Last year, Mesh announced that they were to perform three dates in the UK as part of a ‘Legacy tour’. As the days passed, more dates were added across Europe and subsequently a few of those shows sold out. Having attended the London date back in January, the band are now embarking on the European leg of the tour, dates below.
Consisting of Mark Hockings (vocals) and Richard Silverthorn (keyboards, guitars, backing vocals) in the studio, and accompanied live on stage by long established drummer Sean Suleman, and recent replacement to Richard Broadhead on keyboards, Vaughn George, Mesh are Germany’s electronic darlings, despite being little known in their native UK, hailing from Bristol. The band’s fandom is one of the most accepting and close-knit community of fans that I’ve ever come across, and attending gigs is always a reunion of friends, who’ve often travelled from all over the country and continental Europe to be there.
I was lucky enough to attend the London date at the end of January, at the Garage in Islington, following Manchester the night before, and Glasgow the night before that. Covering more than 900 miles across three major UK cities was, in the band’s own words, “nothing short of spectacular”. Each of the UK shows were packed to near capacity in their respective venues. Mesh were also supported by two well established acts, namely Auger, and Mechanical Cabaret who both went extremely down well with the Mesh fans.
Mesh came on stage to a hungry crowd, full of anticipation and eager to see them perform again. The show opened with an extended intro of I Fall Over, where they hit the ground running, quickly followed by Runway from their last studio album in 2016 Looking Skyward, which the crowd responded to extremely positively. The pace slowed down a little for My Protector which reduced me to tears, it was *that* beautiful and poignant. At the end of the song Mark Hockings (singer) gesticulated to the crowd to indicate that we were all each other protectors, and part of the wider Mesh family.
The Mesh fanbase is like no other that I’ve experienced. A few years ago, also at The Garage, at the end of the show a Mesh fan climbed on stage and proposed to his girlfriend. Sensing something important was going on, I recorded the proposal and sent it to the couple after the show. This Sunday, they came up to me to thank me again for doing that. They are now happily married.
The audience were enthusiastic about You Didn’t Want Me, a rip-roaring track, followed by To Be Alive which, with its lyrics “it feels so important to be alive” was both poignant and moving. The house lights strobed strongly for Adjust Your Set, Leave You Nothing and It Scares Me, whilst the crowd sang along to each of the songs, word perfect to each track.
Mesh – To Be Alive – Live in Manchester 20/01/2024 Rebellion (youtube.com)
Halfway through the set and the band showed little sign of stopping. Again, audience participation ensued for The Traps We Made from Looking Skyward accompanied by visuals from all the bands childhoods, reflecting on the lyrics of the song. Just Leave Us Alone is another song around personal relationships, and what happens between two people versus the outside world’s view, where everyone else has an opinion.
The stomping The Fixer continues with this theme with the thought inducing lyrics “you can’t change the picture if you break the frame…” offering a solid metaphor for resilience and strength in relationships ie they need working at even when the going is tough. In contrast, the melodic Can You Mend Hearts? from the We Collide album followed, which was another emotional song of the evening.
We were then treated to a brand-new song, only performed at Manchester and Glasgow thus far, called Not Everyone is Lonely. Presumably this will be on Mesh’s forthcoming and long-overdue studio album, date and details of which are still TBC. It’s reported that several songs have been written for the new album, so its definitely on the way at some point.
Back to rip-roaring time, with a quartet of killer tracks; Kill Your Darlings from Looking Skyward, the excellent Last One Standing, Taken for Granted and the finale to get the crowd fully pumped up, an extended version of From This Height, which sent the crowd into overdrive.
Returning to the stage for an encore was a piano acoustic version of Not Prepared which was simply beautiful and definitely one of the outstanding tracks of the night, in a night full of outstanding tracks! The second encore track was the anthemic Born to Lie, which was the perfect upbeat ending to a wonderful night of electronic music.
Mesh – Born To Lie – Live in Manchester – 20/01/2024 Rebellion (youtube.com)
Mesh are continuing with their Legacy Tour of singles, across Continental Europe and if you haven’t already seen them in action, I’d strongly recommend that you do so. You can thank me later!
The Mesh Legacy tour continues in April and May as follows: 6 AprilRotterdam (NL) Baroeg, 6 AprilOberhausen (GER) Kulttempel*, 27 April Berlin (GER) Kesselhaus*, 11 May Leipzeig (GER) Taubchental, 25 May Langen, Frankfurt (GER) Neue Stadhalle
* SOLD OUT AT TIME OF WRITING
Tickets and informationwww.pluswelt.com/mesh or from www.mesh.co.uk
Vodkaangel22 