They poetically describe themselves as a “Tesco value Wolf Alice,” but having toured with Inhaler, played festivals such as TRNSMT, and featured on the converted Radio 1 Future Artists show, Scottish outfit Swim School are making waves with their style of indie-rock music. The three-piece commenced their tour with a sold-out show at Manchester’s Deaf Institute.
Having entered an already packed venue, getting to the bar was impossible. I reluctantly assumed my viewing position for the evening and awaited the imminent arrival of Swim School.
The music faded into the background, and the buzz intensified around the venue for the arrival of the headline act. The vintage-style speakers and floral wallpaper around the venue were plunged into darkness as Swim School arrived on stage.
Dressed head to toe in black, Swim School launched into “Bored,” which generated a warm reaction from the crowd. In her thick Scottish accent, lead vocalist Alice Johnson exclaimed that it was the second time the band had played the Deaf Institute in Manchester.
“Kill You,” with its indie-pop reverb-led guitar sounds and Wolf Alice-influenced vocals, is a stand-out track on streaming platforms with over 457,000 streams. However, the live version was a far cry from this; Johnson’s vocals were almost inaudible, the guitar kept dropping out of tune, and the drums were overpowering at times.
I’m sure many people at the show, including the band management videoing the entirety of the concert, would have been disappointed with what they witnessed in terms of vocal and overall sound quality. There was little comparison between the recorded tracks and the sound and performance given on stage. However, this didn’t deter the die-hard fans crammed at the front from creating a whirlwind of a mosh-pit during “Delirious,” a song formed from the misogyny that Johnson experienced during her short time working in the music industry.
A short break was needed to fix the sound difficulties that had dominated the set and tune the guitars once again. Breaking the silence, Johnson exclaimed, “Do you like my T-shirt? I make them myself!” She then plugged the merch stall to the right-hand side of the stage, where you could purchase the black fitted T-shirt with “I love Swim School” on it.
It was clear that Johnson was fighting back emotions when she mentioned the next song in the set, “To Grow.” “This is the saddest song we have ever written, so I will try not to cry,” she prefaced before she began singing. With the venue awash with phone torches and just a guitar for company, it felt like the most emotional point of the night, and the vocals were the clearest of the evening.
As Swim School entered the last few tracks of the set, “Give Me A Reason Why” and “See Red” received the best crowd reaction of the night. Before finishing with “Anyway,” Johnson announced that there would be no encores tonight and that would be the last track of the evening.
Overall, the night was plagued with sound and instrumental issues, which ultimately meant that the young, talented band with fantastic songs didn’t showcase the best of them.