The Wants + The Dirt + [slab]

Working within the stripped-back framework of post-punk, the band thread the hypnotic pulse of Detroit techno into pop songcraft. Formed in Brooklyn in 2016 around the songwriting partnership of singer/guitarist Madison Velding-VanDam and drummer Jason Gates, The Wants build confrontational, melodic music out of Anglophilic post-punk, the relentless rhythms of industrial and techno, and a streak of Rust Belt grit. Signed to Council Records, the band released their debut album Container on March 13, 2020, to strong critical notices, following it with the 2025 record Bastard. Working within the stripped-back framework of post-punk, the band thread the hypnotic pulse of Detroit techno into pop songcraft, with Velding-VanDam's vocal delivery shifting between earnest romanticism and deadpan detachment. Expect a set that's as danceable as it is dissonant - motorik rhythms, needling guitar, and synth-driven tension pulled tight. Manchester is one of only 3 UK dates on this tour (Glasgow and London being the others) 10pm Curfew if you need to catch a train/bus. Plenty late night venues around if you are staying out! Support: The Dirt The Dirt are an Anglo-Japanese duo based in Mossley, on the Manchester side of the Pennines, made up of spoken word artist Jack Horner — better known on the Manc circuit as Leon the Pig Farmer — and his wife, multi-instrumentalist Sachiko Wakizaka. Their sound welds psych and shoegaze guitar loops to electronic rhythms and abrasive spoken verse, with Sachiko building walls of fuzz and feedback from a small mountain of pedals while Jack fires off rapid-fire verse on mental health, politics and the state of everything. Louder Than War made their 2023 debut album Agitator Album of the Week, and 2025's Monkeypunch — recorded with Jason Shaw at Fuzz Face Studios in Scotland — pushed the anger outward into a call to arms. A third album, An Iridescent Dream, followed in 2026. Comparisons run to The Fall, Suicide and Spacemen 3; live, they're a genuinely uncompromising DIY proposition. [slab] Cinematic Manchester post-rock with a shoegaze punk bite. Debut album Taut — Louder Than War Album of the Week, 5 stars, and No.8 in their albums of 2025. Guy Garvey calls them one of his "favourite power trios." "A masterpiece" — Andy Cairns, Therapy?