Bartees Strange – YES
YES, Manchester – 25th August 2025
By Lenny Bruce
29 Aug 2025
Play every show like you played Manchester last night. Please. Always.
On a Bank Holiday Monday, when most people were winding down from the long weekend and bracing themselves for work the next day, Bartees Strange lit up the basement at YES on Charles Street with one of the best sets I’ve ever witnessed.
The combination was perfect: a small, intimate room, sharp acoustics, stellar sound engineering, and a crowd already in love with the songs. Add to that a band firing on all cylinders and you had something special. The performance was raw and electrifying — Bartees’ vocals and guitar soaring between Springsteen’s grit, Robert Smith’s mood, and flashes of Prince’s swagger.
Going in, I expected something closer to the recordings — more chill, more subdued. Instead, what we got was full-on rock. The band was incredible: drums cracking like gunfire, basslines carrying shades of New Order, and Bartees himself throwing everything into every note and lyric. Watching him switch between guitar and vocals with such intensity was a thrill in itself.
They powered through around 12 songs, before returning for a much-demanded two-song encore. The setlist leaned heavily on Horror, with a few from Farm to Table and Live, and every track hit harder in the room than on record.
Standout moments? The slow-burn lift and eventual explosion of “17” — which absolutely tore the place apart. Or the middle section of “Too Much”, where Bartees slid into a laid-back rap, only to ramp it up before crashing back into the song. Pure live magic.
And it wasn’t just the music. In a venue that small, it felt personal. After the set, Bartees took time to chat and pose for photos, which was a lovely touch.
Opening support came from Last Apollo, whose stunning voice was the perfect prelude to the night.