The last time I went into Sound Control in Manchester I spent an obscene amount of money on an Ibanez Signature Mike Mushok Baritone Guitar and a pedal board consisting of several Boss pedals, I walked away with a huge grin on my face and very thin wallet. But now since they have turned it into a venue I was eager to see how it had turned out as I waltzed in through the entrance and walked straight to the Bar (lets not go into the cost of beer eh!). Tonight’s show consisted of two bands, the first being Manchester based psychedelic doom rockers Nasdaq, who played none stop for about 30 minutes. Within these 30 minutes they managed to cram in a veritable smorgasbord of musical prowess, consisting of ribcage rattling heavy bass, huge Sabbath sounding breakdowns and weird little 70’s wah riffs all combined to create a very enjoyable piece of music. My only qualm with the whole thing was the ending; it seemed a shame that they put all that efforts into such a seamless set and just didn’t really know how to finish it, all finishing at different times with no real definitive end.

Tonight’s headline act was none other than Japanese super post-rockers Mono, quite possibly my favorite band of the genre. Needless to say my excitement at seeing them for the fourth time was far from hidden. Cheers erupted as they walked on stage and started tonight’s set with ‘Ashes in the Snow,’ luckily young Allan was with me and let this aging old Beard know what the name of said song was. Yeah, yeah I’m getting old and my memory ain’t what it used to be, I could tell you what the cover looked like though. Anyway gig review….. They played the usual array of hits including ‘Yearning’ and ‘The Kidnapper Bell’.However, to my surprise tonight’s performance was probably the worst out of all the previous performances I have seen, I’m unsure if this is because tonight I am here as a reviewer, have I just never really picked up on any such mistakes from being in awe of the band and finding myself lost in the music, who knows but it was bum notes galore. The worst affected by the plague of mistakes was annoyingly my favorite song and the set finisher ‘moonlight’ a few minutes into the song the guitar lead was pulled from his guitar (every guitarists worst nightmare) and from then on I think he really struggled to regain his composure.

I still walked from the gig with the same grin on my face happy in the knowledge that they are in fact human, and not just robots sent from Japan on tour to dominate the world of post-rock. After all everyone is allowed at least one off day.