Academy 3 (formerly Hop & Grape)
Info
formerly called Manchester Hop & Grape
Reviewed Events
Amen, Charger, Raging Speedhorn at Academy 3 (formerly Hop & Grape), Manchester, Greater Manchester, Sat 09 Dec
Right, this may be a tad late but a review of one of Amen’s recent UK dates needs to be written. In the past 5 or so years since I’ve been going to gigs I’ve seen an unbelievable amount of bands and there’s been a few that’ve really stood out for me. Pennywise at Leeds ’99, Deftones first ever UK date in ’98 and Neuro»
The Strokes, The Moldy Peaches at Academy 3 (formerly Hop & Grape), Manchester, Greater Manchester, Fri 22 Jun
Isn’t it amazing what a bit of NME hype can do for a band? One minute, the Strokes are yet another New Yoirk-Ramones/Stooges throwback whose single is selling for 99p in the local Independent record store and after one article claiming them to be the hippest thing out of America since, well…the last hippest bright youn»
The Cooper Temple Clause at Academy 3 (formerly Hop & Grape), Manchester, Greater Manchester, Sat 29 Sep
The Cooper Temple Clause are taking their brand of experimental rock imagery around the country in support of their 3rd single 'Let's Kill Music'. Yet to release a full-length album, The Coopers headlining set is limited to 35 minutes. Th»
Good Riddance, Death By Stereo at Academy 3 (formerly Hop & Grape), Manchester, Greater Manchester, Fri 19 Oct
OK, first things first. Death By Stereo are the most exciting new band in punk rock and hardcore right now. That’s a fact you need to know. Yeah, so you may not be staring at them on the front cover of every magazine & humming their songs on mainstream radio but that’s because this is REAL punk rock. Up front, i»
Crackout, Vex Red at Manchester Academy 3 (formerly Hop & Grape), Sat 27 Oct
Crackout are one of those bands that have never really made it anywhere near the charts but has that loyal, hardcore following, wherever they go. They are fun as a live band but it is easy to see why they seem to struggle on record - it’s nothing new. We’ve all heard this kind of music before and it really fai»
Low, Hood at Manchester Academy 3 (formerly Hop & Grape), Thu 22 Nov
Yorkshire four piece Hood are not a band that can be pigeonholed easily. Their sound has been described as anything and everything varying from jazz, electronica, rock, post-rock, alt-folk... to name but a few. Tonight Hood could best be described as a well-intentioned pub fight between various members of Mogwai»
Aereogramme at Academy 3 (formerly Hop & Grape), Manchester, Greater Manchester, Tue 11 Dec
The stage in the Hop & Grape is large by no means and it seems that Aereogramme have been boxed in further still by several amps and a spare drum kit. The band have been in the UK for but a day since returning from their “Beards Across America” tour across, strangely enough, America. En ro»
Hundred Reasons, Hell Is For Heroes at Academy 3 (formerly Hop & Grape), Manchester, Greater Manchester, Wed 12 Dec
Hundred Reasons have just reached the, dizzier than usual, heights of #37 in the National Singles Charts. They have surpassed the media's expectations of them and this is strange in the trend of hype that has seen Andrew WK, LostProphets 'fail' and the likes of The Strokes and Sum 41 rise f»
Raging Speedhorn, Candiria, Clutch at Academy 3 (formerly Hop & Grape), Manchester, Greater Manchester, Mon 28 Jan
When the first band at a show sound like Candiria you just know that tonight, the music cannot fail you. This New York ‘math-core’ band have crossed the Atlantic determined not to disappoint anyone so they carry on jumping and grinding away with plenty, if not too much, energetic start-stop m»
Kids Near Water, The Icarus Line at Academy 3 (formerly Hop & Grape), Manchester, Greater Manchester, Tue 19 Feb
It’s the sort of landscape you come to expect at punk gigs of any level, these days. A few young kids, mixed in with the uni brats and then the old-skool punkers (yes, complete with the quaint mohicans). It barely took an opening of my left eye to know all this. I wasn’t wrong. The post-hardcore scre»
Defenestration, Will Haven at Academy 3 (formerly Hop & Grape), Manchester, Greater Manchester, Wed 20 Mar
