As a heads-up, pictures from the concert were taken with my phone, so they are not the best quality

Even though M.I.A. unofficially started CMW on Saturday, yesterday was the official start of the festival, with many different concerts appealing to all audiences.  For those who love stoner indie rock to dance to, there was the first All Ages show for the Manchester-based The 1975, at the Kool Haus.  The venue is most likely the place where most pre-teens and teenagers go to for their first concert, due to the large number of all-ages shows booked there. The demographic  ranged from pre-teen up to mid-50s, including the accompanying parents of the underaged.

The opening acts were Sir Sly and Bad Suns, both Californian indie rock bands. Each band embodied an aspects of The 1975’s sound: dark, brooding synth-rock (Sir Sly) and mainstream, upbeat pop-rock (Bad Suns)

Sir Sly

Bad Suns

After these acts, which had whet the musical appetite of the audience, The 1975 came on after about 20 minutes of ambient noise playing over the speakers.  The set was a good blend of songs from their self-titled debut album, Starting with their hit “The City”.  Lead singer Matt Healy sauntered around the stage, taking swigs from a wine bottle, and when he noticed the crowd and sang to them, it resulted in ear-splitting adolescent girl screams that drowned out the music.

The 1975

Throughout the set, Matt talked to the audience, thanking us for being there and asking for the girls, that were passing out everywhere to stop pushing. One of the funniest moments was when the band left the stage and came back on one by one during the instrumental beginning of “Menswear”; when Matt came back on, he was smoking a joint and continued to through the song.  The girls all below the age of 19 gasped in unison and It got me thinking, “Do they really think that the song ‘Chocolate’ is about the food?!?’.

The 1975 also threw in some songs from their EPs (“So Far (It’s Alright”), “Head.Cars.Bending.”, “Me”, “You”, “Milk” and “Fallingforyou”) and concluded with an encore of three hits; “Robbers”, “Chocolate” and “Sex”.

The 1975