“We gotta take control of the situation…” (This line is ringing in my brain…)
I wake up surrounded by empty beer cans and there is a half eaten chicken wing on the bedside. Chelsea looks angry, possibly because of the chicken, maybe some other reason- I can’t tell. I can hear two or more people snoring away in my front room, its been a blinder of a night and my head is banging!
Go back about twelve hours and we were walking into the Night and Day Café, a super cool venue in Manchester’s trendy Northern Quarter. We arrive just in time to grab a can of Red Stripe and to see Jeramiah Ferrari walk on stage. The busy crowd is already going mad to their funky reggae beats. Lead vocalist, Ryan’s trademark hair is bouncing just like the guys on either side of me. This band are amazing. I would not be surprised to see them doing their own big headline tour soon, which they fully deserve.
A few cans and a lot of dancing later, up come By the Rivers…
I had looked up the band before the gig and was pleasantly surprised to find out that they are all six young guys from Leicester. From the maturity of their sound you would think they were much older.
Forget everything you think you know about the British reggae scene, UB40 can do one, Sting can piss off! (because he is a melon!), here are By the Rivers.
Everyone goes mental for every song, and the room seems to swell with even more people, squeezing us all into a big sweaty reggae mess in this awesome venue.
I knew a few tracks before hand like ‘Vulture’ and ‘Take Control’, but by the end of the night I felt like I knew everything. These Leicester boys have a great, well rehearsed, tight sound and are at the forefront of British Reggae and Ska. When you go to watch them, and you definitely should, make sure you take your dancing shoes- and maybe some pain killers for your hangover in the morning!
Incidentally, I’m not quite sure what happened after the gig, I’m pretty sure there was some embarrassing chat with the band, (“I bloody love you guys” etc), there was more and more cans of Red Stripe and (I guess) some chicken wings! which some how ended up in the bed – sorry Chelsea! haha!
“You gotta take control of the situation…” I couldn’t.
-Amazing bands, amazing night… Check out this video!
#northernfringe 
