It’s fair to say I was pretty excited way back in 2021 when Manchester Orchestra announced a Columbus show off the back of one of the finest indie rock albums of the year with The Million Masks of God, and many months later, on a cold and snowy Friday night the band returned to KEMBA Live! for a simply sublime evening of damn near perfect live music.
Michigan’s Michigander opened the evening before the slightly weird and heavily silhouetted Foxing upped the noise levels a bit to try to warm up a sold-out crowd that absolutely packed the indoor KEMBA floor for what’s surely been the largest attendance in quite a while.
After nearly 20 years together, Manchester Orchestra have only gotten better with age and their live show is now a thing or beauty as Andy Hull and company opened with chill-inducing renditions of “Inaudible,” “Angel of Death,” “Keel Timing” and “Bed Head” from the latest release, before taking a dip into a few older songs and onward to a healthy selection of cuts from 2017’s brilliant A Black Mile To The Surface.
The band closed with one of their finest songs in “The Silence” as the crowd were anything but as Columbus once again turned out en masse to witness a truly wonderful live music experience.
Matt Ellis is a freelance photographer who covers music that happens in the city and the Columbus Crew SC home games. More photography from Matt can be found at his Instagram page.
All photos by Matt Ellis
