Live Review : The Answer + Kira Mac @ Club Academy, Manchester on November 15th 2023

Another day, another genre of that great musical cauldron we call rock. This time I am exploring the world of country blues and an evening of Southern-tinged rock n’ roll awaits. Well kind of. I mean support band Kira Mac are from Manchester, which is distinctly Northern, and last time I looked there was little in the way of deltas in Belfast where The Answer hail from. But still, let’s set the atmosphere. You can almost smell the whisky burning down Oxford Road tonight…..

Openers Kira Mac, despite being a fairly new band, have made a sizeable impression on the club rock scene in the last 18 months or so. Led by the powerful vocals of Ri they hit the ground running and have been gathering friends and fans ever since. 

Their blues is a contradiction in terms, because it’s happy. Kira Mac likes everything. They like being in a band, they like making music, they like each other and they like getting out there in front of a crowd and blowing them away. I’m scratching my head because I think they have lost a guitarist since the last time I saw them, and they seem to have replaced him with a backing track which is a bit irksome sometimes. However, the band’s superb stagecraft makes up for it, and their sound (which varies between grrr hard rock and yee-haw country) is upbeat and easy to listen to. 

There’s plenty of crowd participation, lots of chances to sing back choruses or clap along to intros, and the whole set is a very cheerful affair. Standout moments are a new song ‘Play The Game’ which is gritty and raw, and Ri jumps down on the photo pit to get closer to the crowd during ‘Scorned’. Unfortunately she accidentally breaks the PA in the process but never mind as she then sang the song unamplified with the crowd joining in whilst the stage crew scurried to fix it! 

‘Mississippi Swinging’ is a drinking song and ‘Chaos Is Calling”, the title track from the last album is a riot of hip-swinging sassiness. There will be a new album in the new year, and a headline tour in April/May, so it looks like they will continue to build on their already strong foundations. All power to them. 

The Answer, rather than losing a band member, have gained one since last time I saw them. They now have Carol on keyboards and effects, adding a rich depth to the music that you didn’t even realise was missing until it was suddenly there all around you. They have been on the scene for a while now, around 20 years I think, and their most recent album “Sundowners” (released in March 2023) is their seventh. 

They have Plenty of back catalogue to draw on then, and indeed they play a varied set of new songs and old favourites. Whilst they have only ever sniffed at the heels of glory (touring as support to Whitesnake, Paul Rodgers and AC/DC and even supporting The Rolling Stones at a couple of stadium shows in Ireland) they have remained a solid presence on the mid-level scene.  They have carved out their own sound, which weaves together hard rock, country, blues and Celtic folk. If those sound-like strange bedfellows don’t panic, because The Answer have, erm, the answer and make it work really well.  

They start with one of their more “rock” songs, ‘Blood Brothers’, and we are already dad-dancing along with Cormack and his ever-present tambourine. This is music to sway to, it’s complex and complicated but tempered with catchy choruses and massive hooks. For the more bluesy numbers we get slide played on a steel guitar for that authentic flavour. A bit of harmonica creeps in here and there, and the keyboards provide the sound of drones (Irish bagpipes) on a couple of songs. 

We are encouraged to shake off our bad vibes with the title track from “Sundowners”, and in a moment of revelation, I realise what is happening here. This isn’t so much a gig as a prayer meeting. It’s like the best of gospel where there is dancing in the aisles and the preaching is of love, peace and respect. As we move further down the set the comparison with some sort of religious gathering becomes even more pronounced. At one point Cormack even gets the crowd down on their knees, only to raise them up again. 

The music is performed flawlessly, and it’s also very loud. I attempt to do my usual lurk at the back but am unable to because up there the bass is actually vibrating the room to the point of discomfort. This just adds to that sense of this being a spiritual experience. There’s a power ballad that grabs you right in the feels, and in the middle of the encore Cormack raises a glass to all of us, singing an Irish sea shanty unaccompanied. The music is soulful but not soul. It’s funky but not funk.  It draws you in with the promise of something a little outside the norm and delivers just that. Hallelujah brothers and sisters, I am a convert.

Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos!
The Answer, Kira Mac