MIEN MAKES THEIR MANCHESTER LIVE DEBUT AT YES BASEMENT

LIVE REVIEW | MIEN | MANCHESTER YES BASEMENT 30th April 2025 by Lucy McLachlan

Brought to us tonight by Strange Days, MIEN are playing Manchester for the first time in a very intimate venue to a modest crowd, considering the people playing onstage. It’s the hottest day of the year so far, but the Yes Basement might just be the most well air conditioned basement venue we’ve ever been in.

Best known as the lead vocalist of The Black Angels, Alex Maas is a prominent name in the US psychedelic music scene. Following their recent participation in the Austin Psych Fest, an event they originally founded that has transformed into the renowned Levitation festival, MIEN is currently on their third night of a six-date tour across the UK.

Considering just six months ago the The Black Angels played Manchester’s O2 Ritz to a full crowd, this is an entirely different set up.  Rishi Dihr, who once played Sitar for The Black Angels, is also the vocalist for Montreal based psychedelic group Elephant Stone, who happened to have also played the same venue last year to a full house. The last two members of the band tonight are John-Mark Latham from Anglo-American folk psych band The Earlies and Robb Kidd, drummer for psych Afrobeat collective Golden Dawn Arkestra.

Their debut album MIEN was released in 2018 and originally featured The Horrors keyboard player Tom Furse. 7 years later the band are back with a 2nd album MIIEN which leans into more of a kraut psychedelia than the first.

The band set up a wall of diverse electronic gear, creating a stage spanning barrier of sonic sound between band and audience, meanwhile a queue at the front of the stage begins to form of a cult of fans looking to get records signed before being politely asked to wait until after the show.

As the band begin, they call for the lights to be dimmed to a deep red, creating the desired atmosphere for an evening of deep electronic drone fuzz. Sharing that this evening they’ll be playing songs from both albums, this is an all round sensory experience of a set, one where you can feel the sound surround you. The crowd are up for it, the band telling them that the Manchester audience was much more livelier than Leeds the previous night. Which was met with big cheers and chants. Move over Liverpool, Manchester has a new frenemy.

In the recent Music Fans Voice survey on UK live music, 53% said they would like better transport links to gigs, and ironically, after the show 2 of our trains back to Liverpool were cancelled and a rail replacement bus service didn’t show up either. Proof right here of the importance of listening to fans gig going experience and the future of live music in the UK. But we weren’t letting the lack of public transport ruin the live music experience tonight, MIEN are some key players in the psychedelic rock revival scene and an absolute rare treat to be able to catch live.

MIEN will continue their UK dates this week with remaining tickets on sale now.

Fri, May 2 – Margate, UK – Where Else?
Sat, May 3 – Brighton, UK – Hope & Ruin
Sun, May 4 – London, UK – Moth Club