BAMBARA GET UP CLOSE IN MANCHESTER | IN PICTURES

PHOTO GALLERY | BAMBARA | MANCHESTER WHITE HOTEL 26th April 2025 by Lucy McLachlan

Manchester’s White Hotel is a trip you need to make once in a while, even if only just to say you’ve seen it. In the middle of industrial buildings and warehouses in Salford, White Hotel is a corrugated metal roof held up by some bricks and a few roller shutters. Furnished with some curtains, a burnt out school chair hanging from the ceiling and a huge cross made out of girders in the middle of the room, it turns out that it made quite the fitting venue for Brooklyn’s Bambara.

Five years since their last release, Strays, Bambara are tonight showcasing their latest release on Bella Union/Wharf Cat Records, their fifth album Birthmarks; a sultry cinematic story that’s both post punk and one long Southern Gothic ballad. The peeling paint and dusty bricks provided the perfect backdrop for a night of wonderfully chaotic noir tinged punk which allowed singer Reid Bateh roam around the space; mic lead in tow, getting up close and in the faces of anyone who came in his path.

This is the second time we’ve caught Bambara, the first being a post Covid in 2022, and they never disappoint. With atmospheric soundscapes, agonising vocals and an electric live show, we can only hope we don’t need to wait so long for the next time.

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