LIVE REVIEW: Mandy, Indiana @ Yes Pink Room (BBC 6 Music Festival)

There is a delicious irony in watching one of the most abrasive bands in the UK right now perform in a room bathed in neon pink. Last Thursday, Mandy, Indiana took to the Yes Bar Pink Room stage for the opening night of the BBC Radio 6 music festival delivering a performance that solidified their status as the definitive torchbearers of European noise rock.

Mandy, Indiana (BBC 6 Music)

Following a blisteringly high-octane support act in Silverwingkiller, the Manchester/ Berlin based four-piece took the reins, immediately dousing the room in the pulse of their newer material. Overall, the set drew heavily from their sophomore album ‘Urgh’, released earlier this year, which has seen them depart from their post-punk roots and lean further into an industrial-techno sound.

Central to this evolution is Valentine Caulfield, her vocal delivery shifting from that of their early work into a state of evisceration, mirroring the rage that anchors the new record.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=RD165PZ0adpLY&v=165PZ0adpLY

Nowhere was this more apparent than during ‘Dodecahedron’, a track which acts not so much as an ode to 12-sided shapes but more a call to arms. Lines like ‘Do you want to be remembered as someone who stood watching as the world burnt?’ confronts the audience with their own complacency, while the motorik beat acts as a sonic battering ram, stripping away any room for indifference. By the time the set had reached its fever pitch, the Pink Room had transformed into a pressurised chamber, with Caulfield leaving the stage to join the crowd in a mosh pit.

Arguably, the brilliance of this performance lay in its sheer physicality, providing a sound that you don’t just hear but one you inhabit. If the 6 Music Festival is about celebrating the cutting edge of the alternative scene, consider Mandy, Indiana a crown jewel.