Botch @ New Century Hall, Manchester (2024)

23 Mar, 2024

22/03/2024

Great Falls

I only really first checked out a couple of songs of theirs while I was already on the coach to Manchester. What I heard reminded me a lot of Neurosis, although more on the sludge and sorta noise rock end than much post-rock. This is a band fronted by someone who used to be in Kiss it Goodbye, who I've not heard, but I know Tim from Deadguy was also in that band. I didn't feel like I paid enough attention to their set, but they were cool! They had a woman sing with them who they said they only just met the day before but is... also on an album of theirs, I believe their upcoming one? Memory is hazy. I'm definitely gonna check out their studio releases proper.

They were very good!/10

Botch

Genuine bucket list band... Well, they got added to the bucket list when they got back together to play live shows, because me and Leo did not think they would and that we'd have had an actual chance to see them live ourselves. They were fucking awesome! That much none of you should be surprised about.

Can't fault these setlists at all. There's bound to be tons of gold in an hour long Botch set. I'm especially glad they put 'John Woo' on the setlist, that's one of the many highlights for me, and a song that may not be as obvious a pick as other songs from either Botch full length. 'Transitions From Persona to Object' is something else. One of the best mathcore, metalcore, even hardcore songs out there, but even so, their performance of it from their live album made me especially excited for what seeing it played live for myself would be like and, again, was not at all disappointed!

I can't talk about highlights without even unintentionally excluding things, because again, it's all very well rounded. I already mentioned John Woo and Transitions, but aside from that, there's also To Our Friends, Japam, Thank God for Worker Bees, Hutton's Great Heat Engine, Saint Matthew Returns to the Womb... certainly just naming tracks where I couldn't help but to throw down, despite my fatigued withered ass... but also, Afghanistam! It was super cool to see how Brian Cook assembled that first part of the track, layering up bass loops and all.

Let's also appreciate how awesome Brian Cook is as a bassist, and Dave Knudson as a guitarist. They're not too dissimilar from Converge in that regard, I realise especially seeing both bands live for myself and how they each utilize their basic 4 piece band format. Putting aside how one may see Mathcore through the lens of what Dillinger made of it, this is hardcore with odd time signatures and even more exciting guitarwork, exciting in terms of both creativity and just pure energy (it's no wonder Botch led to the track Afghanistam and in turn led to Minus the Bear). Knudson is especially inspiring to me in that regard, as is this sorta pocket of hardcore in general for me, especially these days.

Merch I got: We Are the Romans CD

Awesome!/10

#botch #great falls #seen live