GIG: STATE CHAMPS, SOUND CONTROL, MANCHESTER

On the 23rd of September I finally got round to seeing one of the best pop punk bands in the business!  I have mentioned these guys in a previous favourites post, the band are called STATE CHAMPS, and I can't recommend them highly enough! The doors opened at 6:30, there was an earlier curfew because of a Freshers event later on. 

If you don't know Sound Control there are 3 floors: the basement (500 capacity club/300 capacity live room), Ground floor bar (150 capacity) and a second floor bar (450 capacity live room). For this particular gig we were on the second floor and the merch was laid out downstairs. The venue isn't the prettiest place but I can't flaw it, the staff are all so lovely, easy to get to, however drinks are rather expensive but they are at any gig!

I went with 2 of my best mates and of course ended up meeting new people there, gigs really are one the best places to meet new people!

Onto the actual gig! The first support act was Britsh Pop punk band ROAM. I had listened to these guys previously and only gelled properly with one song 'Warning Sign', however once they started to play I got more and more into there style and enthusiasm! They were a great choice to get everyone warmed up!

Setlist:

Warning sign

Over your head

Foresight

Nothing in return

Cabin fever

You never said

519

Safeguard

Head rush 

The next support act was KNUCKLE PUCK! I love these guys so I was super stoked to finally get to see them especially with my mate who got me into them! Their personalities certainly show up on stage and are great crowd warmers, luckily most people at the gig already knew who they were so circle pits were nessecary and a lot of crowd surfing! The setlist was interesting they only played 3 songs off the new album, I was hoping there would be a couple more but don't get me wrong the old stuff is just as good!

Setlist:

Disdain

But why would you care?

Oak street

Gold rush

True contrite

No good

Pretense

And the grand finale! The boys! STATE CHAMPS!! Like I said before these guys could never disappoint and they certainly didn't that night! Derek's vocals were outstanding, there was nothing I could fault! I wished their set was a little bit longer but unfortunately it had to be quick because of Freshers 😡. Everyone was fully pumped up for the set it was such a positive upbeat atmosphere, no one looked out of place, everyone was shouting the words and getting involved! It was an incredible atmosphere along with the drinking chants! For sure I am going to see these guys again when they next come round with the new album! 

Setlist:

All you are is history

Remedy

Secrets

Prepare to be noticed

Deadly conversation

Simple existence

Easy enough

Nothing's wrong

Hard to please

Losing myself

Elevated

Unfortunately I didn't get to meet anyone afterwards because of the curfew but I did grab some rad merch!

I got the standard ROAM black orange and pink hoodie 

The KNUCKLE PUCK rain hoodie 

The STATE CHAMPS secrets tshirt

And my favourite thing of all, a laminated pass to give me access to the new album a week before it's been properly released! Only 1000 of these passes were made and I managed to get one! I am so so so looking forward to this new album I know it is going to be my jam for the foreseeable future! 

I do highly recommend you all checking out each of the bands I've mentioned, and I'll be back next week with another gig review! You'll have to wait and see who it is! 

Cya later!