Basement (W/ Anxious, Dynamite & Midrift) – Manchester, New Century Hall, 18th September 2025

Basement have never felt like a band who had to prove anything, but this time around they did something special. Last couple of times out Basement have had major buzz around the setting or the company, be that via Outbreak festival, or former tour mates Knocked Loose. When it came time for Manchester’s turn on Basement’s newest headline run, they were flanked by Midrift, Dynamite & Anxious. While still a stellar lineup, it’s a lesser known one, as Anxious frontman Grady Allen admits on more than one occasion. It proves that both Basement have the name value to sell, as well as the UK has the interest in growing and nurturing the next wave of exciting bands like the supports for this tour.

Midrift

California’s Midrift are first on with a healthy gap between doors and their set, meaning that the crowd has filled out very well for what is an obscenely young but also obscenely talented act. They are every bit in league with Basement’s style, with an obvious twang to Gus Mehrkam’s vocals. Fans are treated to material from the self titled EP, dissociated and Elysian, all in the early going, and then the remainder of the set is 2024/25 singles, including the full run of their recent ‘Safe and Sound’ drops from this year. Manoa and Gus swap both places and instruments midway through the set, but return to places in time for final track ‘Twin Flames’. This was a victorious run out for the West Coast boys and a name you would imagine would be very well received for their own show in Manchester again in the future.

Dynamite

London hardcore presents a very staunch but welcome change in pace as Dynamite take to the stage. Sometimes harcore music has its teething issues in larger spaces for indoors shows. This wasn’t one of those times. Obvious props are given to the double duty James Fisher pulls behind the kit for both Dynamite and Basement, but also the inclusion of Higher Power frontman Jimmy Wizard being on guitar. From the second the band start ‘Dirty Money’ the urgency shows from the crowd, pits start, surfers go up, and Alex Money is promptly down on the barrier in the first few songs of the set. Ultimately this set was all too brief, not as a criticism, but as a wish for more. The same energy was felt by the crowd when, as hardcore sets do, it just sort of ended. Manchester was feeding off Dynamite’s show, especially when governed by Money climbing back down to the barrier during ‘Stomp’ and then even just throwing the mic into the crowd for the final few lines of the track. Top marks.

Anxious

Anxious seemed to arrive with a specific mission in mind as the final band before the headliner. That mission seemed to be “blow the roof off New Century”, and have as few shoes on the floor at any moment. Grady Allen is constantly calling for more movement, more bounce during opener ‘Call From You’. Whilst Sam Allen and guitarist Tommy Harte are rarely on the floor during ‘Counting Sheep’ and ‘Bambi’s Theme’ from their latest record, Bambi. Allen is also prompt to say “You may not know who the fuck we are, but I don’t care about that, we just want you to have a good time”. Anxious carried both urgency and tenderness, it’s clear that this was not just another support act filling time, and the 5 lads from Connecticut are totally alive in the moment. The crowd reciprocates that energy after ‘In April’, as Grady explains that not 3 days before they were in Japan, to which Manchester appreciates that level of commitment to this tour. Grady also gives praise to their tourmates, listing the bill from top to bottom as amazing people to tour with, which is what makes this run of shows all the more special. Anxious begins to close out with ‘Head & Spine’, where again Grady explains these are just 5 kids from the US living a dream, and echoes Dynamite by clambering down onto the barrier and singing ‘Growing Up Song’ with as many of the crowd as can climb over, even shrugging surfers past him and to the security to stay in this moment with the front row. Anxious are 100% on the verge of breaking into something even greater, here’s hoping they’re headlining here when they do.

Basement

Basement have had this constant sense of good faith since their most recent return. They remind everyone exactly why their return matters. The moment Basement walked out to open with ‘Are You the One’, it felt like a sense of homecoming, even for a band having played here twice in the last 12-18 months. From there it was a throwback to 2016 with ‘Promise Everything’ and ‘Aquasun’. The joy of Basement’s model is knowing exactly why everyone bought their ticket, that said, there was still a sense of “oh my god” as the crowd warbles along with Andrew Fisher during ‘Bad Apple’, and then somehow again when Alex Henery and Ronan Crix start rumbling the beginning to ‘Spoiled’. The mid set turn to ‘Earl Grey’ feels achingly melancholic, as the standalone track is anyway, but even more so when one and a half thousand people sing alone to the solemn “You don’t live there anymore”.

Then comes the biggest surprise of the night with two new untitled songs. That’s not lazy journalism, they were genuinely just down as ‘New song 1’ & ‘New Song 2’ on the setlist, which also had some lovely Snoopy drawings on it. For a band who have not released new music since 2019, it feels monumental, not that anyone would complain about another 10 years of colourmeinkindness either…

‘Whole’ brings things back into much more familiar territory, hoisting the energy and involved right back up. That said, a wildly hot personal take is that I’ve wlays preferred the I Wish I Could Stay Here record. So the opening lines of An Affair to Remember before ‘Fading’ will live forever. There is one final brief stop in Promise Everything territory with ‘Brother’s Keeper’ before the rest of the set plays out solely on those two albums. An obvious personal highlight of this closing stretch if the back to back of ‘Yoke’ and ‘Crickets Throw Their Voices’ where the crowd singles along in electric fashion.  As the set nears its end, ‘Pine’ is the penultimate track, whilst still a banger, it pales in comparison to that moment that the whole room utters “When I…” to begin the show closing ‘Covet’. The second Andrew lets the first line fall, the room erupts, and stays across the wearing but legendary track to its end.

Basement in 2025 feel like icons. That’s all there is to it.