LIVE REVIEW + PHOTOS: Against The Current – Academy, Manchester – 01/11/2026

Under normal circumstances, to go into Manchester’s Academy and see a crowd that’s visibly thinning around the edges would be a little depressing. For Against The Current, though, you’re willing to give them a bit of leeway. Right now, they’re in what might as well be a reintroductory period, having just dropped their first album in eight years and hardly embodying some road-dog status in the interim. On top of that, the sonic shift on Till Death & Back is probably worth the adjustment time, where the pop-rock is bigger, darker and significantly more dramatic. Thus, tonight’s show (just two days after the album’s release) is more like a test run than a true make-or-break. In the wake of the best body of work to bear Against The Current’s name yet, getting back to proper business in front of a dedicated crowd feels like a good position to be in.

It also may explain the presence of daydreamers as openers. They’re a true ‘they’ll do’ support band—spiritually similar enough to the headliners, while posing no danger of overshadowing. In this case, that gulf is enormous. Between their safely, meekly chipper pop-rock (even cooking up a shuffling The 1975 pastiche in Call Me Up) and what seldom deviates from baby’s first crowdwork, you’d wonder how alt-pop like this ever made it out of 2016. The one bit of unique patter to come from singer Riley is how he watched the rugby league final when he was last in Manchester; otherwise, he’s as blandly maudlin as every instrumental sound that daydreamers produce. The only emotion stirred up by this is violent apathy, where the back of it couldn’t come fast enough. If the reaction to the ‘kneel down, jump up’ that’s crowbarred into Start Living is anything to go by, that doesn’t appear to be an uncommon opinion.

But, whatever; that’s over now. By the time Against The Current arrive and load up an immediately bracing, confident Fortune Favours The Brave, there’s not a soul in this room still thinking about daydreamers. This is how you make pop-rock work, with all the punch and big, widescreen rhythms you can muster. Of course, a superstar vocalist like Chrissy Constanza is handy, too. She’s currently keeping in check some vocal wear-and-tear, though you’d never guess from her performance. She’s still able to hit the myriad high notes and soaring belts with ease, only conceding at Gravity’s falsettos that the crowd are more than happy to lend a hand with.

Further to that, Costanza is much more ‘perform-y’ than Academy-sized pop-rock’s norm. As odd as it might seem, it could be a generational thing, where Against The Current’s interests fall into the more emphatic side of their genre. Constanza has the sort of mobile energy that’s very classic in appearance—bounding around and punching the air on Talk; twirling and headbanging on they won’t save us; skipping lengths of the stage on Gravity. It’s much more engaging, where the jolts of energy pay the most dividends. Exuberance has always been a major point in Against The Current’s favour on the live stage, and it’s great to see that hasn’t gone away.

On average, then, the floor of quality does appear to be higher, and the band do take advantage of that. This isn’t a set with any obvious sag or filler; they really throw themselves in as hard as possible. Voices, for instance, is the sole remain of Past Lives’ sidelined poppiness, blessed with some added snap and crunch to make it sit more comfortably. It’s nice to see how any tonal disparities have been evened out, to the point where momentum never feels like an issue to address. It’s all very firm and forceful, smoothened out further by the new material already proving popular. It has every right to be; Heavenly sears and soars in equal measure, while Always You & I and Protégé slam harder than anything else they’ve got.

To take the initial reading of ‘reintroduction,’ Against The Current do a hell of a good job with it. They put in the work, even down to some production touches like the silhouetting lights of Dead Man Walking, or the cold blues on Always You & I and lullaby. The extra couple of steps go a long way, culminating in a point where they could reasonably be the best that Against The Current have ever been. It wouldn’t be a stretch; the size and weight are there in spades, all the way through. And for as stop-start as things have been for the best part of a decade, rebuilding themselves this solidly is nothing to scoff at.

Words by Luke Nuttall

Photos by Will Robinson (Instagram)