Live Review: The Coathangers / Mold – Soup Kitchen, Manchester, UK, 29th April 2019

After a week spent recovering from the excesses of the Manchester Punk Festival it’s back into Manchester to attend the basement of the Soup Kitchen for a serving of The Coathangers who are touring in support of their latest full length, The Devil You Know. On this tour The Coathangers are supported by a series of local acts, in Manchester this means we experience the strangeness of Mold, who have emerged once more from the Manchester’s psyche underground into the smoky decaying basement of the Soup Kitchen. We previously caught Mold supporting local surf garage psychos The 99 Degree, I was struck that night by how much the channel the dark side of the late 60s and early 70s psychedelic scene, and it seems nothing has changed as they remain wildly idiosyncratic, with the emphasis on wild.

Mold channel the distinctly unhinged side of the European psych scene like no one else, unsettling and intriguing, after a bizarre mantra of “won’t you please cut my strings” they launch into a set that almost defies description. Mold utilise post punk spikyness that clashes with psychedelic strangitude and fuzzed out garage via a distinctly hallucinogenic path designed by Salvador Dali, it’s probably easier to see them for yourself and make your own mind up, whilst you can pick up threads of where their sound comes from, you can’t possibly unravel it to its source. Mold are that rare beast of a truly original band, you will either love or hate them but an extreme reaction is always a good thing in my book as no one is polarised by beige. Considering it’s a Monday night the Soup Kitchen is packed and the bar is doing a brisk trade ahead of the arrival of The Coathangers.

The Coathangers take the stage in gold hooded dresses and greet the crowd with a heartfelt “what’s up motherfuckers?” Before heading into the haunting Lithium with it’s echoing birdsong that builds the atmosphere before they hit the ground running with frantic tribal drums and garage punk of Watch Your Back, at this point there is no going back. The Coathangers straddle the line between pure punk pop, dirty rock ‘n roll and garage fuzz perfectly, never settling in one camp they are rock ‘n roll personified and follow in a lineage that can be traced from The Angels through to The Runaways and L7. The Coathangers bring something fresh to a sound that many have tried and failed to do better. It’s difficult not to fall under their spell tonight, the combination of gold lame, deliciously dirty guitar riffs, gang vocals and a fuck you attitude is utterly impossible to resist. 

The Coathangers can dip into sweet sixties pop but by the time the chorus arrives you know they are packing a switchblade, the beats backing their sound remain purely primeval, if you imagine The Gun Club, The Cramps and L7 on a spiked sugar rush then you’re probably about half way there, but that isn’t the whole story, like all great bands that mysterious element that separates that great from the good is present in their sound. Instruments are swapped repeatedly towards the end of their set before they go full circle and return to their original starting point, throughout the changes subtle differences hint at each members individual influence over The Coathangers sound, that demonstrates that the whole is far greater than the sum of their parts. 

Playful menacing garage punk at its best is probably how I can best sum tonight’s set up and if you have the chance to catch The Coathangers live then you should. Tonight featured an oddly mismatched duo of bands, whilst there was a garage fuzz connection they were poles apart, whether this enhanced the night or detracted is impossible to say. I have to say that on Wednesday in Leeds they were being supported by Weekend Recovery, and to my ears that would be a match in heaven, but sometimes the unpredictability of a live show is what makes live music so compelling and addictive, but tonight one thing is clear The Coathangers are staking a claim for the title of queens of rock ‘n roll and I wouldn’t bet against them taking it based on tonight’s show.