Trophy Eyes - Manchester Club

It’s another wet and windy day here in Manchester as Storm Kathleen rolls in, but at Manchester Club Academy, there looks to be a heavy dose of “Suicide and Sunshine" as Australian punk rock band, Trophy Eyes bring their U.K. tour to the city. 

First to the stage tonight is Out Of Love, a punk band hailing from London. This is a band who go for the grungier side of punk, similar in sound to bands like Gnarwolves or Drug Church. It’s easy to see why Out of Love were picked for this tour, with their harsher vocals, sounding similar to Trophy Eye’s earlier albums. That being said the band easily stand on their own two feet as they make their way through an impressive 9 song set, keeping the energy high and warming the room up. Out of Love already have a following but there’s no doubt that they will have an influx of fans following this tour.

Next up we have Happydaze. A band who are proudly waving the pop punk flag for Scotland. The band waste no time in kicking things up to 11, with guitarist Rory Gault-Gordon jumping and spinning across the stage. The band’s music leans heavily into the modern pop punk genre, with catchy choruses, bouncing verses and everything you’d expect from a modern pop punk band. They are a band who definitely wouldn’t look out of place amongst bands such as Neck Deep. Happydaze are an absolute joy to watch on stage as they keep the energy high, transferring it from the stage and into the crowd. As the set draws to a close the room is now filled with electric energy as the crowd wait for the final band of the night.

In June last year Trophy Eyes released their highly anticipated 4th album ‘Suicide and Sunshine’. Their music is described, by themselves, as sad songs disguised as happy songs. Tonight, Trophy Eyes bring those songs to the stage, kicking things off with the first single off their latest album ‘Blue Eyed Boy’ before quickly moving into the anthemic ‘Figure Eight’; a song which gets the crowd going and incites huge sing alongs and chanting from the crowd as the song reaches its chorus. Moments like these show that vocalist, John Floreani, and the rest of the band have written these songs with live shows in mind. Not even halfway through the second song and our first crowd surfer of the night is up and over the barrier. Although the new songs are well received by the crowd, it’s songs from 2016’s ‘Chemical Miracle’ that really kick things up a notch.

Halfway through the bands 4th song ‘Heaven Sent’ there’s a loud pop and the band are hit with technical difficulties, it’s not clear what’s happened but as John stops singing and Bassist, Jeremy Winchester, and guitarist, Josh Campiao, come to a halt the crowd continues singing, backed by the booming drums of Blake Caruso. Moments like this don’t happen often at shows but that’s why they’re special. This shows the love the fans have for the music and the support they give to the band has never been clearer than this moment. John thanks the crowd and apologizes for the issues and begins to chat to the crowd whilst the issues are being worked out. ‘So what’s changed since we were last in the UK?’ He says. ‘Well I grew a moustache. not a cool moustache though, more like one you grow when you hit puberty.’ He jokes to much laughter from the crowd. After a short while the stage is back up and running and Trophy Eyes treat the crowd to a blistering performance of ‘Suicide Pact’ before slowing things down for the catchy yet emotional ‘What Hurts the Most’.

As the set heads towards the finish line Trophy Eyes once again return to their older material, playing through ‘Daydreamer’ and crowd favourite ‘Chlorine’ back-to-back. One of the great things about Trophy Eyes is the diversity amongst their songs and this set really highlights this. They’re a band who have found their sound and a way to transfer emotions into the song writing, whether that’s anger, sadness, happiness or a rock bottom low, they allow the fans to feel everything. The night may not have gone to plan with technical issues cutting the set list down a little, but for fans it was still a special night filled with joy, massive sing alongs and some much needed laughter.