The problem with January is that it’s bloody miserable. Nothing happens. It’s a month of waiting for the good stuff to arrive and nowhere is this more obvious than for live music schedules. A quick skim of my setlist.fm attendance history shows that out of the hundreds of concerts I’ve been to only three have taken place in January, with one of those being a rearranged show from the previous December and another being Kula Shaker. Yep, not a good month for live music.
So it was a pleasant surprise when Desperate Journalist announced a mid-January mini tour to promote recent album No Hero, culminating in a performance at Manchester’s Yes. On their last tour they’d played the much smaller Deaf Institute – whilst my research on the subject is limited (i.e. another search of setlist.fm) this appears to have been the band’s biggest headline act to date (although by the time I’ve written this they’ve gone on to play the slightly larger Garage in London), with the continuing growth of one of the UK’s great underground bands another cause for fans to brace the cold of a Mancunian winter to see them.
Striding on stage at half past eight, the band launched straight into Consolation Prize, the closing track from No Hero. Despite being the fourth night in the row the band had performed there was no lack of energy or enthusiasm as they confidently played through eighty minutes of material stretching the length of their career. I’ll often say that the measure of whether a band is moving forward or treading water is how well their new material fits in alongside their older staples, a test clearly passed on this occasion with recent offerings No Hero and 7 proved to be highlights of the evening.
The brilliance of Desperate Journalist comes from the versatility of singer Jo Bevan to bring their songs to life, whether on the guitar led shimmering indie anthems of Cedars or Satellite or on the bass and drum driven post punk of Hollow and Fault. But despite the intensity of their live performance the band were in jovial mood, having the awareness to know when to lighten the mood, often by poking fun at themselves – whether it was by making the crowd cheer for an encore despite not physically leaving the stage, making light of their early recordings as being sad or introducing Cedars as being “a song about trees or summat”
Having left the venue feeling a buzz from an exhilarating performance I did wonder if the reason that bands don’t tour in January is because it’s unfair on attendees to know that they’ve possibly already seen their gig of the year. Desperate Journalist‘s live shows continue to be a delight for those fortunate enough to have discovered them and with that number continuing to grow who knows which Manchester venue they’ll be selling out.
Desperate Journalist Performed:
Consolation Prize
Why Are You So Boring?
Afraid
Silent
Hollow
No Hero
7
Cedars
Everything You Wanted
Fault
Unsympathetic Parts 1 & 2
Be Kind
Personality Girlfriend
Heartbeats
Remainder
Satellite
Alex Reviews Gigs 
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