Mogwai : English Teacher Live Review

Mogwai : English Teacher

BBC 6music Festival @ Manchester O2 Victoria Warehouse 

March 28th 2025

In which two of the UK’s key game changing bands show how music can still be bent into intriguing new shapes.

For many, the highlight of the weekend’s BBC 6Music festival is this intriguing bill at the 4000 capacity Victoria Warehouse. English Teacher have been winning the plaudits we last bumped into them at Glastonbury and the well deserved silverware of recognition has been piling up for their vital sonic force. The Leeds based band have moved the inventive end of guitar/bass and drums into a post post punk period free from the shackles of older game changing movements. Tonight, there is an assured confidence and power to them that sees the group in the ascendency to the B.I.G big league without compromising any of their art, and that’s a joy to behold.

From Colne just up the road, singer Lily Fontaine is a captivating, charismatic presence with her poetic lyrics and twitching enthusiasm, and the band combines a machine-like rhythmic capability with their off-kilter melodic nous. They give a nod to this evening’s Salford location with a compelling cover of Joy Division’s Transmission (two of that legendary band were from around here) aided by the great Richard Hawley who duets on the track that defined a shape shifting switch in musical dynamics all those years ago.

Shapeshifting is something that Mogwai know about and the ever inventive Glasgow band are on peak form tonight. Have they ever sounded better? Following their own instinct and music they seem detached from any trend or any movement as they pull you into their world of textured guitars and powerhouse rhythms. There are elements of prog to their sound that, like 21st century schizoid men they embrace with their inner King Crimson leaking out but thet also bring a certain punk rock intensity and raw power into the frame that sees them smash conventions and party lines. Opening with the pulsating electronics of their new The Bad Fire album’s opening cut, God Gets You Back, they pull you in to their sonic spider web, lulling you with the liquid pulsating ooze before subtly climbing the crescendo. Hi Chaos is built around a hypnotic guitar hook before setting its controls to the heart of the sun.

The key to their compelling trip is the ebb and flow of the dynamics with tracks dropping to a hum like silence holding the tension and painting spellbound atmospheres. Their FX laden layered guitars and drone synthesiser bedded soundscapes titillate the near silence before exploding into glorious and beautiful noise that makes everyone around me jump with the shock and surprise of the high decibel tsunami. They can also do pop with their melodic rush of Ritchie Sacramento that combines a spectral beauty with softly sung vocal lines for a slice of pure magic. Whilst older songs like Mogwai Fear Satan still shivers with its haunting beauty and sonic overload and thrilling drumming. 

The encore is pretty special with, KNDS Fairey Acid Brass, a twenty-piece brass band joining them onstage to add yet more textural waves of sound to their three track encore of “Ether”, “Burn Girl Prom Queen” and “2 Rights Make 1 Wrong”. It’s mesmerising stuff and the brass, with its physical breathe in/breathe out adds another level of humanity to the band that ooze their own special dramatic theatre of noise.

Mogwai : English Teacher