AT The Deaf Institute, Manchester, Reading rock ‘n’ rollers, The Amazons landed a knockout blow performance to the capacity crowd, with a set of hits that had them crying for more.

The four-piece, hot off the back of a European tour with You Me At Six, swaggered about the stage with power and elegance, frontman Matt Thomson towering above the adoring crowd.

Opening performances from The Pale White, and Estrons set the night in motion. Estrons’ solid rock instrumentals built a platform for lead singer, Tali Kallstrom’s Blackheart vocals. Their powerhouse rock strutted with confidence and aggression, but struggled to escape the same concept throughout the set.

With the crowd warmed up and ready for action, The Amazons quickly set the attic room alight, bursting into recent single, ‘Black Magic’, and conjuring crowd explosions that you don’t get south of Sheffield. There was even an inflatable shark bouncing around the audience, as though a surrealist volleyball match had half-drunkenly gotten out of hand to the hammerhead music.

The band’s riff-driven rock and colourful guitar tones filled the room with energy, blowing off the room, and having a hand in kicking the floor in, as their bouncy indie hit, ‘Ultraviolet’ jumped through the space, the pink and strobe stage lighting extracting the track’s pop sensibilities.

More mainstream numbers, ‘Nightdriving’ and ‘Stay With Me’ squeezed buzz into the atmosphere, as the band took the tracks to heavier corners than found on the recordings, suiting the mixed-age crowd of indie adolescents and ageing rockers well.

Following their poppy escape, The Amazons returned to hard rock realism to conclude, beating bruisers ‘Little Something’ and ‘In My Mind’ into the hungry crowd, summoning moshpits supreme, as Joe Emmett’s pounding drums worked to break down the walls. These songs bring the best side out of the band, their quality shining brighter, the heavier their sound.

Before an unnecessary encore, an almost anthemic closing performance of ‘Junk Food Forever’ epitomised everything this band stands for. With crowd surfers, stage invaders, and the ever-present shark, this band is a rock ‘n’ roll getaway from the mediocre indie that fans sometimes settle for, but equally triumphs the same pop character that’ll flog them records. Just wait till they’re back in town.

Will Wolstenholme