LIVE FROM THE PIT: SOFT PLAY and Panic Shack

After a momentous summer festival run, Kent punk duo SOFT PLAY (formerly Slaves) are back in action touring their first album since their change in name, HEAVY JELLY. With it being their highest charting album to date, what better way is there to celebrate than a sold out show at Manchester Academy? 

Starting us up for the night we had Panic Shack, an all female indie punk four piece from Cardiff, and there wasn’t a square inch of the stage that these girls didn’t absolutely dominate. Frontwoman Sarah Harvey utterly commanded the crowd, running through a setlist just felt like hit after hit after hit. Exploring niche lyrical themes such as meal deals, missing lighters and being grossed out by people's kids, Panic Shack share the same kind of strange sense of humour that SOFT PLAY have built their music on. It’s not often you get to see a sold out Manchester Academy crowd yell out "I DON'T WANNA HOLD YOUR BABY!"

At about 9pm, SOFT PLAY finally took the stage, walking out to ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’, the opening to their first track on the new album. The choral music gave a brief moment of peace before guitarist Laurie Vincent began tearing out the heavy opening riffs of the song, with vocalist and drummer Isaac Holman screaming down the mic as he beat along to the guitar. Despite only working with just two instruments at any one time, they had no issues shaking the venue to its core as they worked down their setlist.

 Walking through the crowd, you could really see and understand the sheer scope of SOFT PLAY’S appeal. There were people here from just about every demographic and background, all united for one night of music. It's worth noting how many young kids, repping merch from IDLES, Yard Act, Sprints (and a litany of others), have come here with their parents. The barricade was occupied by giddy ten year olds, taking crowd surfers and cups of beer to the head like absolute champions. The post punk revolution is here, and it's being led by primary school children.

The setlist was made up of classic Slaves tracks and new SOFT PLAY hits. ‘Sockets’, a clear crowd favourite that the band have been playing for years, and ‘Girl Fight’ which turned the crowd into one huge brawl for the song’s fifteen second duration. A highlight of the gig was ‘Everything and Nothing’, where Isaac’s vocals were backed solely by Laurie on mandolin for the contrastingly personal number. But nothing else quite got the crowd going more than ‘Punk’s Dead’, one of the lead singles for the new album and the defining song of this stage in the band’s career. Written as a response to backlash from fans for changing their name, it’s the song that gave this band their nickname, ‘Soft Cunts’, which was used as the stage backdrop for this tour.

Frankly, it looked absolutely exhausting to be a member of this band, but Isaac and Laurie have been consistently bringing this energy to every show. This two week, thirteen stop UK tour is everything both old and new fans could have wanted and more, and it’s not long before they head down under to give their Aussie fans a taste of the chaos.

Words and Photos by Izzy Scott