of them. The whole room becomes the pit and the security, more used to off-their-tits teenage ravers, are not quite sure what to do with marauding tattooed middle-aged metalheads cavorting around in a circle. On regular occasions, Justine atones that they have been requested to take it down a notch, but she seems in a particularly non-compromising mood and ignores all recommendations for restraint.

No matter the charismatic pull of Justine, Employed to Serve have always operated as a tight unit with every member playing their particular and specific role. During ‘Twist the Blade’, Sammy dispenses with guitar duties and instead grabs a mic and heads for the barrier and beyond it. It is chaotic but controlled chaos, with the band always very much in the driving seat. Through the fog of purple lights, the grin on Justine's face is unavoidable. She is holding the reins to the whole anarchistic caboodle and is loving every darn moment of it.

With their side hustle of Church Road records, Sammy and Justine are very much at the heart of the explosion we are seeing of highly interesting UK band. She states that the greatest thing about a headline tour is that they can take out bands that they adore and the virtual loving between Pupil Slicer and Employed to Serve is illustrated when Kate joins them for ‘I Spend My Days (wishing them away)’. They scream the emotive lyrics back at each other, Justine onstage and Kate in the pit. Then the latter vaults over the barrier and is carried aloft by the surging crowd.

There is no encore, but for a band so grounded it would feel facile to go through that usual façade. Instead, the set culminates with a crescendoing version of ‘Mark at The Grave’, with Justine's aforementioned grin now visible from space. Usually, when a band exclaims that this is the best show of the tour there is a feeling of false platitudes. However tonight we believe Justine, as there has been such an incendiary feel about tonight's performance. The only lingering sadness is that the band's impressive trajectory means that shows of this size will soon certainly become a thing of the past. If you don't get to see them when they are still in clubs then you'll kick yourself when they are solely doing arenas. 

Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos!
Employed To Serve, Pupil Slicer, Going Off