Live Review : Periphery + Plini + Astronoid @ O2 Ritz, Manchester on November 14th 2019

When Astronoid describe themselves as ethereal they aren’t half on the money. Brett Boland’s vocals are only just there. Delicate, haunting and drenched in emotional fragility, they juxtapose with the thrashy prog of the band behind and you end up with music that is deep, passionate and varied. You get caught up in the swirls of driving rhythm and layered guitar and it all feels like a whirlpool that is sucking you further into its core. There is something really intriguing here, a morphing of intricate technicality and stunning vocal harmonies. And it is that latter virtue that lives on in my mind long after the band have left the stage.

I’m not going to make any friends here but Plini are dull. Dull, dull, dull, dull, dull. There I have said it. Yes, Plini himself is a virtuoso guitarist, very much a modern day Steve Vai, and yes, he can contort notes like no other, but god it feels like watching Kenny G. There is no variation, there is no shades, there is no diversity in approach. It is just technically perfect guitar passage after technically perfect passage. As each track starts I hanker after variety, maybe a squealing power chord or a dirty heavy fuzzy riff. But no, it’s just clinical, a pristine chord followed by another clinical pristine chord. Yes I know that I am in a minority of one as the crowd treat him like he and his band are headlining. The plethora of guitar nerds in the audience may hang on to each and every note with utter reverence but for me, it was nothing more than lift music.

There is more variability in style and approach in the first minute of Periphery’s epic 16 minutes opening number 'Reptile' than there was in the whole of Plini’s set. A vast, sprawling number, ‘Reptile’ sees the band showcase their multiple influences and outputs. They are tight, focused and slick. In fact, they are so well drilled that it takes a while to release that tonight, they are a four piece. Mark Holcomb, usually a whirlwind of limbs and taut angular riffs has had to rush back to the States. It is testimony to the professional nature and musical dexterity of the band that he is not missed. Jake and Misha take the stage left and stage right positions respectively, flanking the whirling dervish of pent up emotions that is Spencer Sotelo. Plini and his live guitarist Jakub Żytecki emerge for the dying embers of ‘Reptile’ and there may actually be moment where I get the fuss about this Australian would genius (his support slot was still a snooze fest though).

Bearing in mind they are at short notice a vital member down, Periphery are extraordinarily good tonight. I may not have fully connected with “Hail Stan” on record but live, the five tracks aired tonight are all stunningly good. 'Follow your Ghost' is particularly mesmerising and see’s Spencer give his vocal range a massive work out. What is always stunning about Periphery is actually the minimalism of what they are doing. Other acts see progressive to mean fitting in as many notes as humanly possible. Periphery, instead scale back and harness the power of solitary resonating riffs that they then build the melodies around. There is actually not that many chords used, but each and every one is expertly delivered. 

The crowd is reverent from the off, however they seem to reach fits of rapture when '‘Scarlet’ from “Periphery II: This Time It's Personal” and 'Psychosphere' from “Juggernaut: Alpha” are rolled out. The pit become a mass of gesticulating limbs and screaming voices. There is such a connection between band and audience here. Each member of Periphery come across as humble, grateful and in awe of the reaction they are receiving. The obligatory wander off stage after 'Blood Eagle' seems to happen mere moments after they arrived on stage and we get a singular encore in the shape of 'Lune’. Starting low, lilting and melodic, its builds and builds until the tight taut riffs are raining down on us. And then they are gone, are mere seventy minutes after they started. The shortness may be down to the aforementioned line up issues, but the brevity of the set takes, for me, some of the sheen off what is otherwise an amazing show. However, they are still utterly brilliant.