Brain Leak - Rat and Pigeon Manchester - Jan 30th 2026

New Cult

Story by Matthew Murray

15/02/2026

Heist or Hit’s ‘New Cult’ night on the last Friday of every month showcases some of the best new talent. It takes place at The Rat and Pigeon on Back Piccadilly, Manchester UK.

We watched lead singer and guitarist of Brain Leak, Tara Gabriela Engelhart, perform without the rest of the band tonight. It had been a bit of a rush as Brain Leak were a last minute replacement for XL Poncho, whose singer had lost her voice.

Singing and playing her Ibanez electric guitar Tara was backed by a backing track player, to fill in for her missing band mates. She created some amazing violin like effects with her guitar whilst serenading us with her vocals. She also chatted quite a bit with the audience which made it feel really intimate.

She sings a lot about her, as she described it, weird infatuations with certain people. She doesn’t know why she does it but sometimes finds herself obsessing about random people after only meeting them briefly.

Her excellent set lasted about half an hour. We’ll loved it and will definitely be back to see the full Brain Leak line up.

We spoke to Tara after the gig. I started by asking about performing solo.

“This was my 4th solo gig. The girls in my band are very seasoned. They've been doing things forever. The line up is guitar, drums and bass. And then I play guitar and sing too.”

“November 2024 was our 1st gig. So we’re still pretty new.”

Speaking about the venue she said

“It's a good venue. I've performed here quite a few times, actually yeah. It's a bit tucked out of the way. I like it, it's a good place. They revamped it like a couple of years ago.”

“I am from Cardiff. Mum's French, Dads American. I don't know what's going on with my accent”.

I asked about any music that Brain Leak have released.

“We have a single called ‘Trying’, which was released in February 2025. An EP as well, ‘Put back together” - which came out in Dec 2025.