New Century Hall, the revitalised Grade II listed building in Manchester’s NOMA district played host to St. Paul & The Broken Bones on Saturday night. Whilst at first, I thought perhaps the Alabama-based 8 piece were worthy of a bigger venue, it turned out the sprung floors and disco ceiling were the perfect accompaniment to an absolute joy of a gig.
Support act Tyler Ballgame delivered a great little set just shy of a week before his debut album drops and by the time the disco-lights dimmed again, the crowd were more than ready for St. Paul & The Broken Bones to take the stage.
An AI-generated monologue signalled the start of the set, with a computerised female voice declaring intention to “live vicariously through all the things you humans tell me” before the band emerged to The Avalanches ‘Frontier Psychiatrist’.
There was no messing about as they launched into last year’s release, ‘Nothing More Lonely’ and continued through a series of high energy upbeat numbers spanning more than a decade of releases, including ‘GotItBad’, ‘Ooo-Wee’, ‘Fall Moon’ and ‘Call Me’.
The band are so unbelievably tight and every single member looks effortlessly cool. Granted, they don’t look like they belong in the same band but as a collective, it works and the energy coming off the stage was infectious. The appreciation from the crowd for the musicianship on display throughout the evening was palpable, making the atmosphere in quite an intimate venue really something quite special.
After six songs, lead-singer Paul treated us to some ballads starting with ‘Grass Is Greener’. The only notes I was capable of making on my phone for this track were three black heart emojis. Emotional, raw and leaving the lead singer on his knees at the end of the track, ‘Grass Is Greener’ felt like the pinnacle of the first half of the set and rightly so.
It wasn’t long before the gear changed again though, with a lively rendition of ‘Sitting In The Corner’ bringing the crowd back up. It was during this track where the sprung floors of New Century Hall really came into their own.
After ‘Sitting In The Corner’, it was time for the band to shine with Paul leaving the stage and letting the audience experience what felt like a big jam session with the seven piece keeping the crowd enthralled through instrumentals before taking us into ‘Sushi and Coca-Cola’.
Then it’s time for the band to each take a moment to shine, with solos that had the crowd in the palm of this soul collective’s hands. When St.Paul himself returns to the stage to take us to church with ‘Stars Above’, he’s draped in his renowned sequinned cloak and ready to – somehow – take things up a notch. ‘Like A Mighty River’ from the 2014 album Half The City is absolutely mesmerising and is followed by ‘Apollo’ which acts as a pre-cursor to a planned encore.
At this point, we get more conversation from the front man than we’ve had all night. Janeway declares that Manchester is the best show so far on the tour, pleasing the crowd with a statement that may well be true given the electric atmosphere in the venue, but also admits that they’re only three shows in. I’ve no doubt that it will be true come the end of the tour though – those sprung floors are something else – which might be part of the reason Janeway declared his intention to leave the stage to ‘come out and see y’all in the Manchester crowd’.
Followed by a torch shimmering on his sequins, St. Paul makes his way through the crowd and sings ‘Sanctify’ from the middle of the audience. This felt very much like ‘a moment’; the kind of happening that puts Manchester on the map for visiting musicians and the kind of move from a band with a cult following like St. Paul & The Broken Bones that sends a crowd away smiling from ear-to-ear, knowing they just witnessed something special.
The band started on time at 8.15pm and played a relatively short 90 minute set – considering their back catalogue could have kept us entertained for hours on end – but my goodness, did it pack a punch!
The audience were treated to songs from as far back as 2014 and lapped every single one of them up. There was not a single ‘dip’ in energy or atmosphere the entire evening and I’d wager that the merch stand had a good trade, too.
There was such a mix of demographics in attendance, which only added to the sense that this was a very special Saturday night in one of Manchester’s most under-rated venues. The church of St.Paul & The Broken Bones certainly has some new followers and this tour will no doubt recruit more as they take their special brand of sequinned soul spectacular across the UK and Europe in the coming weeks.
St. Paul & The Broken Bones: Website / Facebook / Instagram
Tyler Ballgame: Website / Facebook / Instagram
Review and photography by Liz Ferris-Bleakley
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