| The last time ex Moldy Peaches2000 member Adam Green was in Manchester supporting Cerys Mathews, he never moved from his chair and played an intimate solo acoustic set. This time he was accompanied by his band who entered the stage first, before Adam bounded on to stage with the exuberance of a spring lamb and threw himself into the opener ‘Bluebirds’. Tonight couldn’t have been more different as Adam bounced around the stage with the vigour of an aerobics instructor, clearly relishing the company of his band mates and the freedom that this gave him. The title song from his latest album ‘Friends Of Mine’ went down well with the masses who warmed to the young Mr Green, as the set progressed. They responded to his mixture of tenderness and ‘South Park’ style humour, which was epitomised in the intriguing song ‘No Legs’. Front man of the headline act The Thrills, Conor Deasey was keen to demonstrate that the Irish quintet are not merely a The Beach Boys tribute band singing the wrong songs. He attempted this by doing the Rock n Roll thing of making a point of swearing in his communication with the crowd. The tender ‘Your Love Is Like Vegas’ was utilised early on alongside the slower ‘Till The Tide Creeps In’, that hadn’t been played much in previous live performances. The crowd never really got into the set until the previously released single ‘Big Sur’ got them bouncing. The Thrills with their growing popularity attracted a larger than average number of the ” too cool to care hands by their side” brigade, despite attempts by the guitarists to get some rhythmic overhead handclapping going during the slower numbers. There was the neat addition of background videos for some of the songs. The highlight being the in keeping with their USA trend an opening to the sitcom “Cheers” style video to the new tune “Whatever Happened To Corey Haim” an interesting track about somebody who never existed. Fittingly the track that made them known ‘Santa Cruz You’re Not Far’ that got the liveliest crowd response and ensured the band left to a heroes reception. The encore saw the evening end with next single “Don’t Steal Our Sun’, containing thumping drum beats and melodic guitars, made sure things ended on a high and that The Thrills bandwagon will keep on rolling.
David Adair
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