Winona Fighter: Nashville Punks Nail Energy Fuelled Night In Manchester

LIVE REVIEW | Winona Fighter (The ‘Yes Chef’ Tour) | Manchester -The Deaf Institute 19th May 2025 by Craig Harston

Slam Dunk Festival 2025 is this coming weekend. Many of the bands playing are performing at several ‘Slam Dunk Sideshows’ either side of the festival. Deciding to go one (or several) better, Nashville punk rock band Winona Fighter have dedicated the whole week ahead of Slam Dunk to a UK tour. Not only that, it marks their first time touring outside of the US and I was lucky enough to catch them on the first date of the tour in Manchester.

Earlier this year, Winona Fighter released their debut album, the excellent ‘My Apologies To The Chef’ and while this wasn’t a record release show, the four piece proceeded to play EVERY song from the album, with a couple of extras thrown in. Kicking straight off with an energetic performance of ‘You Look Like A Drunk Phoebe Bridgers’, frontwoman Coco got the room singing along on the woah’s almost immediately and this was quickly followed by ‘I Think You Should Leave’. After a great rendition of ‘Subaru’, Coco requested cheers for guitarist Dan ahead of a barnstorming performance of ‘R U Famous’ (which featured a blistering breakdown from the whole band) before she took some time to explain how grateful they were to be here after “writing a punk album in a garage in Nashville”. This led in to some chanting of Coco’s favourite word (the C-word!) before the next song, ‘ATTENTION’ was dedicated to how much of a shitshow the US is at the moment.

Coco then got the room jumping for ‘JUMPERCABLES’, had a bit of crowd interaction on ‘I’M IN THE MARKET TO PLEASE NO ONE’ before slowing things down with ‘SWIMMER’S EAR’, or at least as slow as Winona Fighter get (“That was the ballad!”). As the room got hotter (prompting bassist Austin to lose his shirt, showing he’s surprisingly cut!) the band ramped things back up with a cover of Blur’s ‘Song 2’ and the first mosh pit of the night for ‘Wlbrn St Tvrn’ with Coco appointing a member of the crowd as ‘pitmaster’ and threatening to put Dan down if she wasn’t impressed (thankfully for Dan, she was!).

Heading into the final songs of the night, Coco advised they wouldn’t be doing an encore, pointing out they’d literally have to squeeze through the crowd to go backstage, they blasted through ‘Johnny’s Dead’ (taking some time to introduce the band), ‘DON’T WALLOW’ and finished incredibly strong with the excellent ‘HAMMS IN A GLASS’.

Everyone in the room clearly had a great time, the crowd belting out every word and joining in with the bands infectious energy. Winona Fighter played a great show with a perfect balance of music and stage banter, ensuring everyone left satisfied but at the same time wanting more!

The ‘Yes Chef’ Tour continues across the UK this week and culminates on the Key Club Stage at Slam Dunk. I highly recommend you catch Winona Fighter if you can – clear your calendar this week or check your clashes for this weekend as they likely won’t be playing venues as intimate as The Deaf Institute forever!