Memory Tapes
The Corner, Manchester, UK
16th January 2010
It's with mild curiosity that Manchester finds itself host to the premier airing of Dayve Hawk and his much lauded New Jersey outfit Memory Tapes. Not because this is Manchester – a music city with a burgeoning and substantial infrastructure of unique and characterful small to medium sized venues – but more because this is Memory Tapes' first ever live performance.
It's even more remarkable when you understand that Memory Tapes last night declined to play an NME industry event at the hefty London night club 'Koko', opting instead to showcase deep inside the Manchester student Mecca that is Fallowfield. Away from their native New Jersey, what's clear is that Memory Tapes want their first time to be special, and The Corner provides a fertile and somewhat straight outta Berlin setting that's sure to let nature take its course.
 Memory Tapes at The Corner, Manchester (01/16/10) ♥ photo by Magnus Blikeng |
The suggestions of performance anxieties backed by a reportedly nervous sound check – 'he seemed like he'd never done one before' – came with good reason, yet this nervous energy would later prove to breathe life into début LP Seek Magic. Twenty minutes earlier than scheduled the PA background music fades jarringly – Hawke's gulp of 'This is my first ever show, and I mean anywhere' is met to excited yelps and the familiar sound set of Seek Magic hits the airwaves – like an anxious teenager seemingly eager to get the proceedings over with.
What's instantly noticeable is how different the songs and in particular the vocals translate when separated from the recording process, restricted of heavy underwater filtering the vocals waiver with nervous life. Bass lines writhe, buzzing melody lines with added room to manoeuvre let this audience grab a hold of every uplifting mood transition Seek Magic presents.
At the end of the resounding thirty minute sampler set, I'm struck most by the anthemic potential of Seek Magic – the birth of Memory Tapes live gives just a taste of a summer sure to be spent on more lucrative, wider stages. Tracks like 'Graphics' and 'Stop Talking' demonstrate Hawk summoning the spirits of summers past in the audience hearts – the audience's own greatest hits reel playing in their eyes as they interpret the most ambiguous snatches of lyrics to be about their own lives. This music is clearly about the good times and the audience is grasping after them.
01/19/2010 10:13:30 ♥ duncan (
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