According to someone, somewhere Stockport may or may not be ‘the new Berlin’. A glance at the respective cultural pages on Wikipedia puts the Hat Museum up against Berghain, so I guess we’ll just have to wait and see… anyway the promise of a delightful looking new venue and an immersive audio visual show from Hello Cosmos was enough to entice me over from ‘the new Paris’ aka Salford.
St Mary’s in the Market Place is an absolute beauty and a very fine addition to the live music scene. Massive ceilings impress as you might expect but the venue is also intimate and welcoming and a fabulous setting for the night.
Fondabath confidently kick things off with a guitar based grungey sound I’ll happily soak up anytime. Reminded me of a less frantic Scheer (if you know your 90’s Northern Irish alternative bands).
Big Society are next up and instantly sound brilliant. Lead singer, Will Jaquet, looks ever so slightly like Harry Styles (sorry!) and sounds like Paulo Nutini’s naughty younger brother. As a band their musical prowess could very well exceed the talents of both. They seem to be going places at the minute and their set explains why. Any luck and they’ll be very big indeed.
Then it’s nearly time for the main event. A warm up act from an expert hula hooper sets the scene, before Hello Cosmos take to the stage. Described as a ‘cosmic electro/punk‘ collective Ben Robinson (vox/guitars), Simon Robinson (drums), Adrian Ingham (guitar), Angela Chan (violin/synth), Elara (sax/vox) and Isaac Dobbo (percussion) fill the stage and we are treated to the immersive experience promised.
With a spectacular light show, 3D glasses to hide behind, megaphones, balloons and top notch danceable tunes it feels like Stockport is being very, very spoiled. Eat your heart out Berlin, Berghain is officially old news, hello to you St Mary’s…
Following their 2021 debut album ‘Dream Harder’, Hello Cosmos will be releasing new singles “Turn Off The News” and “The Hot Seat” in the coming weeks, with a new album due this year. Catch them at The Lexington in London on Wednesday 28th February.
Keep in touch with Hello Cosmos at Instagram / Soundcloud / Twitter / Facebook
Review by Breige Cobane
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