For those who are unaware and for those who don’t care I’ll inform you that the last few days in Manchester have played host to In The City. This is four nights of gigs which are held all around Manchester in venues you’ve probably never heard of or wouldn’t have expected to indulge in such indie shenanigans. One of these venues was 235 Live, which is the official name for what is effectively a posh sound proofed room in the back of a casino.

On Sunday night I was fortunate enough to attend 235 Live with my housemate Cat where we just missed Battle, but did get to see the excellent Little Man Tate and superb Larrikin Love. After bumping into Nicola, a friend from my work at Bar 38 this summer, who was working for the XFM street team at the event we decided to try and blag our way into last night’s gig as well. It wasn’t too difficult and we were rewarded with Ali Love, Vega4 and The Longcut – as well as ringing in my right ear even this morning.

A definite thumbs up to Little Man Tate and Larrikin Love, the latter of whom can be seen at the Transgressive Eat Your Own Ears night at The Warehouse Project along with Battle, The Noisettes, and The Mystery Jets. Of last nights bands Ali Love were funky but nothing special; The Longcut were good for the songs I knew but they managed to nearly empty the room with their performance; so I’d have to say the best band of the night were Vega4. Initially I accused them with the MOTR stick but after a solid performance I can definitely see the handsome, intense, Irish leadsinger sweeping them into the U2 end of the market.

And to round it all off XFM then offered us 4 free tickets each for The Warehouse Project on Thursday to see The Longcut, The Long Blondes, Brakes, Howling Bells and Mike Pickering. Of course you can find all of the photos on the uni section of the site.