Defenestration warm up Will Haven's crowd tonight on the top floor of the Manchester University Union. To imply that their performance was risible would be silly. More accurately, the Kettering metallers displayed a routine worthy of a school bike shed. You can say it was all about the musi»
Fu Manchu at Manchester Academy 3 (formerly Hop & Grape), Tue 26 Mar
Without stoner rock torchbearers Kyuss, undoubtedly none of this would have happened. But while their guitarist Josh Homme chose the route to million-selling stardom, Fu Manchu are very much underrated kings to Homme’s Queens of the Stone Age. Put simply, if you like beer, weed and no n»
Les Savy Fav, The Apes, The Mars Volta at Academy 3 (formerly Hop & Grape), Manchester, Greater Manchester, Wed 27 Mar
Let’s face it – live music is fundamentally boring unless the people actually playing look like they give a shit. And y’know, occasionally move off the spot. So for anyone musing why they weren’t quite fulfilled by the last Travis gig they saw, or wondering if there really is more to music than the Stere»
Biffy Clyro, The Cooper Temple Clause, Oceansize at Academy 3 (formerly Hop & Grape), Manchester, Greater Manchester, Thu 18 Apr
This is the second successive tour that has seen The Cooper Temple Clause play with these bands. Is this a bad thing? Two schools. One might say they’re playing with their friends and highly esteemed contemporaries. Another may say it’s getting boring as hell. I’m tentatively stepping foot into »
Gonzales at Manchester Academy 3 (formerly Hop & Grape), Fri 19 Apr
Call Chilly Gonzales what you want, the Worst M.C, Prankster fly, but you can't call him boring. The Gonzales live experience is one that puts most to shame. You get dedication, passion, comedy and five costume changes, and it never slides into Butlins style cabaret, or high camp. Schemes »
Division of Laura Lee, Gluecifer at Academy 3 (formerly Hop & Grape), Manchester, Greater Manchester, Fri 31 May
Standing in the 250-capacity university venue I'm amazed, shocked and astonished. I’m witnessing one of the most exciting new bands to emerge from Sweden ever in full chaotic flow, tearing through a set that contorts the Swedish garage rock mould into a gloriously eclectic feast of maniacally-delivered vocals, sensuous»
Mushroomhead, Fallen To at Manchester Academy 3 (formerly Hop & Grape), Fri 11 Oct
Imagine you are watching a metal band from Cornwall. In Manchester. Would you too be slightly perturbed by his American ghetto accent while addressing the crowd? An interesting phenomenon. An all too common occurrence perhaps. Are bands just not inspired by their homeland any more? Why does ‘The »
3 Colours Red at Manchester Academy 3 (formerly Hop & Grape), Wed 13 Nov
Cast your mind back to 3 Colours Red in 1997. With their black, greasy image and Chris McCormack's crazy rock and roll antics 3CR were always at the more Kerrang!-friendly end of the Britpop scale. Nevertheless they were an integral ingredient in the late 90s British indie scene. Their trademark: three minute si»
Funeral For A Friend at Manchester Academy 3 (formerly Hop & Grape), Fri 15 Nov
I never really understood what post-hardcore was meant to sound like. Ummm … I still don’t. Wine connoisseurs don’t know what they’re chatting about either and you still drink that shit, so shut up. I think Funeral for a Friend are meant to be post hardcore. I’m pretty lost for words to be quite »
Funeral For A Friend at Manchester Academy 3 (formerly Hop & Grape), Thu 13 Feb
And so they come again. Yet another supporting role and you can be sure this will not last. They thrust, they trust; jerking knees floundering through their desires of yestermorrow. They get in each other’s way. This surprises me. Is it their flaw in camaraderie? You finish his sentence; you are exp»
Saïan Supa Crew at Manchester Academy 3 (formerly Hop & Grape), Thu 15 May
You already feel hideously out of place. A metaller who doesn’t fit into the metal scene is trying to blend into a hiphop element. He’s getting funny looks. I think a couple of those girls weren’t looking me up and down purely out of disgust, though. He feels nervous in his tracksuit top and flares. »
Arab Strap, The James Orr Complex at Academy 3 (formerly Hop & Grape), Manchester, Greater Manchester, Tue 30 Sep
Why, why, why, why, WHY???!?? What kind of illiterate, self-aggrandising, post-Strokes F*CK comes to a gig just to talk loudly about their pointless life?»
