A Raging Friday Night With Millie Manders And The Shutup

LIVE REVIEW | Millie Manders And The Shutup w/ Ramona’s Tea Party | Manchester Club Academy 08/11/24 by Craig Harston

Earlier this year, Millie Manders And The Shutup released their sophomore album, ‘Wake Up, Shut Up, Work’. It’s a pretty perfect punk rock album, balanced well between being unafraid to make you think with many songs but also able to find the fun on others. It’s an album the band are clearly proud of and record release tour finds them playing the whole album in full!

Catching them at Manchester’s excellent Club Academy, they brought some excellent support in Ramona’s Tea Party. The Norwegian punk ‘n’ roll band complemented the headliners perfectly, playing an energetic and quirky set. They could not look happier to be up on stage, blasting through the likes of ‘ADHD’, ‘Empty Pool’, ‘British Tea Isn’t Even British’ and latest single ‘Fireworks’.

But the night ultimately belonged to Millie Manders And The Shutup, who showed once again why they’re one of the best live bands in the UK punk scene today, and that you don’t need pyrotechnics and huge backdrops to generate some excellent stage presence. Kicking off with the furious double whammy of ‘Angry Side’ and ‘Shut Your Mouth’ at the start of what proved to be an eighteen song set, they quickly got the crowd moving, with Millie pointing out it was the biggest audience they’d played to so far in their career.

Getting topical early on, Millie took time to talk about sexual violence and how it’s still very much a horrific problem before a blistering performance of ‘Me Too’ (for which they’ve been making a video throughout the tour) which was followed by the the excellent ‘Panic’. After this, they brought the fun back with a bouncing rendition of ‘Fun Sponge’ (somewhat ironically considering the lyrics), coming complete with bubbles being released into the room, including the Ramona’s Tea Party guitarist running through the crowd with a bubble gun!

The band displayed a range of emotions over the next few songs, including Millie nailing the high notes towards the end of ‘Halloween’, getting the whole room bouncing along to their ode to the pitfalls of online dating, ‘Rebound’ and leading the crowd in a great rendition of the updated ‘One That Got Away’.

The whole show featured plenty of crowd interaction with some arm waving and clapping along early on but best of all were the performances of ‘Here We Go Again’ and ‘Bitter’, which found Millie leading the whole room through the choruses, the aim being to be louder than Newcastle the night before! Opting to not leave the stage prior to their encore (Millie pointing out that doing this is a waste of time) they played three final songs from first album ‘Telling Truths, Breaking Ties’, including ‘Your Story’, the aforementioned ‘Bitter’ and ‘Not Okay’.

Of course, the band isn’t just Millie Manders and the group as a unit was as tight as they’ve ever been – especially bassist Georgina Boreham, who was a whirl of curly hair as she rocked out throughout the show!

Millie Manders And The Shutup delivered one of the best live shows of the year – energetic, passionate, thought-provoking and immensely fun! If you haven’t caught them live yet, I suggest you do the next time they rock through your town!