Auf Der Maur at Manchester Academy 3 (formerly Hop & Grape), Mon 12 Apr
Melissa Auf Der Maur’s shift from bassist to frontwoman seems so unbelievably natural. She holds her bass like a lead guitar, thrashing and convulsing like some evil rock-spawn possessed. It’s a wonderful sight.»
The Shins at Manchester Academy 3 (formerly Hop & Grape), Mon 19 Apr
They’re one of those bands that seem impossible to describe in terms that are hyperbolic enough. Tonight, I finally get the chance to watch and wonder just why The Shins have become so important to me. A sell-out crowd is here to applaud them and I wonder how many of those present have found The Shins soundtracking some of their finest, worst, most comical and banal moments - in short, their lives.»
Amplifier, Distophia at Manchester Academy 3 (formerly Hop & Grape), Tue 20 Apr
Distophia dropped their suicide bomb of a début release on us last autumn with the magnificently tuneful, yet quaintly melancholy, ‘Soda Lake’ fizzing and burning knowing ears ever since... With a long-awaited Chris Sheldon produced début album incoming at a rate of knots, and a sound almost born for sale en masse, it is difficult to see anything but success for Amplifier in the forthcoming years.»
Breed 77 at Manchester Academy 3 (formerly Hop & Grape), Tue 27 Apr
Isn’t it just gobsmackingly amazing how a band can sound utterly and irrevocably horrible and cringeworthy on record...»
The Bronx at Manchester Academy 3 (formerly Hop & Grape), Wed 12 May
The Bronx were brought to this country by the fancy-pants who make loads of lush metal known as Lostprophets earlier this year. The Californians were promoting this show way back then. It sold out pretty damn quickly.»
The Dillinger Escape Plan at Academy 3 (formerly Hop & Grape), Manchester, Greater Manchester, Tue 08 Jun
The ultimate pioneers in the math-metal / noise-core genre, the very antithesis of convention: Dillinger Escape Plan.»
Biffy Clyro, Oceansize, Drive Like You Stole It at Academy 3 (formerly Hop & Grape), Manchester, Greater Manchester, Mon 27 Sep
Tonight was hyped up as the hottest showcase of the best new(ish) music from the UK at the moment. It was not to fail me. It could not.»
Hundred Reasons, Reuben at Manchester Academy 3 (formerly Hop & Grape), Sun 14 Nov
Reuben are not here to merely hold the fort until their big brothers come on stage, they have been brought to Manchester to rip the fort apart with their bare hands. This really ought to be the current state of British rock. adly, Hundred Reasons are.»
Therapy? at Manchester Academy 3 (formerly Hop & Grape), Thu 25 Nov
It’s almost ten years to the month that I first saw Therapy? live. In the heady post-grunge heights of Troublegum, there wasn’t really anything comparable to the Irish trio. Straddling commercial success with a genuine love of rock cliché, nothing kept me up ‘til the early hours, sitting with my finger on the pause/record button during such TV institutions as Raw Power, Hotel Babylon, Passengers and The Beat. Even waiting for thirty seconds of the ‘Teethgringer’ video on the Chart Show ‘Rock Chart’ was a Saturday morning well spent.»
Reuben, Engerica at Manchester Academy 3 (formerly Hop & Grape), Wed 15 Jun
After releasing one of the albums of last summer, their debut Racecar is Racecar Backwards, Reuben return just over a year later to promote its follow-up Very Fast Very Dangerous. Kids go nuts for the rock...»
Broken Social Scene at Manchester Academy 3 (formerly Hop & Grape), Tue 14 Feb
All in all I enjoyed the performance very much, but BSS are never going to be in my top bands list because they don't consistently»
Pink Grease, Art Brut at Manchester Academy 3 (formerly Hop & Grape), Tue 14 Nov
I'd never heard of pink grease, but they made me laugh. They look so bizarre that at times I couldn't help feeling that they were »
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